Victorian Multimodal MARP research report released

The “Multimodal Australia Responsiveness Project (MARP) - Seeking Freight’s Optimal Path” report is now available from the freight councils of Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland on the analysis of the responsiveness of sea and land transport modes to cater for the growing interstate freight task to and from Melbourne-Perth and Melbourne-Brisbane.

The focus is on containerised products, a-high growth market, to see whether there is an optimal mix of modes or whether greater differentiation in supply chains might see freight split across a variety of modes. The questions asked were about current and future opportunities associated with a multi-modal approach amid concerns by the freight councils about future road infrastructure capacity and service interruptions affecting freight.

Key findings are that in order to deliver a truly responsive transport infrastructure, attention is needed to:
• Upgrade infrastructure (road, rail, hub, port) to improve service quality and increase capacity;
• Regulatory and governance reforms to achieve seamless interstate operations;
• Affirmative policy action to reduce barriers to opportunities for rail and sea freight to increase market share; and
• Development of awareness in the freight industry and within government of multimodalism as a viable option.

The externality cost and greenhouse reduction benefits accruing to increased multimodalism under scenarios tested in this study demonstrate:

For Melbourne-Perth corridor the task will increase by 77% from 2.4 million tonnes in 2010 to 4.3 million tonnes in 2030 and the total externality cost will escalate from $20 million to $37 million. Under the multimodal scenario, the cost in 2030 would be $28 million, a reduction on current estimates of 20%.

For Melbourne-Brisbane corridor the task will increase by 119% from 7.1million tonnes in 2010 to 15.6 million tonnes in 2030 and the total externality cost will escalate from $98 million in 2010 to $202 million in 2030. Under a multimodal scenario, the cost in 2030 would be $104 million, 55% lower than expected.

The freight types considered by the industry participants to be most attractive for coastal shipping are:
• Heavy freight: charges by weight are not levied, so a benefit also lies in sea shipping heavy containers;
• Non time-sensitive freight;
• Manufacturing inputs and base commodities; and
• Freight leveraging coastal movement as mobile storage to replace costly landside warehousing with up to two weeks transit time considered tolerable.

Read more here.