The Sydney Business Chamber says with Sydney's freight movements set to increase by 50 per cent come 2036, and as product shortages during Covid highlighted, the city's freight capacity is already strained and needs re-thinking to meet the future demands of online shopping and a growing city.
"With freight movements in Sydney expected to increase 50 per cent in the next 15 years, now is the time to start working on ways to use the latent capacity that exists, making the system more efficient and customer-focused," said Katherine O'Regan, Executive Director, Sydney Business Chamber.
"Freight is taken for granted until essentials are suddenly not available on shelves - as happened this year across Sydney. It showed how heavily we rely on an efficient freight system with capacity to meet demand,"
Read the full paper: Freight and the City
"As our paper 'Freight and the City' says, exponential growth in online shopping will continue and along with increased localisation, we need to improve the performance of the last mile of the supply chain - from factory floor to front door."
"There are latent inefficiencies in our current freight system that could really improve the customer experience, especially as we spend more time working from home and in our local area, relying more on deliveries to our door."
"We need to make better use of data technologies to drive greater certainty like real-time tracking so that individuals and businesses aren't waiting around all day to meet a delivery."
"Thinking about people and goods, other big moves include providing better kerbside access in local streets so that delivery trucks don't have to drive around finding a park to complete the last-mile of the freight process."
"Covid has caused a reduction in public transport use resulting in spare capacity and research at Sydney University is exploring how this could instead be used to transport parcels across the city."
"With modern security scanning and tracking technology this may be a safe and efficient way to transport freight, employing the spare capacity on buses and trains and cutting congestion on our roads."
