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Issue 3 2018 - Freight Business Journal


///MULTIMODAL PREVIEW


Brexit: who’s in charge?


Brexit will be one of the main issues under the microscope at this year’s Multimodal. Chairman of Agency Sector Management (ASM) Peter MacSwiney give his latest thoughts.


The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS),expert group that I am a member of had a recent meeting called off. A shame really, as this is one


of the few groups that does actually get different government departments in the same room and we had intended to ask them if they would manage the trade consultation, on the secondary legislation, that we are waiting for aſter the Customs Bill finally gets through parliament. So far, government


departments have focused on theoretical agreements and


decisions on where we will stand on day one, and what we are actually going to do, are not making any significant progress, with a lack of discussion on practical steps. We have less than 12 months to


go and really need to be making decisions about this. What data will be required from us? What is the process to release goods at the frontier? What is the requirement to ‘produce’ goods at the frontier? Where will the frontier be - inland or at the seaside?


Conflicting objectives Arriving at these meetings


to represent the UK freight forwarding industry, I have one clear and common objective in mind – to make trade work. It has been quite an eye opener to realise that different government departments are not so aligned and are still operating in silos. Each one, from the Department for Trade to the Border Force seems to have its own agenda. As a result, we trade bodies struggle to get a comprehensive government-wide agreement on what is going to happen. The overall subject is of course


complex but to reach any solution we will need to look together at


the topic as a whole.


Ownership The question of who actually ‘owns’ Brexit would really help push this along – nobody seems to be sure who is making the final decisions. Without such ownership,


the conversation is taking on a circular motion rather than being elevated through some kind of decision-making process, and we are unable to start implementing practical steps. It’s great having ideas but you


have to have processes in place to support those decisions, and


for the UK trade, the answer of who pushes this forward remains distinctly murky. Despite requesting that trade be


consulted on primary legislation, the Customs Bill is making its way through Parliament without that having happened. We need the chance to influence


secondary legislation and although I do feel a certain willingness to listen to the trade, the fragmented nature of government makes it difficult for this to happen.


An unwillingness to define Prime Minister


Theresa May constantly reiterates that there


will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. The solution to the tired topic


seems to be that Northern Ireland will either stay in the Single Market and Customs Union or follow the rules of both. When you’re a small business


moving shipments around Europe, what will the difference be between the Channel Tunnel and the Irish land border? Whoever stands up to define


the two terms will be faced with the elephant in the room that of course they are the same. Unsurprisingly, nobody is standing up.


Intelligent equipment is driving the supply chain


fleet owners and operators


as process improvements are made in real time, anticipating and predicting planning deviations


as


Digitisation is the name of the game in the supply chain right now, writes Daniel MacGregor, director of marketing and sales at Nexiot. I am excited to join Kuehne


+ Nagel and WiseTech Global at this year’s Multimodal to discuss how new technology will affect and improve the supply chain. This year’s


event features


a discussion on how new technology is already affecting the way the logistics industry does


business, Internet and of what


changes we can expect in the future. The


Things


(IoT) has been changing our everyday world for a while now,


and we are quite used to the idea that our house can turn the heating on as we begin our journey home, or the fridge can order more milk when you’re running low. At Nexiot we like to talk about


how the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) will transform industry by turning everyday physical assets into a source of business intelligence. Developing


mobile


technology that is power self- sufficient has up until now been a major challenge. But now, with the availability of ultra-low-powered and energy harvesting devices, and the resources to transform


the raw data they provide into actionable business intelligence,


information


silos and barriers to visibility throughout the whole supply chain are being broken down. Zero maintenance hardware


and robust digital logistics are now in place to create a new standard in quality, and trust across the whole supply chain. Now that even non-powered


assets such as rail wagons, containers and boxes can send data back to us in real time, there is no reason we cannot have a completely transparent supply chain. This all translates into increased profitability for asset


opposed to


reacting to problems that have already occurred. I am really looking forward


to exploring these ideas at Multimodal and discussing how they can be adopted by


equipment operators and lessors. It’s clear that there are ever volumes


mounting of data,


but the logistics industry and its customers need an end-to- end solution to transform data into knowledge and wisdom to capture the value. We are working closely with customers to develop their


Air freight returns to Multimodal this year and a panel of experts will be discussing how the development of key performance indicators (KPIs) for air freight shippers can help streamline the industry for all players.


The Global Shippers’ Forum and


Cargo iQ have established nine overarching KPI’s, which align with Cargo iQ’s Master Operating Plan (MOP) – a route map developed by Cargo iQ members, and which includes 16 milestones against


own roadmap to explore the supply chain opportunities of IoT and extract the value from our enriched data, and the improved business processes it brings. Looking at how this will


work in air freight especially is a really interesting challenge, and one that we at Nexiot are certainly embracing.


Experts put airfreight under the microscope


which shipments are measured. Ariaen Zimmerman, executive


director of Cargo iQ is joined by Chris Welsh, secretary general of the Global Shippers’ Forum and director of global and European


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