World best practice digitisation in transport/freight: And Australia?
The final report for our Digitisation in transport and freight: Lessons for Australia project, run with the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications and Swinburne University of Technology, is now available for download.
The final report – downloadable at the bottom of this page – is entitled International best practice digitisation in transport and freight: Lessons for Australia, and was authored by Hussein Dia, Hadi Ghaderi, Rusul Abduljabbar, Sohani Liyanag, all of the Swinburne University of Technology.
The aim of the project was to:
… undertake a comprehensive systematic literature review of international best practice in digitisation in the transport and freight sectors. Key case studies demonstrating the benefits and impacts in terms of enhancing network performance, efficiency and productivity will be identified and analysed.
Methods
The international literature review concentrated on the “… experience of countries with higher levels of transport and freight digitisation, and how these could be adapted to help Australian decision-makers shape the future directions of innovations in these sectors.”
In addition to the literature review, the research team also undertook stakeholder consultations, speaking to 27 Australian senior managers across government and industry. The questions covered challenges relating to data, technology, and the role of government in co-ordination of digitisation across the industry.
Lastly, the study built an evaluation framework across 40 functional areas suited to improvement from digitisation and new technology (including road safety, adaptive traffic signal control, managed motorways, public transport management, video surveillance and monitoring, electronic ticketing payment systems, asset and cargo management, train signalling, airport safety and security, predictive asset management, port operations and safety of cyclists and e-scooters). Key emerging technologies that offer promise in improving safety, productivity, efficiency, and user experience were also identified.
Each of these digitisation microcategories were given a benefit cost ratio weighting, and assigned a score, which was then benchmarked against the scores in OECD countries. An overall score was assigned, in addition to scores and ranking for best practice digitisation in:
- Road sector
- Public transport
- Freight
- Rail
- Aviation and air transport
- Maritime and shipping
- Common functional areas
- Active transport
- Overall transport and freight
How did Australian fare in the overall OECD ranking of digitisation in transport? I won’t tell you here, but rather recommend that you download the report, and perhaps skip right to page xv. Our ratings in the categories above can be found in pages 104 to 132 of the final report.
Report findings
Those comparative OECD rankings, along with the literature reviews and stakeholder consultations, clearly show that Australia has fallen behind international trends in transport digitisation.
The report makes the following recommendations:
- Develop a national vision for smart mobility
- Set new policies for smart mobility in the digital age and align digital transport initiatives with national development strategy
- Support transactional research and testing of promising new technologies
- Investment in backbone digitisation infrastructure should be considered with transport digitisation
- Invest in human, organisational, and institutional learning and capacity building across all sectors, to secure digital dividends and inclusion
- Undertake feasibility studies of state-wide integrated smart mobility operations centres
- Develop agreed standards and interoperability to improve data sharing and benefits of transport digitisation
The report also takes the opportunity to suggest opportunities to highlight future directions targeting research to accelerate the adoption of transport and freight digitisation in Australia:
- Undertake research to address data gaps
- Develop a transdisciplinary smart mobility research agenda
- Practical research routes to inform urban mobility policies
Download the report
For your copy of the final report on the Digitisation in transport and freight: Lessons for Australia project, please click the button below.
Webinar video
Watch the recording of our 17 May 2022 webinar, Digitisation of transport and freight: How are we tracking in Australia, and where are the opportunities?, at: VIDEO: Transport digitisation – lessons/opportunities for Australia
