Focus Geoffroy Henry
How technology will solve the freight industry’s biggest issues By GEOFFROY HENRY CEO AND FOUNDER AT OFLOAD
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he transport and logistics industries have become increasingly exposed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, in turn bringing focus to the necessity of freight tech solutions. Even before the pandemic, Australia was suffering from a truck driver shortage. The average age of truck drivers nationally is increasing, and there simply are not enough new drivers entering the industry. The average Australian truck driver is 47, only 20.6% of drivers are under 30 years old, and only 3% are female. On top of this, constant compliance and regulatory changes, the requirement for drivers to own and maintain their own trucks, plus low pay and long hours, means drivers are leaving the industry in droves for new horizons. All this was before COVID-19. Now, a lack of interstate and overseas migration means staff shortages in the freight industry
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WATM • January/February 2022
have reached critical levels. The industry also sees significant wastage via empty and idle trucks, in a segment which already contributes to almost 3% of Australia’s overall carbon emissions. The transport and logistics industries as they stand are not future-proofed, and absolutely require an overhaul. But the good news is, the driver shortage, wastage and emissions issues can be solved by applying simple and effective technology— all without adding cost.
Sustainability into the future There is significant waste in the road freight industry—millions of empty kilometres are being driven, and trucks are often underutilised. The volume of trucks and drivers sitting idle across Australia is staggering. Through conversations with industry leaders, we’ve heard some companies’ trucks and drivers can spend up to almost three days per week
sitting idle without work, while 30% of trucks are running with empty loads, and even when a truck has a load, it’s rarely entirely full. At the same time, emissions are increasing at a time when Australia is trying to reduce its carbon footprint, which means sustainability is becoming a priority in the freight contract process. According to the Climate Change Authority, trucking makes up 18% of the nation’s transport emissions, which is more than aviation, rail, ships, buses and motorcycles combined at 16%. In fact, about 2.88% of Australia’s total emissions— that is 15.5 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide—are from road freight alone. At the same time, Accenture reports 48% of CEOs are implementing sustainability into their operations. This means the wastage within road freight has been identified as a real threat to the industry’s longevity. This adversely affects small operators far more significantly than large operators. Small operators cannot afford to upgrade trucks or change operations fast enough to compete on the newly required sustainability level. There are 50,000 or so trucking companies in Australia, with the largest companies controlling only 15% of the market, leaving the smaller players
