International Intermodal: Benefits and Services

International intermodal basically deals with the shipping in the various transportation modes. International intermodal includes the shipping of various products such as electronics products, apparel, refrigerated products and many others. International intermodal helps to ship the products all over the world with its advanced logistics. Intermodal transportation is some of the means of moving the cargo.

This transportation can be done via barge or rail. The main feature of this transportation system is to ensure the safety of the products as well as the humans. As the NSW government, intermodal transportation ensures the connection between inland commercial department and other parts of the world. They are many companies that are providing such kind of facility to ship the products all around the world such as Qube Holding Ltd, UP (Union Pacific) and many others. The company that has been taken here for analysis is Qube Holding Ltd. Qube Holding Ltd is an infrastructure as well as diversified logistic company of Australia. The way of operation of Qube Holding Ltd is rail as well as road. The company also uses the services of rail freight in Victoria and NSW (New South Wales) and also to ship the products in between Adelaide and Melbourne.

Problems in Logistics of Qube Holding Ltd

Qube Holding Ltd is the company that provides logistics services in integrated way of exporting as well as importing and also use freight to import from the ports of Australia and to export to the ports of Australia. The logistics segment of Qube Holding Ltd is to provide services of import and export with the cargo of primarily containerized. This logistic segment includes various services such as the physical; as well as documentation processes and also does some tasks that are related to the chain of import and export. The Company also provides transportation of containers through road as well rail to the ports or from the ports, services of custom as well as quantitative. Qube Holding Ltd is facing some issues in revenue. As the revenue of the company it is found to face some issues in mining as well as in food processing section.

• Mining

The revenue of the company in mining is 3.9 % which is very less (QUBE HOLDING LIMITED 2018). The company is not taking proper care for mining. The company is using traditional infrastructure for mining purpose and sometimes it has been found to damage the products by using that infrastructure. The company is not thinking to change the traditional infrastructure. The products are also getting damaged on the way.

• Food Processing

Issues Faced by Qube Holding Ltd

The revenue of the company in food processing section is 9.6 % which is also not good (QUBE HOLDING LIMITED 2018). The company is not thinking to improve the safety of foods on the way of delivery. As foods is required care on the way. The problem of food processing is also because of the warehouse condition. The warehouse needs to be managed according to the products. The products are found to lose the quality on the way because of not well warehouse management.

International intermodal is the way of transportation of products all around the world. There are various companies that are doing business in this sector such as UP (Union Pacific), Qube Holding Ltd and many other companies. Intermodal has the following features that help the organisation as well as the people to deliver their products all around the world.

• Lower costs

As stated by Monios and Bergqvist (2017), intermodal helps the organization as well as the people to deliver the products at lower costs because they are providing the services to many organisations so it is affordable to use the services of international intermodal.

• Flexibility

International intermodal provides the facility for transporting the products anytime. People, as well as organisation, use the services of intermodal when they need. The service is open for the whole day and night to help the organisation as well as people for delivery purpose.

• Environmentally Friendly

International intermodal thinks about the environment while doing the services. In accordance with Monios (2016), shippers reduce the footprint of carbon. Using the sheep for international intermodal is friendly with the environment than trains or roads because trains while using the road or train for the service, more carbon dioxide are released on the way than using the sheep.

• Reliability

As stated by Szyliowicz, Zamparini, Reniers, and Rhoades., (2015), international intermodal is reliable because it is faster and convenient to provide the services.  

• Safety and Security

Intermodal delivers the products with security and safety as there is security that protects the products on the way of delivery. In accordance to Chen and Lai (2016), as intermodal provides the service of delivery all around the world so they also take the responsibility to protect products from the weather as well as from the outside world.

• Fast Delivery

As stated by Colicchia et al. (2017), international intermodal helps to deliver the products of the organisation faster than any other way of transportation.

There are various strategies that are required to manage the logistics strategy.

• Proper Planning

Strategies for Logistics Management

The first thing that is important for the logistics management is proper planning. It includes the processing of goods, thinking about the storage facility and about the delivery location. Time, cost and transportation are the parameters in which whole planning should be done. In accordance with Correia (2017), a back plan should also be there for an emergency situation such as products related issues, transportation-related issues and any other internal issues of the organisation. An emergency plan helps to reduce the risk of failure of the logistics.

• Adopting Automation

The use of software for business process helps to know about the update of the delivery process. As stated by Karimi et al. (2016), as both the supplier as well as receiver is waiting for the products to be received on time. So by using the software, they can know the update of the goods when the goods are dispatched when the goods are at warehouse and about the destination of the goods.

• Give value to the relation

Training of the employees is required to keep them updated about the latest technology or the latest change in logistics. As stated by Mutalibet al. (2016), everyone should be great at their work either he is the delivery boy or he is the manager of the warehouse. The most important things are to give values to the customers.

