Logistics Management and Intermodal Companies
The main aim of the report is to discuss about the logistics management about an intermodal company that is located in the country of Australia. In order to fulfill the criteria of the report, the organization, BCR Australia Pty Ltd has been selected. Logistics management is a component of the supply chain management that is applied while meeting the demands of the customers (Martí and Puertas 2017). This further undergoes the processes of planning, controlling and implementation of effective dispatching and storage of goods, information related to the client and delivery of the goods and services from the destination to the customers (Shi, Arthanari and Wood 2017). This field of management comprises of various elements such as selection of appropriate vendors who are capable of providing transportation facilities, choosing the best and the most effective routes of transportation, discovering and implementing the most proficient methods of delivery of the goods and services to the clients and use of the most advanced technology as well as IT software in order to handle the processes efficiently.
Like all other fields of management, logistics management is highly affected by adopting wrong decisions. For instance, the failing of delivery within the stipulated time period and damaged caused to the goods and services de-motivate and dissatisfy the customers. Poor and inefficient planning in the field of logistics leads to increase in the expenses and hence there are issues arising due to implementation of the improper and ineffective software (Ghaderi, Cahoon and Nguyen 2015). Most of these problems are caused due to improper decision making process adopted by the firms which are related to outsourcing such as selection of wrong vendors and carrying out the tasks of deliveries without having sufficient resources.
About BCR Australia Pty Ltd
BCR is the famous logistics and freight forwarding company that was founded in the year 1892 and is headquartered in Sydney. The organization was founded by Frank Cridland and the business is still by the family. The organization has built up a long and proud history in the country of Australia as a freight provider and broker for the customers under the name of Frank Cridland Pty Ltd. One of the main functions that the company carried out was building the Harbor Bridge in Sydney. Since then the firm has gained experiences in the shipping of goods, thereby extending the freight forwarding network on a global basis. Throughout the first half of the 20th century the company continued its process of growth and transformed itself to freight and logistics firm from the horse carriage, which were then used for the purpose of shipping the goods. After the operation of the company on the same field for a span of 125 years, BCR continues to look forward towards the ways and methods in order to provide the best quality of service in regards to freight forwarding, consultation of the customs and providing 3PL logistics services to the customers. The firm offers various benefits of working with other multinational providers such as structuring procedures and management of quality and at the same time provide customized services as well as access to the management, thereby creating positive aspects of working with the boutique providers.
Case Study: BCR Australia Pty Ltd
Most of the logistics and freight services in Australia, including BCR, have to face a lot of challenges due to various factors such geographical challenges. The most common issues that these service providers do face is in the urban regions as the roads become mostly congested, leading to large volumes of traffic to be present during the whole day especially during the peak hours. Most of the congestion is faced in the cities that are located in the coastal areas of the country such as those of Sydney and Melbourne (Black, Roso, Maruši? and Brnjac 2018). As the company, BCR is located in the coastal city, Sydney; the company faces various problems while providing shipment services to the customers and other companies. Most of the roads in the urban areas have set up the toll taxes which become an additional cost for most of the freight providers and the company in discussion, BCR is also not exempted from the same list. In Australia, it is very common for the adjustment and modifications of the local roads that help in controlling and flow of the traffic in certain areas (Wang, Sadler and Shee 2017). Moreover, often the freight services travelling using the local roads have to face many challenges such as blockage of the road so that these services do use the motorways that have to bypass through a toll and more often these roads further connects to the roads where most of the schools are located, making it unfit for these services to commence travelling through roads.
The company is also facing certain problems in the international markets of shipping especially during the peak season. In context of exporting goods, most of the countries of North Asia, the space will continue to be in high demand and is not expected to drop down till the onset of Christmas. Rolling still remains and issue for the discharges that take place form Adelaide and Fremantle as these are connected via the route from Singapore (Arvis et al. 2018). Despite these issues, the carriages have dropped down their prices. Most of the carriages have decided to increase their rates from the latter half of the month of November till the onset of Christmas. Though there are some chances of relief post Christmas, some of the carriers might increase their costs due to shortage of space in their vessels (Pantouvakis and Karakasnaki 2018). The prices of the bunkers rose from the beginning of the year 2018, which continues to be the common format of pricing strategies that are followed by most of the shipping lines.
