Logistics in lagging regions

Charles Kunaka
World Bank
December 2010

Small scale producers in developing countries lack easy access to efficient logistics services. They are faced with long distances from both domestic and international markets. Unless they consolidate their trade volumes they face high costs which diminish their ability to trade. However, the process of consolidation is not without cost nor does it occur on its own accord. As a result, the consolidation is typically handled by intermediaries.

Using case studies of sisal and soybean supply chains in Brazil and India respectively, this study explores the role and impact of intermediaries in facilitating trade in lagging regions. The study assesses the horizontal relationships between the small scale producers in thin markets and the vertical connections between different tiers of the same supply chain. The study analyzes the traditional approach to linking producers namely through cooperatives and itinerant traders and the relatively newer innovations using ICT.

The study finds that farmers linked through the different mechanisms are more integrated to international supply chains or are able to better manage supply chains longer than would otherwise be the case. Intermediaries play several roles including providing transport services and facilitating market exchanges, payments, risk sharing and quality improvements. Generally, information technology driven innovations make it easier to integrate adjacent steps in the value chain.

This report on logistics performance at the sub-national level is an on-going endeavour. Similar analysis is being carried out in some countries in Africa to identify the evolving role of intermediaries in low income regions. The results will be developed into a major publication on this topic, with recommendations on how development agencies, civil society and the private sector can improve the design of strategies to reduce logistics costs in low income areas.

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Intelligent transport systems in action: Action plan and legal framework for the deployment of intelligent transport systems (ITS) in Europe

European Union
2011

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Environmental impact of road freight transport in 2020: Full report of a Delphi survey

M.I. Piecyk and A.C. McKinnon
Logistics Research Centre
School of Management and Languages
Heriot-Watt University
Edinburgh
EH14 4AS
August 2009

Green logistics

This report summarises the results of a Delphi survey of 100 logistics specialists which sought their views on future freight transport and environmental trends in the UK up to 2020.

According to this panel of experts, over 50% of companies involved in road freight transport operation are likely to see their activities affected by climate change concerns to a significant or large extent by 2015. This proportion is expected to rise to over 80% by 2020.

Some long-established production and logistics trends which exert a strong influence on road freight demand, such as the centralisation of manufacturing and inventory, the adoption of JIT replenishment and the outsourcing of non-core activities, cannot continue indefinitely. The results of the Delphi survey reported in this paper suggest that these trends are likely to continue at least until 2020. The following trends were identified as most likely to occur up to 2020:

• Further relocation of production capacity to other countries.
• Increase in primary consolidation of inbound loads to manufacturing plants and/or distribution centres.
• Significant growth in online retailing.
• Reverse logistics is likely to gain in importance with more products reentering the supply chains for recycling, refurbishment and resale.
• More frequent ‘out-of-hours’ operation, especially increase in proportion of night-time deliveries.
• Growth in the use of advanced IT systems for transport planning and management (telematics, computerised vehicle routing and scheduling, etc).
• Increase in logistical collaboration initiatives between companies.
• Greater use of online freight exchanges online and load matching services.
• Fuel prices and availability of drivers were identified as major threats to the road freight industry.

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Repowering Transport 2011

World Economic Forum
April 2011

Global transportation and fossil fuels are inextricably linked. More than 60% of the 87 million barrels of oil consumed daily powers the world’s transportation system and liquid fossil fuels account for more than 96% of the sector’s energy supply.

The Repowering Transport project provides a high-level platform for executives from the World Economic Forum’s Industry Partners in the mobility (automotive, aviation, and logistics), energy (oil and gas, utilities, alternatives), chemicals, and investors industries, and select Global Growth Companies.The project explores technology-driven opportunities to drive short- to medium-term energy diversification and efficiency in the transportation sector. It provides a framework of key enablers – partnerships, policies, and financing mechanisms – that are critical to accelerate the development and deployment of these technologies.

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John Moavenzadeh, Senior Director and Head of Mobility Industries

Technologies for climate change mitigation: Transport sector

TNA Guidebook Series
UNEP
March 2011

Photo from the publication

This guidebook is designed to assist you as you contribute to the development of transport in your country or locality. It provides transport options that not only minimise greenhouse gas emissions, but also offer a host of other economic, social and environmental benefits, of which the following are some.

In terms of economic benefits, these options can:
• save money spent on transport by both individuals and society
• save time
• reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels
• reduce health costs and absenteeism resulting from traffic accidents and illness caused by vehicle pollution and lack of exercise
• provide better transport for all levels and sectors of society, so that all people can access jobs, markets, services and education, and thereby participate economically
• contribute to urban consolidation and reduce costs for the provision of urban infrastructure
• provide the transport necessary for effective and efficient twenty-first century economies.

