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THE ROLE OF TRANSPORTATION IN LOGISTICS CHAIN
Yung-yu TSENG
PhD Candidate
Transport Systems Centre
University of South Australia
GPO Box 2471 Adelaide, South Australia
5001 Australia
Fax: +61-8-8302-1880
Email: yung-yu.tseng@unisa.edu.au
Wen Long YUE
Program Director
Transport Systems Centre
University of South Australia
GPO Box 2471 Adelaide, South Australia
5001 Australia
Fax: +61-8-8302-1880
Email: wen.yue@unisa.edu.au
Michael A P TAYLOR
Director
Transport Systems Centre
University of South Australia
GPO Box 2471 Adelaide, South Australia
5001 Australia
Fax: +61-8-8302 1880
Email: michael.taylor@unisa.edu.au
Abstract: The operation of transportation determines the efficiency of moving products. The
progress in techniques and management principles improves the moving load, delivery speed,
service quality, operation costs, the usage of facilities and energy saving. Transportation takes
a crucial part in the manipulation of logistic. Reviewing the current condition, a strong system
needs a clear frame of logistics and a proper transport implements and techniques to link the
producing procedures. The objective of the paper is to define the role of transportation in
logistics for the reference of further improvement. The research was undertaken to assist
logistics managers, researchers and transportation planners to define and comprehend the
basic views of logistics and its various applications and the relationships between logistics
and transportation.
Key Words: Logistics, Transportation, City Logistics
1. INTRODUCTION
Since logistics advanced from 1950s, there were numerous researches focused on this area in
different applications. Due to the trend of nationalisation and globalisation in recent decades,
the importance of logistics management has been growing in various areas. For industries,
logistics helps to optimise the existing production and distribution processes based on the
same resources through management techniques for promoting the efficiency and
competitiveness of enterprises. The key element in a logistics chain is transportation system,
which joints the separated activities. Transportation occupies one-third of the amount in the
logistics costs and transportation systems influence the performance of logistics system
hugely. Transporting is required in the whole production procedures, from manufacturing to
delivery to the final consumers and returns. Only a good coordination between each
component would bring the benefits to a maximum.
The purpose of this paper is to re-clarify and redefine the position relationship between
transportation and logistics systems through collecting and analysing various application
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cases and practices in logistics from literatures. It is to provide a general framework and
expect to be referred for further development and researches. The paper started from
introducing the development of logistics and transport-related sectors based on a historical
review. Afterwards it discussed the interrelationships of transportation and logistics. It
expresses the benefits that transportation brings to logistics activities and vice versa. For
instance the increase of the efficiency of logistics also would bestead to release traffic load in
the urban areas. Furthermore, some major logistics activities and concepts were also discussed
in this paper. It especially presents City Logistics independently due to it is considered as a
main tendency and an available method of future integration of transport and logistics in the
urban areas. Finally, this paper will discuss and conclude the potential further development of
logistics systems.
2. OVERVIEW OF LOGISTICS
2.1 Definitions
Council of Logistics Management (1991) defined that logistics is ‘part of the supply chain
process that plans, implements, and controls the efficient, effective forward and reverse flow
and storage of goods, services, and related information between the point of origin and the
point of consumption in order to meet customers’ requirements’. Johnson and Wood’s
definition (cited in Tilanus, 1997) uses ‘five important key terms’, which are logistics,
inbound logistics, materials management, physical distribution, and supply-chain
management, to interpret. Logistics describes the entire process of materials and products
moving into, through, and out of firm. Inbound logistics covers the movement of material
received from suppliers. Materials management describes the movement of materials and
components within a firm. Physical distribution refers to the movement of goods outward
from the end of the assembly line to the customer. Finally, supply-chain management is
somewhat larger than logistics, and it links logistics more directly with the user’s total
communications network and with the firm’s engineering staff.
The commonality of the recent definitions is that logistics is a process of moving and
handling goods and materials, from the beginning to the end of the production, sale process
and waste disposal, to satisfy customers and add business competitiveness. It is ‘the process
of anticipating customer needs and wants; acquiring the capital, materials, people,
technologies, and information necessary to meet those needs and wants; optimising the
goods- or service-producing network to fulfil customer requests; and utilizing the network to
fulfil customer requests in a timely way’ (Tilanus, 1997). Simply to say, ‘logistics is
customer-oriented operation management’.
