MHD SUPPLY CHAIN
SIGN UP TO NATIONAL LOCATION REGISTRY Last year the Federal Government and GS1 launched the National Location Registry to streamline transport operations and boost supply chain efficiency. Now they are calling on more businesses to register their location data today.
A national call to action is in place for businesses across all industry sectors to publish their location data to the National Location Registry.
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n last year’s August edition MHD covered the launch of the National Location Registry (NLR), an industry-led initiative, sponsored by the federal Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications, to develop and deliver an industry platform to complement the government’s Freight Data Hub. Now the NLR is well and truly in action, industry leaders in transport and logistics are calling for more businesses to register today. Initially piloted by a steering group of industry stakeholders, the registry digitises the management, storage and sharing of attribute information about physical pickup and delivery locations. This data can then be shared between location owners and transport operators. This new initiative provides a one-stopshop of pick-up and delivery location information to support truckies to get goods to businesses and consumers. This includes operating hours, weight and height restrictions for vehicles, entry points, driver amenities and safety requirements for each site. Ben Newton, Head of Transport Development at Woolworths says that the registry will “reduce the administrative burden on industry”. He points out that as location owners maintain their own location data, transport operators don’t need to
maintain their own data set. All products in all industries become freight at some point in the process, so understanding the specific parameters of a location where physical transport processes take place is important and is a key element in achieving supply chain visibility. At the time of its launch, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said: “Every Australian, everywhere, every day relies on freight. The National Location Registry will benefit us all by backing a more efficient supply chain for our businesses and truckies.”
HOW DOES IT WORK? “The NLR is basically a digital registry that enables the storage, enrichment, and retrieval of information about physical locations,” says Bonnie Ryan, Director Freight, Logistics and Industrial Sectors at GS1. “The NLR contains up-to-date information that streamlines transit of goods between supply chain and logistics operations – whether it’s information about new road accessibility, where receivers want goods put, the opening hours of particular locations, or health restrictions in force at a location.”
Bonnie says that a major frustration for truck drivers is when they turn up to a location to make a delivery only to find the location isn’t open or the truck entry is in another location. Schedules are disrupted, and there are knock-on effects throughout the supply chain. “Before the NLR there has been no place where transport companies can get this information,” she says. “So, they’ve had to create it afresh every time. To give you an example, a company like Woolworths deals with 100 different transport companies. So those 100 transport companies all have their own record of all the Woolworths locations – it’s hugely inefficient and leads to massive and unnecessary duplication of work.” Now, that information is available on the NLR, and the more businesses that register, the more useful it is. The NLR is available to registered users, rather than an open forum accessible to all. This is to ensure the integrity and quality of the data that is shared on it, says Bonnie. “It is very easy to use,” she says. “The user interfaces are very user friendly, and it functions much as one would expect a modern well-designed MHD APRIL 2022 | 33