In terms of social benefits, these measures can:
• reduce traffic congestion and noise and make localities more attractive and pleasant places in which to live and work
• promote better physical and mental health by encouraging and enabling people to exercise more,
by reducing road accidents and respiratory diseases caused by pollution, and by creating a less
stressful environment
• contribute to greater equality by ensuring that all levels of society have access to the necessary transport to meet their needs
• enhance community connectedness by promoting transport modes that have been shown to
increase local interaction.

In terms of environmental benefits, as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, these transport
options can:
• reduce local level pollution
• lessen urban sprawl
• reduce overall fuel use and in particular the use of unsustainable fuels
• decrease the use of other finite resources.

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Nuevas tecnologías en el transporte marítimo y la infraestructura de puertos

Notas núm. 128, Enero-Febrero 2011, artículo 1
Instituto Mexicano del Transporte

El transporte marítimo es la acción de llevar personas o cosas por mar, de un punto geográfico a otro a bordo de un buque con un fin lucrativo.

La innovación tecnológica en el transporte marítimo se manifiesta principalmente en la contenerización cada vez mayor de la carga y en la tendencia a utilizar buques cada vez más grandes. En los puertos, ésta se manifiesta en la modernización del equipamiento, en la prestación de servicios de valor agregado y en la utilización de tecnologías de punta en materia de informática y comunicaciones.

En este trabajo se presentan las nuevas tecnologías del transporte marítimo y el reto de dicho modo de transporte a la respuesta de los puertos.

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Tomorrow's Transport

Wall Street Journal special report
May 2011

Move It!
Not only are we spending too little on transportation right now, but we're not spending it wisely. Here's the case for a new approach that puts transportation squarely in the service of the American economy.

The Little Engine Really Could
At last, technology is on the verge of transforming freight rail. The likely outcome: a digital network carrying greater volumes at faster speeds and lower costs.

The Future of Freight Railroads
Freight railroads have made a strong comeback in recent years. Can they stay on track? Four experts with long involvement in the rail industry offer their opinions.

Buses Catch On
Bus rapid transit, which combines the flexibility of buses with the speed, comfort and reliability of rail, is the hottest trend in urban mass transit in the developing world.

Don't Count Hydrogen Fuel Cells Out
Battery-powered electric cars have stolen the thunder of this once ballyhooed technology, but a growing number of auto executives still think it's the ultimate alternative fuel.

Charging Stations Could Use Subscriptions
As electric cars proliferate, the business of recharging them may look less like the filling-station model and more like the way consumers pay for cellphone service.
Map: Electric-Vehicle Charging Stations

Car Talk and Talk and...
Vehicles that constantly communicate with each other and with an information grid could save a lot of lives by preventing crashes—if drivers don't resist the technology because of privacy concerns.

Has the Monorail's Future Arrived?
Monorails are getting a fresh look as São Paulo and a handful of other big cities in emerging economies embrace the technology as a way to meet surging demand for mass transit.

Airlines Promise: It Will Get Better
They say passengers can expect smoother check-ins and more comfortable flights. We'll have to see.

Air Travel's New Era of Self-Control
The FAA is pushing for a $20 billion overhaul of the nation's air-traffic-control system that would let pilots choose their routes, saving fuel, cutting emissions and reducing congestion.
Past Tomorrow's Transport Reports

Fossil Fuelled
Examining the various threats to the global motor industry and highlighting the steps that car makers are taking to overcome them.

Questions on Future of Air Travel Smolder
The closure of airspace amid a cloud of volcanic ash offered a painful reminder of the truths about jet travel: Modern society can't function without it, and the whole system is easily thrown into chaos.

The Roads Not Taken
People have imagined the future of transportation at least since Leonardo da Vinci sketched a flying machine. Here are some past ideas of future travel that never quite came to pass.

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Keeping climate change solutions on track: the role of rail

UIC
December 2010

Transport brings enormous benefits to society through access and mobility, but it also has many external costs, including its contribution to climate change. Transport has a key role to play within solutions to climate change as current transport structures are responsible for extreme pressures on energy resources and ecosystems through a dependence on fossil fuels.

Rail presents a low carbon mode of transport, and continued energy efficiency improvements and increases in modal shift to rail from road and air are crucial to support the transition to low carbon mobility.

The technological and operational developments in rail, financial investments from international funds and governments, and the commitment of rail operators demonstrate not only the current status of rail, but more importantly the potential for rail to contribute to global emissions reductions in 2010 and beyond. Indeed the rail sector is ready to be part of the solution to climate change; the UIC Declaration on Sustainable Mobility and Transport (attached at the end of this document) outlines this commitment.