• Warehouse Management

Logistic management cannot be proper without the proper warehouse. Ware house should be managed according to the type of products. For example, if there are dairy products, then in Warehouse there should be the facility of refrigerator. In accordance with Vlasov and Kozlov (2018), if they are products like grains, then there should be environment that is moisture free to keep the grains. The warehouse should have maximum capacity to store many products.

• Efficient Transportation

The logistics management should be aware of the route which should be safe as well as short for fast and secure delivery. The product’s packaging should be also cost-effective as well as safe to protect the products in the way. As stated by Zhenget al. (2017), there should be optimised packaging so that the products occupy less space and it will not become heavy at the same time.

• Improvise and Measure

The management of logistics cannot be said completed if there is not the feedback from the customers. As stated by Kahaget al. (2018), there should be proper measurement of the processes. It a new system is introduced then it should be noticed that what is the results of using that system. There should be proper measurement of time, money as well as satisfaction to improve the way of services in the future.

Sustainable Transportation

Qube is found to face some issues like using traditional infrastructure for mining and facing challenges in food processing. The issues can be solved by using intermodal as it is safest, fastest, reliable, secure way that delivers the products all around the world. The security of the intermodal protects the products on the way and keeps them safe until the products will reach the destination.  As stated by SteadieSeifi et al. (2014), the cost of operation in using intermodal is affordable and it is also based on modern era. By using intermodal company can get rid of issues that the company is facing in food processing section. In intermodal, there is less chance of damaging the products as the packaging are made in such a way that occupy less space as well as not increase the weight of the products. The company can also stop the damaging of products that the company was facing if it starts using intermodal.

NSW government can be involved and make actions program for network efficiency, capacity as well as sustainability. The government can develop some indicators of performance at the level of micro as well as micro to measure the effectiveness as well as efficiency of freight network. There should be maintenance of single agency for collecting the data of streamline and for analysis of strategy. There should proposal for the new design of movement of cargo. The road freight should be generally promoted by the government inefficient way. The government should support the freight movement of off-peak through policy development of industry informed. The government should understand and identify the requirements of regulatory and infrastructure for freight handling of off-peak.  The government should think about the freight network which will be seamless interstate.

Sustainable transportation advantages	Sustainable transports
NMT usage	Sky Trains
Modal Shift	Subways
More integrated and advanced logistics	Vehicle sharing system

Table 1: Sustainable Transportation System

(Source: Created by Author)

Some of the sustainability issues which are mainly faced due to transpiration are unable to meet market demands, increasing rate of energy consumption, and emission of GHG, increasing number of road deaths and increasing percentage of air pollution. As stated by Zhao et al. (2018), the inability of meeting market demand restricted the country’s economic growth. Approximately 2800 road deaths have registered in 2013 in Australia. The transportation system of Qube must focus on meeting the present demands with neglecting requirements of future for maintaining sustainability. Sustainable transport determines reduction of the demands of transports, usage of environment-friendly transportation, and involvement of new technology in transportation system. In order to maintain sustainability, internal intermodal logistic and transport system can be used. Intermodal transportation ensures some of the economic, social and environmental factors. Economic factors that it considers are reliability, flexibility, speed and cost which improves the logistic and entire transportation system. As a social benefit, it minimises number of accidents and congestion. This particular model of transportation ensures the reduction pollution rate and increases energy intensity. 

Conclusion

The company should keep focus on mining to get better revenue. The company has to change the traditional way of mining and use new infrastructure there so that the products will not damage during transportation. By using intermodal, the company can protect the products from damage. The company has to focus to manage the warehouse to keep the products safe and secure. The warehouse should be managed according to the category of products. By using intermodal, the company can get the facility to protect the foods while transportation. The security of the intermodal protects the products on the way and keeps them safe and secure until the products will reach their destination. The packaging of intermodal is in such a way that it occupies less space and also make the packet lighter so there is less chance to lose the quality of food.

Conclusion 

The project report is about the international intermodal that provides the services for shipping of various products all around the world. There are many companies that are providing such kind of facilities such as Qube Holding Ltd and UP (Union Pacific). In this study, Qube Holding Ltd has been taken for the analysis of international intermodal. Qube is doing good business but according to the revenue it is found to face some issues in mining, food processing. It has been found to face issue in using the old infrastructure for mining purpose also some products have found to get damage by using that infrastructure of mining. For food processing, there is no proper management of warehouse to keep all kinds of foods safe there. Some foods are losing the quality before reaching to the proper destination. The company has to think to change the infrastructure of mining to protect the products from damage. The company has also thought to manage the warehouse to protect the quality of the products. To provide best services to the customers, the company has to use intermodal so that the company can improve the services.  Intermodal is best way that can help the company to get rid of the issues.

References

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QUBE HOLDING LIMITED (2018), About us, 28^th july, 2018, Available on < https://qube.com.au/about/>