2.2 Components of Logistics System
Figure 1 provides an overview of the logistics system. Logistics services, information systems
and infrastructure/resources are the three components of this system and closely linked. The
interaction of the three main components in the logistics system is interpreted as follows.
Logistics services support the movement of materials and products from inputs through
production to consumers, as well as associated waste disposal and reverse flows. They include
activities undertaken in-house by the users of the services (e.g. storage or inventory control at
a manufacturer’s plant) and the operations of external service providers.
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Logistics services comprise physical activities (e.g. transport, storage) as well as non-physical
activities (e.g. supply chain design, selection of contractors, freightage negotiations). Most
activities of logistics services are bi-direction. Information systems include modelling and
management of decision making, and more important issues are tracking and tracing. It
provides essential data and consultation in each step of the interaction among logistics
services and the target stations. Infrastructure comprises human resources, financial resources,
packaging materials, warehouses, transport and communications. Most fixed capital is for
building those infrastructures. They are concrete foundations and basements within logistics
systems.
Figure 1. Overview of Logistics System (source: BTRE, 2001)
2.3 History and Advancement of Logistics
Logistics was initially a military activity concerned with getting soldiers and munitions to the
battlefront in time for flight, but it is now seen as an integral part of the modern production
process. The main background of its development is that the recession of America in the
1950s caused the industrial to place importance on goods circulations. The term, logistics,
was initially developed in the context of military activities in the late 18th and early 19th
centuries and it launched from the military logistics of World War II. The probable origin of
the term is the Greek logistikos, meaning ‘skilled in calculating’. (BTRE, 2001) Military
definitions typically incorporate the supply, movement and quartering of troops in a set. And
now, a number of researches were taken and made logistics applications from military
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activities to business activities.
Business logistics was not an academic subject until the 1960s. A key element of logistics, the
trade-off between transport and inventory costs, was formally recognized in economics at
least as early as the mid-1880s. (BTRE, 2001) Based on the American experience, the
development of logistics could be divided into four periods (Chang, 1998), which are
represented as Figure 2.
Figure 2. Logistics historical development
Before the 1950s, logistics was under the dormant condition. Production was the main part of
the managers concerned, and industry logistics was once regarded as “necessary evil” in this
period. During the 1950s to and 1960s, applying new ideas of administration on business was
a tendency. Drucker (2001), who thought Logistics was The Economy’s Dark Continent,
regarded the procedure of physical distribution after producing products as the most possible
development area in American businesses but also the most neglected area. Lewis’s study
(cited in Chang, 1998) in 1956 on the role of air transportation in physical distribution was the
application of “total cost concept” and it pointed out the notions of trade-off between
inventory and transportation. From the 1970s onwards, more and more applications and
researches of logistics appeared. Due to petroleum price rise in 1973, the effects of logistics
activities on enterprises grew. Slow growth of market, pressure of high stagflation, release of
transportation control, and competitions of the third world on products and materials all
increased the significance of logistics system on planning and business at that time.
The further tendency of logistics in the early 21st century is logistics alliance, Third Party
Logistics (TPL) and globalised logistics. Logistics circulation is an essential of business
activities and sustaining competitiveness, however, to conduct and manage a large company is
cost consuming and not economic. Therefore, alliance of international industries could save
working costs and cooperation with TPL could specialize in logistics area.
3. INTERRELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS
Without well developed transportation systems, logistics could not bring its advantages into
full play. Besides, a good transport system in logistics activities could provide better logistics
efficiency, reduce operation cost, and promote service quality. The improvement of
transportation systems needs the effort from both public and private sectors. A well-operated
logistics system could increase both the competitiveness of the government and enterprises.
3.1 Transport Costs and Goods Characters in Logistics
Transport system is the most important economic activity among the components of business
logistics systems. Around one third to two thirds of the expenses of enterprises’ logistics costs
are spent on transportation. According to the investigation of National Council of Physical
Dormant
Years
Development Years Take-off Years
Logistics Alliance 3rd Party
Logistics Globalisation
Logistics
1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 21st Century
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Distribution Management (NCPDM) in 1982 (Chang, 1988), the cost of transportation, on
average, accounted for 6.5% of market revenue and 44% of logistics costs.