Challenges Faced by BCR Australia Pty Ltd
The trading and exporting of goods from different countries located in the south eastern part of Asia explodes with the onset of the peak season and demands goods from all industries, which is continuously contributing to the pressures of the space in the hubs of Singapore as well as in Port Kelang. The peak season in this part of the world are being pronounced exceptionally and is generally stretched over a longer period of time for the company, BCR Australia Pty Ltd compared to most of the other carriers who have been operating in the market. Most of the customers experience the delivery of goods and services for a period of more than two weeks, thereby creating dissatisfaction among the customers who are receiving the services for the company in discussion, BCR. The market in the United States of America experiences significant challenges with respect to the trucking portion in the supply chains. The ability of securing qualified transportation on the roads became more difficult to handle for the company presently. The firm has given special instructions to their customers for the packages to be delivered at the doorstep. Presently the company has demanded a notice period of 48 hours in order to allow the leads to facilitate services of door cartage requirements, else the customers’ needs to pay extra charges (Kazemi, Modak and Govindan 2018). Most of the customers are also not satisfied regarding the decision of the firm as they do have a busy schedule for all the days, they are not able to inform them regarding the changes in the delivery system as per the policy and conditions of the firm, thereby causing dissatisfaction among the customers. The company had to experience in the delay of the deliveries of goods from the countries located in the European continent as there was a major strike for a day in Italy, causing adverse impact on the containers that operated both on the road as well as all other services.
Presently, the operation of logistics is trying to facing several crises and challenges as well as understanding of technology. Inefficiency in the processes of businesses as well as lack of visibility in the field of operations has an adverse impact on the operations both in the global sector and in the domestic sector as well. In addition to this, the rise in the overhead costs, unpredictability in the capacities of the containers, increase in the amount of liabilities, risks in security and issues of compliances of the employees increase the challenges in operations. The company in discussion should consider the roads they are operating in and can increase their rate if they need to pass through the toll. They can make use of the modern technologies and detect the locations they need to travel and deliver the goods to their customers. In case of international exports they need to give more time to their customers and can inform them as well when they are experiencing or can estimate that the goods will be delivered delay. They can also adopt tracking systems that will make the customers to easily track their goods and services that are on being imported from other nations of the world.
Strategies to Improve Logistics Management
The intermodal industry in Australia is experiencing some serious problems at present. Logistics activities related to international container landside have become the most challenging and complex supply chains activities. The service sector has increased the container trade which in turn has led the economic condition of this country to grow further (Tatham, Wu, Kovács and Butcher 2017). However, this tough and highly competitive sector receives revenue at a lower margin while the profit-making opportunity relies on strong operational relationships and strong business decisions. Logistic companies across Australia operate within a highly regulated market and consequently each logistic company needs to maintain a balance between future innovation, safety compliance and improvements of productivity. As the freight task in NSW increases, BCR Australia Pty Ltd and other logistic companies experience many challenges among which the biggest challenge is to work smartly (Kotzab, Teller, Bourlakis and Wünsche 2018). For this, the company needs to purchase most appropriate types of vehicles including arrangement and utilization of future technologies, Higher Productivity Freight Vehicles for improving informational visibility and operational outcomes.
Moreover, companies need to focus on safe container transportation, increase in compliance and control risks significantly. For shipping containers across the world, many parties are required to involve and this further increases safety issues and lapse of compliance. For this, company needs to focus on container packaging, measure gross weight of each container accurately and classify dangerous goods to segregate further (Bandara, Garaniya, Chin and Leong 2015). In addition to this, logistic companies sometimes experience theft or tapering that can further hamper the logistic supply in Australia.
