How could data innovate logistics and freight? Transport Committee quizzes industry experts
The Transport Committee will explore technological innovations in the freight and logistics industries powered by more sophisticated use of data.
Meeting details
The cross-party Committee’s inquiry is looking at examples of data innovations, and how they came to fruition, to make policy recommendations to Government on how it can nurture an industry environment for improvements and greater efficiency in the future.
Greater efficiency in the logistics sector can result in the UK having a more competitive import and export market which can lead to cheaper goods for consumers, as well as lower carbon emissions and safer operations.
MPs will question industry bodies Logistics UK, Maritime UK and freight capacity traders RailX, and examine uses of data in road, rail and seaborne freight.
There will be questions on the strength of the UK digital infrastructure and 5G networks which could enable fast processing and communication of data; where gaps exist in the data that firms need to drive improvements; how logistics companies can be aided to make costly investments in technology; and possible legislative changes that would support the sector.
Examples of recent transport data innovations:
- In 2021, Fishbone Solutions was awarded £100K by the Department for Transport for technology that uses sensors to collect vibrational data from rail tracks to perform predictive maintenance.
- PortXchange is a Port Community System designed by the Port of Rotterdam, and since implemented in Felixstowe, which focuses on ‘port call optimisation’. A port call is a joint process in which many different parties, public and private, exchange information to get vessels into the port, operate them and get them out of the port, safely and efficiently.
The Global Aviation Data Management program created by the International Air Transport Association is a data management platform which integrates multiple sources of operational data. One of its uses is the Incident Data eXchange (IDX) – a worldwide aggregated de-identified database of incident reports, including flight ops, cabin, ground and security occurrences. It offers a secure environment providing users to view aggregated data against standards that are benchmarked with other counterparts.