BTRE (2001) indicated that Australian gross value added of the transport and storage sector
was $34,496 million in 1999-2000, or 5.6% of GDP. Figure 3 shows the components of
logistics costs based on the estimation from Air Transportation Association (Chang, 1988).
This analysis shows transportation is the highest cost, which occupies 29.4% of logistics costs,
and then in order by inventory, warehousing cost, packing cost, management cost, movement
cost and ordering cost. The ratio is almost one-third of the total logistics costs. The
transportation cost here includes the means of transportation, corridors, containers, pallets,
terminals, labours, and time. This figure signifies not only the cost structure of logistics
systems but also the importance order in improvement processing. It occupies an important
ratio in logistics activities. The improvement of the item of higher operation costs can get
better effects. Hence, logistics managers must comprehend transport system operation
thoroughly.
Transportation
29.40%
Management
11.00%
Ordering
5.50%
Inventory
17.40%
Warehousing
17.00%
Packaging
11.90%
Movement
7.8%
Figure 3. Cost ratio of logistics items (modified: Chang, 1998)
Transport system makes goods and products movable and provides timely and regional
efficacy to promote value-added under the least cost principle. Transport affects the results of
logistics activities and, of course, it influences production and sale. In the logistics system,
transportation cost could be regarded as a restriction of the objective market. Value of
transportation varies with different industries. For those products with small volume, low
weight and high value, transportation cost simply occupies a very small part of sale and is less
regarded; for those big, heavy and low-valued products, transportation occupies a very big
part of sale and affects profits more, and therefore it is more regarded.
3.2 The Effects of Transportation on Logistics Activities
Transportation plays a connective role among the several steps that result in the conversion of
resources into useful goods in the name of the ultimate consumer. It is the planning of all
these functions and sub-functions into a system of goods movement in order to minimize cost
maximize service to the customers that constitutes the concept of business logistics. The
system, once put in place, must be effectively managed. (Fair et al., 1981)
Traditionally these steps involved separate companies for production, storage, transportation,
wholesaling, and retail sale, however basically, production/manufacturing plants, warehousing
services, merchandising establishments are all about doing transportation. Production or
manufacturing plants required the assembly of materials, components, and supplies, with or
without storage, processing and material handling within the plant and plant inventory.
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Warehousing services between plants and marketing outlets involved separate transport.
Merchandising establishments completed the chain with delivery to the consumers. The
manufacturers limited themselves to the production of goods, leaving marketing and
distribution to other firms. Warehousing and storage can be considered in terms of services for
the production process and for product distribution. There have been major changes in the
number and location of facilities with the closure of many single-user warehouses and an
expansion of consolidation facilities and distribution centres. These developments reflect
factors such as better transport services and pressures to improve logistics performance.
3.3 The Role of Transportation in Service Quality
The role that transportation plays in logistics system is more complex than carrying goods for
the proprietors. Its complexity can take effect only through highly quality management. By
means of well-handled transport system, goods could be sent to the right place at right time in
order to satisfy customers’ demands. It brings efficacy, and also it builds a bridge between
producers and consumers. Therefore, transportation is the base of efficiency and economy in
business logistics and expands other functions of logistics system. In addition, a good
transport system performing in logistics activities brings benefits not only to service quality
but also to company competitiveness.
4. FORMS OF LOGISTICS OPERATION
4.1 Supply Chain Management
Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the concept for handling the production procedures in
broad sense. An effective SCM application could promote the industry to satisfy the demand
of new business environment. Ross (1998) defined SCM as ‘a continuously evolving
management philosophy that seeks to unify the collective productive competencies and
resources of the business functions found both within the enterprise and outside in the firm’s
allied business partners located along intersecting supply channels into a highly competitive,
customer-enriching supply system focused on developing innovative solutions and
synchronizing the flow of marketplace products, services, and information to create unique,
individualized sources of customer value.’
SCM can be divided into three main activities – purchase, manufacture and transport (Thomas
et al., 1996). Cooper et al. (1997) analyzed the three elements of SCM – supply chain
business processes, supply chain management components, and supply chain network
structure. Figure 4 shows the entire elements in SCM frame. It displays the details of the
whole processes from purchasing, management, production, and distribution to customers.