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A smarter transportation system for the 21st century

Frost & Sullivan

A Frost & Sullivan White Paper

2010

Globalization, for better or worse, is a dominant feature of our world. As barriers between continents, countries and cities have diminished, and a surging population has urbanized, economic growth and prosperity have become inextricably linked to accessibility; accessibility to markets, to production materials, to services, to food and to culture, which are all preconditions for human survival. The increasing density of urban living, however, can slow the movement of people as well as goods; therefore, accessibility is dependent on an efficient and intricate global network of air, rail, road, and water links between and within our population centers of cities and megacities.

This paper finds that our aging transportation system is threatening to restrain globalization as current systems are struggling to meet the needs of this highly urbanized planet in which the business of moving goods and people from one place to another typically generates toxic byproducts and lost productivity. Ground-breaking innovations in transportation technology are difficult for the current system to accommodate, and the system itself has yet to evolve to meet the changed set of fundamental needs and demands placed on it. Whereas the system has not yet completely gridlocked, we clearly need something that is smarter, more efficient, and better than what we have now.

We think the answer is a new ecosystem that marries information technology to the global air, rail, road, and water transportation networks.

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Rural Road Investment Efficiency: Lessons from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Uganda

Authors: Raballand, Gael; Macchi, Patricia
World Bank
Directions in development infrastructure
March 2010

This book was written because at the time when Development Partners focus especially on rural mobility, it is worth trying to know how to achieve better aid effectiveness in rural transport. So far, most Development Partners and governments in SSA have relied on two overarching assumptions, which have led to massive road investments: (i) most households in rural areas in Africa are not connected to markets and therefore need a road passable for a truck (all the more as they are remote), (ii) roads with high level of service are crucial to achieve high economic impact. We demonstrate in this book that these assumptions may be questioned in many cases in SSA. Based on data collection from various sources in Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Uganda, we demonstrate that from a cost-benefit perspective, the additional cost of extending an all-weather road 2 more km to the farmer??s door outweigh the benefits in most cases. Therefore, a one size fits all approach, such as achieving the Rural Access Index, is not wishful from an aid effectiveness perspective. We should realize that a seven-meter road may not be required in most rural areas in SSA. Some pilots should be supported locally to potentially meet the demand for Intermediate Means of Transport (although any success may not be replicable to another region or country). The last mile should not be a road for a truck but the secondary network, which link secondary cities, should be in good condition (paved or unpaved) to enable truck fleet efficiency and competition. Finally, donor coordination is a must to avoid for example the rehabilitation of rural roads not connected to passable secondary roads.

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Futurama 2.0: Mobilizing America s Transportation Revolution

Proposed by
David Muyres and Geoff Wardle
OnGoingTransportation
August 2009

Assembling a visionary team to create innovative, sustainable and viable solutions for all future transportation in the United States

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Smart Solutions: 50 Ways America Just Got Better

AASHTO

2009

Launched by AASHTO, AAA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the America's Transportation Awards competition has not only identified top transportation projects from around the country, it also has demonstrated the ways in which transportation investment is improving our economy, our environment and our quality of life. All 50 projects included here were delivered on-time or ahead of schedule, on-budget, or using innovative management. This report also explores what makes a good transportation project great. Take a look."

Website

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Efforts to Address Highway Congestion through Real-Time Traffic Information Systems Are Expanding but Face Implementation Challenges

Government Accountability Office - GAO

November 2009

Growing congestion on our nation’s roads results in wasted time and fuel, which adversely affects the economy and the environment. State and local government agencies and private companies disseminate real-time traffic information to help travelers decide whether to use alternative, less congested routes. Legislation enacted in 2005 required the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to establish the Real-Time System Management Information Program, in order to provide states the capability to monitor traffic and travel conditions on major highways and share that information. As requested, this GAO report addresses, among other things, (1) how the public and private sectors disseminate real-time traffic information to the public, (2) actions DOT has taken to establish the Real-Time System Management Information Program, and (3) experts’ views on the need for a nationwide real-time traffic information system and its potential characteristics.

To conduct this study, GAO visited sites in California and Florida, which have well-developed traffic information systems; reviewed and analyzed DOT reports and data; and interviewed transportation officials, experts, and other stakeholders. GAO is not making any recommendations at this time because DOT has not finalized the proposed rule it issued in January 2009, and there was no consensus from the experts GAO interviewed as to whether an increased federal role in this area is appropriate or what this role might be.

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UNCTAD Division on Technology and Logistics Activity Report 2008

UNCTAD
October 2009



This report presents an overview of the activities undertaken by the three branches of the Division on Technology and Logistics (DTL) in 2008. It is complemented by stories from beneficiaries in developing countries.

