Technology Development: Impacts Of Technology On Freight Transportation In Australia (Essay).

Background of the Freight Transportation Challenge

Title: Technology Development: Impacts of Technology Development on the Freight Transportation Industry in Australia

Transportation refers to as the distinct movement of products and logistics refers to as the overall management of the outward and inward transportation of products from the respective manufacturer to the end user (Budd and Ison 2020). Freight logistics is the overseeing and management of a cost efficient operation and even the significant delivery of products. It also combines logistics experiences, knowledge and human resources for ensuring that there would be a smooth journey of products within shippers and carriers. The following research essay provides a brief discussion on the transportation challenge of technology development with its impact on the freight transportation industry in Australia.

Technology development refers to as the distinct procedure to invent, innovate and focus on different aspects and systems. There are various emerging transportation technologies like the Internet of Things, autonomous cars, lightweight vehicle materials and many more that are being involved in the Australian transportation industry for ensuring that the processes would be effective and transportation would be improved (Munawar et al. 2021). Data as well as technology driven change in freight and logistics has been significant in the Australian countries and there had been major changes that are considered by the organizational management to gain success.

The transportation and logistics industry in Australia has an estimated annual revenue of 101.51 billion dollars and the sector also employs more than half a million people within the subsectors like road transport, logistics and warehousing (Data and technology driven change in freight and logistics. 2022). There are a few new technologies that are transforming the method of planning, designing, building and operating transportation systems. The future of the Australian transportation and logistics industry is dependent on technology and innovation and there can be a major issue that the industry would not be able to bring out innovation without technological aspect. It is being observed in several logistics businesses that they struggle to keep up with the levels of developments in technology (Australia Freight and Logistics Market. 2022). The role of supply chain and logistics require to change for capitalizing on the value of any kind of digital investment that the business in Australia would establish.

Affordable advancements in technology are bringing distinctive possibilities of actual changes for combating every congestion or inefficiency as well as increasing profitability. The overall performance of the road network in Australia is required to be analyzed with the involvement of digital technology, so that it becomes easier to capture data, process data and deliver results. There had been advances in the capabilities of sensors with major drop in price and the involvement of digital technology has focused on greater computing power with cheaper data storage (Transportation Industry Challenges and Opportunities. 2021). Moreover, the results are delivered for faster communication, better automation, wider connectivity and real time visibility.

Technology Development Challenge and it impacting on the Overall Logistics Industry in Australia

The market of transportation and logistics in Australia is being driven by increasing investments in the logistics infrastructure that has been effective for boosting the overall capacity of the country for several years. The industry of freight and logistics had considered the impacts of technology development in Australia as the results are impacted (Alam, Wei and Wahid 2021). A proper system is needed to reduce the complexities and focus on delivering the growing freight need in the Australian industry. The Australian industry has been facing the challenge of supply chain integration in the freight logistics industry. They have not been able to focus flexibility with transportation.

Although smart transportation with technologies like big data and the Internet of Things have been extremely beneficial and effective for the Australian freight industry, such as reduction of road accidents, elimination of traffic congestions, lower fuel expenses, reduction in the travel time and finally reduction of parking fees; they had to ensure that they are focusing on a few other aspects as well in the transportation industry (Hopkins 2021). The involvement of modern transportation has brought a few issues like increasing accidents and breakdowns with the involvement of smart cars as well as unsuitable for long distances and huge traffic.

The customers’ expectations are also altered for technology. Since clients have become information enabled, they often have different expectations that their transport services keep them fully informed in the respective process. It would imply that the solutions are shrinking accordingly and it could be replaced with a highly prominent and innovation powered supply chain (Lu et al. 2021). Various digital requirements are evolving accordingly in the Australian logistics and transportation industry. Moreover, they have been focusing on new digital transformations in the digital era by including all types of businesses. However, as soon as there would be a failure in the transformation of the transport process, digital transformation could result in a limited amount of revenue and profits as per the opportunities.

The inclusion of technological advancement has been distinctive for the businesses with big data technology (Bissell et al. 2020). The freight logistics and transportation industry has been considering new software and analytical frameworks in their business processes and operations, so that they are able to consider these tools for getting better insights into large and complicated data sets as well as for better decision making process. Another issue that is prevalent with the technological development and has been impacting the Australian freight logistics and transportation industry is cyber security. The cases of cyber risks and threats have been increasing exponentially post COVID 19 and hence the organizational management is unable to increase integrity as well as product security accordingly (Dewi and Putra 2021). This specific impact can be extremely expensive for the industry and major issues would be responsible for impacting on the process.

A few suitable recommendations can be considered for reducing or eliminating the challenge of technological development and increasing benefits in the Australian freight logistics and transportation industry and provided in the following paragraphs:

1. The first and the foremost recommendation would be considering cyber security strategies in the processes and systems of the Australian transportation industry. It is the core application of technologies, controls and processes for protecting systems, networks, devices, data and programs from different cyber-attacks. Such security is responsible for reducing the risk of cyber-attacks and protecting against all types of unauthenticated exploitation of technologies, networks and systems. Hence, strategies like encryption and two-factor authentication would be effective enough for reducing the negative impacts of cyber risks and attacks and there would be a better chance of efficiency and effectiveness.
2. The second vital and significant recommendation to the Australian transportation and logistics industry would be focusing on their supply chain integration. Since the industry deals with freight movement of goods and products, the technological errors should be removed and there should be a proper check for the results to gain maximum efficiency. It would help in reducing CO2 emissions in the industry (Wang et al. 2020).
3. The involvement of artificial intelligence has been distinctive in the transportation industry and as a result, there is a high chance that there would be AI bias in the processes and operations. The organizational management should consider the methods in such a manner that they are able to avoid artificial intelligence bias and the solutions, received in the procedures are highly effective and distinctive. The domestic freight task of Australia has been expanding steadily and it has been responsible for dominating domestic freight activities. Hence, the involvement of a bias free procedure and system is highly recommended to the transportation industry of Australia. The removal of AI would ensure high employment rate in Australia (Mack, Agrawal and Wang 2021).
4. It is also recommended to consider additional investment in the industry, so that it becomes easier for the organizational management to bring out new changes and modifications in the processes for better results and also reducing the complexities and issues successfully.
5. The organizational stakeholders like the CEO and the IT department would be responsible for providing proper training to the members or employees, involved in the sector to ensure that any kind of negative aspect is avoided and the entire logistics sector is benefitted, without any complexity. Proper training to the employees would also ensure that the respective employees would not create any issue in the sector.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion, a conclusion can be drawn that the challenge of technology development has been distinctive for the transportation companies in Australia and appropriate strategies are needed to be implemented. Technology is one of the most distinctive requirements in a transportation company for ensuring that the manual errors are eradicated and freight movements are easier. The above provided research essay has provided a detailed discussion on technology development and its impacts on the Australian transportation industry.

References

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