The information flow is like an individual system to link the whole supply chain from
supplier and manufacturer to consumer. Unimpeded information flow could increase the
operation accuracy for costs saving and promote the competitiveness of firms. The product
flow proceeds through the whole production processes from material supply via
manufactories till providing the finished products to consumers. The items in vertical
direction show the various management tasks within the supply chain. Particularly, the return
flow, or reverse logistic, is one of the elements in the system but with converse direction from
the others.
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Figure 4. Interaction of business processes and supply chain (source: Cooper et al., 1997)
4.2 Reverse Logistics
The concept of reverse logistics has been applied in promoting costumer service and
resources recycling. Concerning quality control, the defective components and finished
products will be returned to their producers through reverse logistics systems. Nowadays,
reverse logistics has been developed rapidly for increasing industries’ competitiveness,
promoting customer service level, and recycling the reusable material. Meanwhile, the
demand of reverse logistics brings out a new market for the third-party logistics industries.
Rogers et al. (1998) defined reverse logistics as ‘the process of planning, implementing, and
controlling the efficient, cost effective flow of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished
goods and related information from the point of consumption to the point of origin for the
purpose of recapturing value or proper disposal’. Figure 5 shows the structure of logistics
systems, which includes forward logistics, backward logistics and information flow. The flow
in black arrows presents the direction of reverse logistics, whose direction is counter to the
ordinary logistics represented in hollow arrows. The information flow interlaces between
different stakeholders within the system. Each stakeholder can communicate with the others
directly to maximum their profitability. Reverse logistics will be adopted in various modes
and applications in the future due to its efficiency and benefits in environment protection.
The two main reasons behind the rise of reverse logistics are the globalisation of markets and
policies for environment protection. A successful reverse logistics could help to increase the
service level of companies and reduce the costs of producing processes. More and more
companies want to build their reverse logistics system, however the system needs professional
knowledge in logistics management and particular facilities. Thus the third-party logistics
service provides another option for small to middle size companies to have their reverse
logistics system. Figure 6 shows a system of reverse logistics service on how FedEx, a third-
party logistics provider, serves Acer computer, the customer company. At the first step of the
system, the customer applies a request for returning the product through the Internet, and then
FedEx builds the data of the products; meanwhile the system organizes the route of the
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delivery trips of the product. The customer can check the processing condition and wait for
sending back at the right time.
Figure 5. Consumer supply chain (source: Krumwiede et al., 2002)
Figure 6. Third-party reverse logistics
(source: http://www.fedex.com/us/solutions/downloads/acer.pdf)
4.3 Maritime Logistics
Maritime industry plays an important role in international freight. It can provide a cheap and
high carrying capacity conveyance for consumers. Therefore, it has a vital position in the
transportation of particular goods, such as crude oil and grains. Its disadvantage is that it
needs longer transport time and its schedule is strongly affected by the weather factors. To
save costs and enhance competitiveness, current maritime logistics firms tend to use large-
scaled ships and cooperative operation techniques. Moreover, current maritime customers
care about service quality more than the delivery price. Thus, it is necessary to build new
logistics concepts in order to increase service satisfaction, e.g. real-time information, accurate
time windows and goods tracking systems. The operation of maritime transport industry can
be divided into three main types: (1) Liner Shipping: The business is based on the same ships,
routes, price, and regular voyages. (2) Tramp Shipping: The characters of this kind of
shipping are irregular transport price, unsteady transport routes, and schedule. It usually
delivers particular goods, such as Dry Bulk Cargo and crude oil. (3) Industry Shipping: The
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main purpose of industry shipping is to ensure the supply of raw materials. This sometimes
needs specialized containers, such as the high-pressure containers for natural gas.
4.4 Air Freight Logistics
Air freight logistics is necessary for many industries and services to complete their supply
chain and functions. It provides the delivery with speed, lower risk of damage, security,
flexibility, accessibility and good frequency for regular destinations, yet the disadvantage is
high delivery fee. Reynolds-Feighan (2001) said air freight logistics is selected ‘when the
value per unit weight of shipments is relatively high and the speed of delivery is an important
factor’. The characteristics of air freight logistics are that: (1) airplanes and airports are
separated. Therefore, the industries only need to prepare planes for operation; (2) it allows to
speed delivery at far destinations; (3) air freight transport is not affected by landforms.