In 2008, the Division underwent a number of changes, the most important of which was the transfer of the Science and Technology Section from the Division on Investment and Enterprise to DTL. This, among other factors, led to a change in the name of the division from "Services Infrastructure for Development and Trade Efficiency" (SITE) to "Technology and Logistics" (DTL) in order to better reflect the type of work undertaken.

DTL consists of three branches:

Science, Technology and ICT Branch;
Knowledge Sharing, Training and Capacity Development Branch; and
Trade Logistics Branch, including the ASYCUDA programme.

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Infraestructuras inteligentes: las autopistas del futuro

Real Academia de Ingeniería
November 2009

En esta Sesión de la RAI se presento un nuevo y ambicioso proyecto de I+D+i (CENIT) que investiga la configuración de la autopista del futuro –que deberá ser inteligente, segura y sostenible-, algunos casos prácticos de implantación de nuevas tecnologías así como de otros desarrollos tecnológicos en marcha.

Díptico de presentación

Ponencias:
Proyecto Oasis: Operación de autopistas seguras, inteligentes y sostenibles
Federico García-Linares Fontes
Responsable de I+D de OHL Concesiones y Coordinador del Proyecto Oasis

Sistemas avanzados de peaje free-flow: Aplicación práctica en el viaducto bicentenario de México D.F.
Alonso Bautista Trovo
Director de Sistemas de Peaje de INDRA

GNSS y el pago por el uso de infraestructuras
Sara Gutierrez Lanza
Coordinadora de la División de Ingeniería y Aplicaciones de Navegación de GMV. Directora del Proyecto GINA (GNSS for Innovative road Applications)

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La contribución de las TIC a la sostenibilidad del Transporte en España

Real Academia de Ingeniería
Junio 2009

La RAI recomienda el uso de las TIC para un transporte sostenible
La Real Academia de Ingeniería presentó el Estudio sobre las TIC y la sostenibilidad del transporte en España.

España puede situarse a la vanguardia de la revolución tecnológica que permitirá reducir miles de toneladas de emisiones de CO2 a la atmósfera. El uso de las TIC es indispensable en esta carrera, y por este motivo, la Real Academia de Ingeniería presentó el "Estudio sobre las TIC y la Sostenibilidad del Transporte en España", con el que pretende abrir un debate entre las administraciones, las universidades y las empresas sobre el potencial de estas tecnologías.

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Information and Awareness - Thematic Research Summary

Transport Research Knowledge Centre
September 2009



The range of possible measures that come under this heading involve making improvements to the information available to transport users and operators, to make them more aware of the implications of their use and the operation of the transport system. Some measures are traditional fixed information systems; others draw on real time applications of information technology. The information helps travellers make more informed decisions about how, when, where and whether to travel.

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Transportation Research Program Administration in Europe and Asia

Federal Highway Administration's International Programs
July 2009

The Federal Highway Administration, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and National Cooperative Highway Research Program sponsored a scanning study of Europe and Asia to review transportation research program administration practices. The scan team sought policy initiatives and process improvements to enhance transportation research administration in the United States.
The team found that in the countries it studied, transportation research is directly related to national economic growth and competitiveness, transportation research efforts are promoted, transportation research and development (R&D) is accepted as a valuable contribution to the national good, and addressing intellectual property rights is a common practice that facilitates the delivery of transportation research results.

Team recommendations for U.S. application include building international relationships in transportation research to achieve global goals, developing a nationally coordinated research framework, and strengthening the innovation process by examining international research institutes that link the creation and application
of knowledge.

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Real-Time Traveler Information Systems

Transportation Research Board
July 2009



TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 399: Real-Time Traveler Information Systems explores the needs and expectations of travelers, the current status of a variety of traveler information systems in the United States, available and emerging data sources, and business models for sustaining traveler information.

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Determinants of the adoption of technological innovations by logistics service providers in China

Lin, Chieh-Yu
International Journal of Technology Management & Sustainable Development
2008, Vol. 7 Issue 1, p19-38, 20p

The growth of China's economy hinges to a large extent on the ability of the logistics industry to operate more efficiently and effectively in the global supply chain system. China's logistics service providers should pay attention to adopt more efficient logistics technologies to provide better services for their customers. This article studies the factors influencing the adoption of technological innovations by logistics service providers in China and investigates the influences of adopting new technologies on supply chain performance. A questionnaire survey is conducted to study the adoption of technological innovations by China's logistics industry. Technological innovations are classified into data acquisition technologies, information technologies, warehousing technologies, and transportation technologies. The influencing factors include technological, organizational, and environmental characteristics. We find that the adoption of technological innovations is significantly influenced by technological, organizational and environmental characteristics and that adopting new technologies will increase supply chain performance for the logistics industry in China.

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