The Australian Logistics Council (ALC) has welcomed the outcomes from Friday's (Nov 6) Australian Transport Council meeting.
ALC is the peak umbrella body for Australia’s Transport and Logistics (T&L) Freight Industry representing Australia’s road, rail, sea and air logistics providers.
The Council aims to lead improvements in the efficient delivery of Australian domestic and international logistics.
“ALC welcomes today’s agreement to arrangements for single national regulators in rail, maritime and heavy vehicles,” says Michael Kilgariff, ALC CEO.
“It is great news that ATC will recommend a host jurisdiction for the national rail safety regulator to the Council of Australian Governments (CoAG), and that a host jurisdiction for the national heavy vehicle regulator be agreed upon.
“It was critical that ATC should make firm recommendations to CoAG on details of the single national heavy vehicle regulator and a national rail safety regulatory system.
“ALC this week wrote to Australian Transport Ministers strongly encouraging ATC to finalise operational details for a single national heavy vehicle regulator, as well as push ahead with development of a national rail safety regulatory system.
“ALC noted that ATC has already demonstrated a commitment to the national reform agenda by agreement on a single heavy vehicle regulator and making the Australian Maritime Safety Authority the national safety regulator for all commercial shipping in Australian waters.
“ALC is extremely pleased that ATC has chosen to continue to progress the national transport reform agenda,” Mr Kilgariff says.
Mr Kilgariff says a key strategic objective for ALC is to ultimately support a Single Land Transport Regulator with seamless regulatory arrangements across all transport modes.
“The Transport and Logistics Industry is a critical part of the Australian economy, generating 14.5% of Australia’s GDP and providing more than 1 million jobs across 165,000 companies.
"ALC estimates that every 1% increase in efficiency will save Australia around $1.5 billion,” he says. “Australia’s freight task has more than doubled over the last 20 years and is expected to almost double again by 2020.”
“The necessity to drive efficiencies in the transport & logistics supply chain becomes critically imperative given recent Treasury estimates that Australia’s population will increase to 35 million by 2050.
“Inconsistent regulation between jurisdictions and red tape only adds considerable unnecessary costs to Australian consumers and exports,” Mr Kilgariff says.