Research data show that the freight transport market keeps growing. Given the trend of global
markets, air freight logistics also has to change their services. The future tendencies of air
freight development are integration with other transport modes and internationalisation and
alliance and merger between air transport companies The future pattern of air freight logistics
is cooperative with other transport modes, such as maritime and land transport, to provide a
service base on Just-In-Time, and door-to-door.
4.5 Land Logistics
Land logistics is a very important link in logistics activities. It extends the delivery services
for air and maritime transport from airports and seaports. The most positive characteristic of
land logistics is the high accessibility level in land areas. The main transport modes of land
logistics are railway transport, road freight transport and pipeline transport.
Railway transport has advantages like high carrying capacity, lower influence by weather
conditions, and lower energy consumption while disadvantages as high cost of essential
facilities, difficult and expensive maintenance, lack of elasticity of urgent demands, and time
consumption in organizing railway carriages. Road freight transport has advantages as
cheaper investment funds, high accessibility, mobility and availability. Its disadvantages are
low capacity, lower safety, and slow speed. The advantages of pipeline transport are high
capacity, less effect by weather conditions, cheaper operation fee, and continuous conveyance;
the disadvantages are expensive infrastructures, harder supervision, goods specialization, and
regular maintenance needs.
The excessive usage of land transport also brings many problems, such as traffic jams,
pollution and traffic crashes. In the future, to improve the land transport in transport
efficiency and reliability, a revolution of transport policies and management is required, e.g.
pricing.
4.6 Express Delivery
As the increasing demand of time accuracy and decentralization of production, the need to
reduce stock costs has led to the Just-In-Time (JIT) delivery principle, which involves more
frequent delivery of materials at the right time and at the right place in the production process.
The characteristics of express delivery are: (1) door-to-door service; (2) efficiency; (3)
traceability; (4) Just-In-Time (JIT); (5) growing various delivery demands.
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The trend toward increasingly compact products is expected to improve the cost-benefit ratio
of express delivery by decreasing the transportation cost share. Smaller products will enlarge
the market for express delivery services. Also, the increasing value of products requires rapid
transportation, because companies want to reduce the interest costs bound up in stock and
inventories. For future development, the industries should consider integrating the services
with 24-hour stores so that customers could choose a certain shop as the pick-up station.
Meanwhile, the services would become more efficient and controlled due to more regular
routes to those shops instead of personal houses.
4.7 E-commerce
E-commerce is the future trend of business style. It brings many benefits for both companies
and consumers: (1) E-commerce expands the market area from regional to global; (2) E-
commerce uses electronic techniques instead of traditional paper works, which promotes the
industries’ efficiency and competitiveness; (3) The number of trips is increased. On the other
hand the average load of single trip is reduced, which means it needs higher carriage if using
the same means of transportation; (4) E-commerce will impact on transport system due to the
increased trips; (5) E-commerce might reduce the number of warehouses and the stock cost.
Therefore the prices could be lowered. Figure 7 and Figure 8 express the differences between
the transport patterns of traditional trade and e-commerce. However other new topics, of
course, accompany with the system and need to be concerned, such as Internet security,
transport impacts and door-to-door services. A healthy and successful e-commerce
environment is determined by the optimal logistics operation.
Figure 7. The transport pattern of traditional
business
Figure 8. The transport pattern of e-commerce
5. CITY LOGISTICS
City Logistics is a concept trying to integrate the existing resources to solve the difficulties
caused by the impacts of increasing population and vehicle ownerships in the urban area.
Many cities, such as Bangkok, London, and Tokyo, have suffered from these problems due to
traffic congestions, environment impact, low transport efficiency, and consequently the
competitiveness of business decreased. This kind of condition not only reduces the quality of
life in urban areas but also the future city development. City Logistics provides an opportunity
for innovative solutions to be developed for improving the quality of life in urban areas.
(Taniguchi et al., 2001a) It contains several advanced techniques, such as Geographic
Information System (GIS), Global Positioning System (GPS), logistics knowledge, Intelligent
Transport System (ITS) and modelling, to optimise the city environment. Moreover, it helps
to reduce both transport cost and negative environment impact.
