Dynamic Of Modal Split Of Freight Transport: An Analysis Of Australian Container Freight Services

The description of the intermodal companies

Discuss about the Dynamic Of Modal Split of Freight Transport.

One of the most important aspects of maintaining a transport business is to govern a good and thorough supply chain and logistics management. The transport companies feel this to be one of the most important parts in the freight transport industry has emerged to be one of the main sources in the transport industry in the recent times. The aim that these freight transport companies have in mind is to transport the goods and export them to the other countries through ships. This would carry out the trade in a faster way. This also helps in importing the goods from other countries as well. It is a notable fact that there are many modes of transportation available in these days. These are air, water, rail, cable and pipelines. The intermodal freight companies have become very essential in the modern context. However, the most important things to carry out this kind of business is to maintain a good supply chain and logistics support. If they set up very strong network, they will be highly benefitted indeed. This will lead to faster action in many wings. The intermodal companies will be able to send their goods to their destinations faster and smoother. They use the cargo ships to send these things to the ports in several countries indeed. Though some problems have been seen in this context, it is very much important to know that some way outs have been found in this context as well. The problems have been regarding the supply chain and logistics. These barriers must be overcome indeed. 

The intermodal companies have become to be known as the most important parts of the transport industry. The transportation of the goods by ships has to be carried out properly and perfectly. The intermodal companies will have to carry out several processes so that they can achieve their objectives perfect (Liu et al. 2014). These intermodal companies look after all the important things needed for the smooth flow in the transport of goods. The intermodal companies take care of the transportation of the goods from one country to another. They are the ones who take care of the import and export business all over the world. It has been noticed that some problems have been spreading over the freight transport industry. These problems are like the shortage of fuel, increase in the exported goods demand, fuel price increase,shortageofthe drivers and many more. These problems will have to be tackled with efficiency by the experts. All the governments of the concernedcountriesareverymuchworriedwith these problems. They are trying to find out some way out for these problems effectively. All thesethingsareverymuchimportantbecause the issues like the loading and unloading of goods, fuel prices and other things (Seuring and Goldbach 2013)

All the companies are looking for the way outs in the various ways possible. They want to ensure the better supply chain management in the areas of transportation and especially freight transport industry. However, the freight transport industry can provide a good solution for all these problems (Seuring and Goldbach 2013) One of the larger implications has been in the modern society is that one of the global economic expansion. This has been a very serious issue. It is a crystal clear fact that the people involved in the shipping management should be more concerned about the integrated shipping. It has been noted that the consumer demands are increasing everyday and the companies will have to increase their services to the most (Seuring and Goldbach 2013) They will have to send the products to its destinations in a faster way as possible. This is a huge ask and the contemporary intermodal organizations are taking a huge step in accomplish these demands. There are some serious advantages of using the intermodal companies. The lower price rates, flexibility in the loading and unloading of the products becomes very easy in most cases (Bhattacharya et al. 2014) The companies will want to reduce the handing charges. If the intermodal companies can handle their logistics management, they will be able to give the advantage to the companies. 

A brief about the chosen organization

The organization that has been chosen to write this paper is one of the most noted freight service companies in Australia, Australian Container Freight Services (ACFS) (Auscfs.com 2018) They are considered to be the largest transport company in the entire Australia. The foundation year of this company was 2005 with the aim to provide their customers with the best services. This freight service company was located in New South Wales. Asciano Limited is the parent company of ACFS. They are liable to provide the best freight services in the cities like Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. They provide many kinds of services to their customers like the stuffing and de-stuffing of the good at the port areas or harbors.

Some of the other services that they provide are like container storage and handling, cross docking, less container load (LCL), fill container load (FCL) storage, transport of FCL and LCL, storage facilities on the basis of free service and bond storage (Auscfs.com 2018) They are also the one organization who looks after the consultancies that look after the process of the cargo handling and storage. They also deal with the supply chain implementation services as well. This organization also looks after the packing and unpacking of the containers, stock taking and cross decking (Allen, Browne and Cherrett 2012.). Another location of this organization is in Port Botany in New South Wales. They are facing some serious challenges in its supply chain management and all these issues will have to get rid of properly.

The main purpose of this organization is to provide the best services to their customers in a timely manner altogether (Saeed 2013) The supply chain will have to be improved a lot for this organization. Probably this will be a very big help from the end of the customers. This will increase the market share for the organization and earn more profits for them. The reputation of the organizations will increase in this fashion as well. ACFS has been regarded as the biggest container logistics operation team in the whole Australia. They wanted to become the company who would provide the best freight and logistics services in the country and beyond. They used to look after the logistics and warehousing in many cases as well. The organization has got a very strong base of customers that include the exporters and importers of blue chip. There are around 500 employees working in the organization. Some of the activities that are taking place in this context are like container freight station activities (Auscfs.com 2018). The employees who are engaged in the process of warehousing and freight logistics are much experienced in the warehousing. However, their services have been expanded in Fremantle from 2015.

Logistics and supply chain of the organization

The logistics and supply chain has been regarded as very essential in the carrying out of the service of the organization (Christopher 2016) This is why the logistics is given much importance indeed. This has been regarded as one of their extensive strategies to strengthen their customer base and gain the loyalty of the customers. The work should be carried out faster. The needs of the customers must be satisfied in many ways indeed.

