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9.3 New costs
The demand for business services to expand e-commerce in the transport
sector will grow as more transport services are booked, tracked, and
regulatory declarations are made online. This can take the form of
consultancy services in investigating and designing strategies and
designing and operating or hosting services, and purchase of hardware to
run booking engines.
For example, the high level of e-commerce implementation in the sea
transport industry has included the purchase of significant IT products
and services, and a reduction in staff levels or greater staff productivity.
Of course, many new costs are replacing traditional costs. For example,
the use of in-vehicle technology by road transport operators is replacing
skills and experience of driver and loading staff.
9.4 New business models
E-commerce is challenging traditional models for service delivery in the
transport sector. A threat to the industry is the replacement of some
‘physical’ goods with ‘digital’ goods that can be transferred electronically.
The increasing use of email to send messages and documents is already
reducing the work available for document transfer companies. This trend
is expected to continue. Another example is provided by Cisco, which
used to distribute software on CD-ROM and documentation in paper
form which required physical transport, and now a large percentage of
these are downloaded from the Cisco website, or transmitted
electronically with no need for transportation.
Other areas where value has been transferred, include that 80–85 per cent of
software is now downloaded by customers, whereas it was distributed by CD-ROM.
It used to cost $125 to send a CD, downloads cost $5. This has also eliminated
the deliveries (and redelivery) of CDs.
One hundred per cent of product information, including technical information is
available online. 80 per cent of technical information is now sourced online by
customers. This has achieved the objective of increasing customer satisfaction,
while saving on the cost of distributing physical documentation.
Gary Jackson, Cisco
E-commerce is changing the sector in other ways. In general, with more
electronic forms of lodgement, for bookings and for regulatory matters,
there is the opportunity for more and more transport to be organised
from a head office, typically in a capital city, at the expense of firms
working ‘on the spot’. As one example, in the past Customs Declarations
had to be physically taken to the Customs Office in the port of import or
export. Now this information can be sent electronically, no presence in
the port is required for lodgement. While this trend is currently small, as
more administrative work is taken online, so will reduce the need for ‘on
the spot’ services.
Road
Road freight forwarders, such as DHL, Fedex and UPS have created
online booking services with the ability to track packages to delivery.
Some also offer imaging of Proof of Delivery documents. Road transport
operators are adopting in-vehicle technology, such as on-board weighing
and cubing, though so far only in small numbers. The adoption of email
and Internet access is slightly behind the industry average, but usage is
growing. Road transport operators have a low participation in supply and
customer oriented e-commerce, and that usually at the request of a major
trading partner.
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