Retail 1
Retail 2
Retail 3
Retail 4
Industr
y
Consumers
Consumers
Industr
y
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5.1 Definitions of City Logistics
City Logistics is the process for totally optimising the logistics and transport activities
by private companies with the support of advanced information systems in urban
areas considering the traffic environment, its congestion, safety and energy savings
within the framework of a market economy. (Taniguchi et al., 2001b)
Cities are the main locations of business activities. Hence they play an important role in
economic development. However given the high concentrated development in urban areas,
many cities have serious traffic problems and negative environmental impacts, such as noise
and air pollution, this is the cost in both developing and developed countries. These negative
factors reduce the economic competitiveness of a city and make its life quality declined. The
residents become the victims in the highly developed cities. The way to solve and balance the
condition became a demanding issue in the recent years. City Logistics is a new and
innovative concept which aims to solve this complex problem.
Urban freight logistics can be broken down in many elements, such as storage, transport and
handling. Conventional improvement of the logistics process is usually only focused on single
element. However, from a macro-viewpoint, the improvement can help bring the best profit to
the society. Figure 9 shows the principle of the cost matters with different transport modes.
Airfreight might be more expensive than land transport but the storage cost might be less.
Thus in terms of total cost, airfreight might be the most reasonable transport mode for a
particular transport purpose, for example, transport of fresh seafood.
Figure 9. Transport patterns and total costs (source: Chang, 1998)
Before planning a City Logistics system, it is important to understand its elements. According
to Thompson et al. (2001), there are four key stakeholders involved in urban freight transport:
(1) shippers; (2) freight carriers; (3) residents; (4) administrators/governments. Each group
has its own specific objectives and tends to behave in a different manner and needs to be
considered. The interlaced relationships among those groups and different conflicts within the
system are shown as Figure 10. Basically, the origination of the journey is from shippers and
to the consumers. Freight carriers and administrators are the media of the delivery tasks. The
characteristic of their relationships is that a slight move in one part may affect the whole
situation. For instance, a freight carrier with lower efficiency would impact on the service
quality of the system and hence increase the difficulties of management for administrators.
Besides, it would also reduce the satisfaction level of consumers and the reliability of firms
and increase the operation cost.
Taniguchi et al. (2003) consider that there are three necessary targets that could be achieved
by applying City Logistics: (1) mobility; (2) sustainability; (3) liveability. Mobility is ease of
movement, which is the basic requirement for transport of commodities in urban areas. Goods
are supposed to be delivered Just-In-Time. Therefore, the balance between sufficient road
Transport cost
Storage cost
Total cost
Transport Modes
Cost
Train Truck
Air
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network capacity and reduced traffic congestion is a main issue. Concerning sustainability,
which is more and more important, environmental issues and energy conservation would need
to be taken into account. Liveability should be thought of for the residents. It involves an
assessment of the conditions that are experienced and interpreted within an individual’s life
area, such as safety, peacefulness, attractiveness and charm.
Figure 10. Key stakeholders in City Logistics (modified: Taniguchi et al., 2001a)
5.2 The Applied Techniques in City Logistics
Common techniques integrated in the procedures of City Logistics include cooperative freight
systems, freight villages (terminals), controlling transport load factors, new freight transport
systems, and intelligent transport systems (ITS).
5.2.1 Cooperative freight systems
The traditional delivery pattern of freight is fewer trips and more loads. The delivery
companies usually maintained their business independently. It means two carriers might serve
in the same area. Nowadays, the trends of urban freight transport towards to deliver “Just-in-
time” and “door-to-door”. The operation of freight transport changes to have more trips but
fewer loads in order to increase the efficiency differently. Without improvement, the transport
costs will increase hugely to satisfy the current requirements. Cooperative freight systems are
the ways which could be expected to solve this problem.
Cooperative freight systems integrate the resources of the cooperating companies to optimise
the economic benefits. The main benefits of the techniques are (1) properly increasing
delivery trip loads; (2) reducing unnecessary trips, as well as pollution and costs; (3) reducing
service area overlaps; (4) increasing service quality and company profits.