It is a notable fact that the company ACFS always provides the best services to their clients all the time. They intend to provide the best services to their clients through the implementation of their Warehouse Management System (WMS). The managers of the organization always meet the expectations from the operational departments. The organization is keen to improve their operational excellence through the introduction of the technological advancement (Harris, Wang and Wang 2015) They intend to use the various technological tools in the most ways. This will very much helpful for them indeed. They like to beat the other companies in the race and gain as much customers they want. They have also improved the quality of their inventory control system as well. Their desire is to show their clients their actual worth. This is why they have always managed to extend their warehouses and been successful in managing their stocks properly. In this regard, they have set up proper customer links in order to satisfy the needs of their clients.

The company ACFS has created a 3PL division in their operations. This is being operated by the various fleets that range from the drop decks to the Maxi Liners (Christopher 2016) It has been examined that these things can carry 68 pallets per load. This is indeed important since it increases the capacity of carrying the goods. The weight of the goods is also increased. These initiatives will definitely decrease the prices of the loads in an effective manner. This will be elemental for the employees as well. The productivity of the organization will increase by minimizing of the costs in this fashion (Christopher 2016) The employees are trained properly so they can attain their objectives. This training benefits the organization in turn. ACFS has always looked to put more focus on the productivity and the efficiency of the employees has been put in the focus as always. They intend to improve the brilliance of their operations team because this will be helpful for them in many ways. The organization will be largely benefitted if they improve their 3PL division system (Christopher 2016) The primary focus of ACFS will be on the successful fleet management that will increase the efficiency of the organization in many ways.

The modern era of technology has blessed the generation with the introduction of the intermodal freight transport where the goods will be transported from one place to another by ships (Harris, Wang and Wang 2015) The business drivers of the intermodal companies will definitely improve their business operations in many ways. These ways will effectively enhance their business operations. This is performed by ACFS in most useful ways. There are some important features of their business operations. These are:- 

The analysis on the business operations of the intermodal companies will have to be made properly in many ways in this paper (Melo, Graham and Brage-Ardao 2013) This analysis is not connected to the fuel prices and such other things. This is completely related to the business operations of the organization. They have looked upon various things like the dock operations and equipment requirements. This can be framed from their origin (Li, Negenborn and De Schutter 2015) These things have been tallied by the managers with all the other important details. The managers have tried to find out the solutions for all the problems and issues for the intermodal organizations. It is the duty of the managers to develop a proper blueprint in which they would be able to develop some important outlines. This will help the organizations to improve their services in all the areas for the intermodal service providers. ACFS will look to utilize all the resources that have been identified in this business context (Melo, Graham and Brage-Ardao 2013)

Freight movement has been looked upon as one of the biggest revolutions in the intermodal freight transport industry. It is one of the most important transport systems indeed (Harris et al. 2012) All the important resources should be properly utilized in their operations (Li, Negenborn and De Schutter 2015) One of the most essential things that they will be looking after in this scenario is the use of the various technological tools. All the technological tools should be looked after by them and all the tools should be implemented indeed. This will be effective in achieving the objectives for them (Jiangping, Zhou and Shuai 2012). The companies should look to develop their infrastructure in most ways. The operating versions must be updated by ACFS in all the circumstances. They should use the social media in order to make a good relationship with their customers. If the customers get all the products and services at the right time, they will be satisfied indeed. The logistics management of the company will also be developed in different senses (Harris et al. 2012) They should look to use various machines and technological devices so they can conduct the operations faster and safer. Thus the ACFS will grow in all directions. Their market shares will also increase indeed. They are determined to 

Some of the most important things that is very important in order to improve the operational procedures is the development of the skills for the employees. They will have to implement several new procedures to improve their services. The new members who will be recruited in the organization will need to be given much importance and responsibility (Jiangping, Zhou and Shuai 2012). The employees must have proper communication skills and managerial knowledge that will provoke the organization to work better. The transport options for the company must be optimized to a great deal indeed. All the managerial issues must be sorted out by the hierarchy of ACFS.

Some important challenges and issues have been noticed in the recent times regarding the business operations of the ACFS. The intermodal companies have been trying to overcome all these difficult situations all time long (Allen, Browne and Cherrett 2012) It has been observed in the various surveys that the need for the environment friendly solutions have increased a lot. The most important challenges will be discussed in the following section.

The experts and professionals have given much importance on the sustainability of the environment (Ferrari 2014) They have tried to invent new ways by which the organization produce real important ways of producing environment friendly solutions.

ACFS has not been able to provide the proper logistic support to the customers. The products are taking a longer time to reach their destinations. This is why it is very much advisable that they should improve it. If this goes on, the services would be hampered (Allen, Browne and Cherrett 2012)

The NSW government should always provide the proper support to the ACFS. They should arrange for the technological solutions that they have been lacking so far. They are major stakeholders so they should ensure that they should not impose huge taxes on ACFS. Some important guidelines on the foreign levies on the business operations of ACFS should be practiced (Taniguchi et al. 2014)

• ACFS should develop their technology support system.
• They should provide safe transport systems for the customers.
• Necessary strategies should be implemented (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 2012)
• The goods should be delivered at a faster rate.
• They should be connected with the social media to gain more customers in their favor (Tuten and Solomon 2017)

Conclusion

This paper can be concluded by saying ACFS has been trying their best to emerge as the most important organization in the freight transport industry. One of the most important things in this mix is the logistics and supply chain management. Some serious issues have been noticed in their business operations. The NSW government should always take the necessary steps to overcome all the issues that are being faced in this scenario. The necessary policies should be introduced by the NSW government.

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