The process of supply chain is changing continuously and this in turn can influence any logistic company in either positive or negative direction. For adopting this flexible supply chain, all logistic companies need to develop and adopt formal logistic strategies that further can allow these companies to recognise the effect of forthcoming changes. Consequently, these logistic companies can change their functional or organisation changes for ensuring service levels not to reduce further. A logistic company can develop its own logistic strategy through based on four different levels of logistic organization, based on strategy, structure, function and implementation. Through analyzing strategic supply chain decisions, a company can set its logistic supply (Chen, Pateman and Sakalayen 2017). Moreover, the logistic strategy needs to examine some structural issues related to any logistic organization on the basis of number of warehouses as well as distribution centers. In this context, any strategy can review different function for achieving functional excellence. The chief concern of a logistic company is to implement successful logistic strategy across the organization. This process of implementation considers development of an information system, introduction of new policies and development procedures regarding a dynamic management plant. To solve problems related to current logistic network of New South Wales, all logistic companies can develop following logistic strategies:
- The company can leverage their predicted volume to control price. Under a competitive price system, predicted volumes become important when the company does not possess any historic one. With the help of this predicted volume, the concerned company can provide significant discounts in cots of freights and consequently the outcome can help the company to obtain competitive advantage.
- Logistic companies can adopt demand driven procedure. Through matching their respective demand with corresponding supply, they can reduce their transport costs. Thus, by practicing demand-driven logistics or inbound logistics, transportation costs can be reduced. However, the most important thing of a logistic service is to provide better customer service.
- Logistic companies in NSW can apply corporate strategy to become the leader of low price. As a result, logistic firms can move stuff at a lower price. In addition to this, each company can try to move goods at a faster rate compare to its competitors and in this situation the logistic strategy depends on speed instead of cost (Pateman, Cahoon and Chen 2016). The company can also set a quality standard or merge with other entity to integrate its business operations with the new venture.
Conclusion
Through discussing about logistic industry in Australia with a special focus on BCR Australia Pty Ltd of NSW, the report has pointed out several general and current problems of logistic industry in NSW. Some logistic management strategies have been discussed to resolve these logistic problems. However, a company alone cannot control the entire situation and for this, government involvement is essential. The government can set some policies regarding safety issues for transporting goods from one place to other. Moreover, the Government can set minimum standard quality to protect this intermodal industry from decreasing demand for freight. In addition to this, the government can reduce toll fees so that vehicles can directly transport from one place to other, without applying any bypasses. At present, using modern technology in transportation system has also become very essential and to implement this modern technology properly, the government can provide vocational courses to workers related with logistic services to improve their operational capacity and activities.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, it can be stated that logistic service plays significant role to develop economic condition of a country, as this process can stimulate economic growth towards a positive direction. This situation is true for Australia as well, where many logistic companies operate efficiently. The report has selected BCR Australia Pty Ltd of NSW to describe the entire situation in the present context. Initially, a logistic company has experienced various difficulties regarding road traffic, toll taxes and distances and so on. However, at recent years, these challenge have changed significantly and the modern industry has become more concern about safety issues for sustain within this strongly competitive market. This highly competitive and regulated market in Australia requires more opportunities to sustain. For this, government intervention is required for protecting the entire market logistic system with proper rules and regulations. However, to achieve development, adopting proper logistic management strategy is essential.
References:
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Shi, Y., Arthanari, T. and Wood, L., 2017. Developing third-party purchase (3PP) services: New Zealand third-party logistics providers’ perspectives. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 22(1), pp.40-57.
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Black, J., Roso, V., Maruši?, E. and Brnjac, N., 2018. Issues in Dry Port Location and Implementation in Metropolitan Areas: The Case of Sydney, Australia. Transactions on maritime science, 7(01), pp.41-50.
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