5.2.2 Freight villages (terminals)
The concept of freight villages (terminals) has been applied in several cities, such as Monaco.
The goods are reorganised in the freight village before being delivered to the urban areas.
This system can reduce the required number of trucks used for delivery and handling.
Figure 11. The structure of freight villages (source: Potrol, 2003)
SHIPPERS
(manufacturers,
wholesalers, retailers
)
ADMINISTRATORS
(national, state,
and cit
y
level
)
FREIGHT CARRIERS
(Transporters, warehouse,
com
p
anies
)
RESIDENTS
(consumers)
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Figure 11 shows the model of freight villages. The freight from outside of a city is sent to the
freight village in order to classify and prepare for delivering to city area. This could increase
the carrying load of vehicles and reduce unnecessary trips in the urban area. In addition, this
integration benefits the private sector by reducing costs, and also the public environment by
decreasing trips and air pollution.
5.2.3 Controlling transport load factors
In Europe, some cities implement the limitation of load factors in urban freight transport.
Companies allowed to deliver freight in urban area must have high loading rates, and the
vehicles have to conform to the environmental standards. The method of regulation is through
publishing special certificates and giving the right for the companies to use particular
transport infrastructure in the urban area, so reducing the complexity of urban transport.
5.2.4 New freight transport systems
New freight transport systems range from the design of new vehicles to the underground
freight transport systems. The former can be used to adjust the current resource to satisfy the
short-term requirements. The latter is for the long term, bringing a new era to city freight
transport.
5.2.5 Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)
Applications of ITS in transport systems are widespread. The most common techniques for
logistics include Global Positioning System (GPS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
and advanced information systems. GPS provides the service of vehicles positioning. It could
help the control centres to monitor and dispatch trucks. GIS provides the basic geographic
database for the deliverers to enable to organise their routes easier and faster. Advanced
information systems provide the real-time information for both managers and deliverymen to
adjust their paths as new demands occur. The integration of GPS, GIS and advanced
information systems provides a high manoeuvrability of transport systems. The benefits of the
integrations are better service quality, reduced unnecessary trips, and increased loading rate.
6. FUTURE PROSPECTS OF LOGISTICS
Facing the worldwide competition, the improvement of logistics system should be advanced
by both private companies and government. Weeld and Roszemeijer (Ho, 1997) discerned
three revolutions in business that have substantial impacts on the purchasing and supply
strategies of the manufacturing sectors. These three revolutions are: (1) the globalisation of
trade; (2) the coming of the information era; (3) more demanding consumers and continuously
changing consumer preferences. The main characteristics of future logistics development are:
• Government role: To keep competitiveness of industries, the government has to lead the
way to assist the logistics industries. For instance, the idea of freight village of city
logistics provides the environment to promote logistics efficiency and to reduce operation
costs. However it involves large of investments and some problems relating laws and
national policies. Without the lead and support of government, achieving the plan is
difficult.
• Growth of international goods transport: The up-growth of international freight transport
is contributed by several factors. Firstly, the blossoming of E-commerce pushes ahead the
international business activities. Secondly, the change of production strategy needs
international cooperation, e.g. importing the semi-finished products from countries with
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cheaper human resources to those with higher technology to assemble the final goods.
Thirdly, the pressure of globalised market, such as World Trade Organization (WTO),
pushes local industries to promote themselves to reach an international standard and face
the worldwide competition.
• Improvement of services: Providing a good customer service becomes a necessary
requirement of business operation with the intense competition of global market. The
quality of services is the main factor to affect consuming behaviour among the enterprises
with high similarity. The service systems involve several developed techniques now, such
as Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) and Quick Response (QR). In the near future,
more new techniques would be applied in providing better services for customers.
• Revolution of logistics operation: IT techniques and its products bring efficiency and
fluency to the logistics systems. Radio Frequency ID (RFID) is one of these techniques.
The main difference between the bar-code system and RFID is that RFID does not need
the action of scanning the barcode on goods. RFID could save manual operation time
dramatically. RFID systems could sense the amount of goods input in the tags
automatically and immediately when the costumers push their trolley through the exit
(Carroll, 2004).
• Shorter product life cycle: With the current trend, the merchandise design is changing day
by day, and therefore, the product life cycle is shorter and shorter, especially in computer
science. To confront the impacts, logistics system must improve its efficiency and
reliability of goods delivery. Otherwise an inappropriate logistics system would hinder the
competitiveness of new products and the business profits.
• Improvement of logistics facilities: The advancement and development of logistics are
based on several techniques and complete theories. High-tech facilities and systems, e.g.
ITS, could bring more possibilities and advantages to logistics. For example, the
improvement of related facilities, e.g. Forklift Trucks, is necessary for transport efficiency.
In the future, factory automation is the main target for the whole supply-chain procedures.
It could help to improve efficiency and also reduce the operation costs.
• Channel cooperation between companies: In order to save the logistics costs, a key
concept is to maximize the usage of available transport capacity. Integrating the logistics
demands between numerous departments helps achieve this purpose. In practice, a
conglomerate could develop its own logistics service for the branches. For some medium
size companies, they could cooperate transport channels with others.
• Specialized logistics delivery: One of the notable trends of logistics industries is
specialized delivery service. For instance, delivering fresh food from the place of origin
needs low-temperature containers. Compute chips, gases and petroleum need particular
conveyances to carry. These demands are rising since the products became more and more
delicate.
• Logistics centres: The development of logistics centres is good for industry promotion
and the development of national economic system. Logistics centres could successfully
shorten the distance between production and marketing vertically and also integrate
various industries horizontally, and thus decrease the costs. Governments can propose
special areas for storehouses and logistics to reduce land acquisition. The future logistics
will cooperate e-commerce, the Internet and the newly door-to-door service to create new
business prospects.
• Freight transport: The alliance between middle-small size delivery companies is an
important trend in the future. The strategy could help to expand service areas and increase
service quality, and meanwhile raise the loads of single trips to reduce delivery costs.
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7. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
7.1 Discussions
How to speedily deliver products to consumers’ hands is a common consensus of operators.
Integration of logistics and e-business is the future trend. In order to get more advantageous
position and build a complementary and dependent relationship, networking industries, such
as Yahoo and e-Bay, usually cooperate with logistics industries. The integration could reduce
the middle-level procedures. The producers could immediately give the products over to the
terminal customers. This could reduce expenses and also administer sources more efficiently.
Besides, the companies do not have to take the costs of inventory and warehouse, and
therefore they become modernized industries of low cost, more efficiency and division of
specialty. For example, customers could get ordered goods from convenience stores. Through
e-logistics, the competition condition of industries could be promoted in knowledge
economics.
Based on the discussions of previous paragraphs, the integration and promotion of business
activities have to involve transportation systems at various stages. The integration of various
applications brings the convenience through promoting the system of information flow and
business operations. Customers and firms could make business more efficient and easier
through the help of e-commerce and the Internet. However physical delivery still relies on the
transportation system to finish the operations. The cost of transportation operation may be
one-third of logistics costs. Meanwhile, transportation systems and techniques are needed in
almost every logistics activity. Thus the reform of business patterns has to consider
transportation systems.
7.2 Conclusions
This paper covers broadly from logistics activities to transportation systems and attempts to
determine the role of transportation in logistics systems through extensive review. The main
contents of the research include a review of logistics development, the characters of various
transport operations in logistics activities, the applications of logistics in various fields, city
logistics, future direction in logistics development, and its cooperation with transport systems.
To sum up, logistics and transportation have some relevance. (1) Logistics system has a more
and more important position in our society activities. (2) Transportation and logistics systems
have interdependent relationships that logistics management needs transportation to perform
its activities and meanwhile, a successful logistics system could help to improve traffic
environment and transportation development. (3) Since transportation contributes the highest
cost among the related elements in logistics systems, the improvement of transport efficiency
could change the overall performance of a logistics system. (4) Transportation plays an
important role in logistics system and its activities appear in various sections of logistics
processes. Without the linking of transportation, a powerful logistics strategy cannot bring its
capacity into full play.
The review of logistics system in a broad sense might help to integrate the advantages from
different application cases to overcome their current disadvantage. On the other hand, the
review of transport systems provides a clearer notion on transport applications in logistics
activities. The development of logistics will be still vigorous in the following decades and the
logistics concepts might be applied in more fields.
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