The UK is one of the world’s most globalised economies and has been the fastest growing member of the G7 for the past three years and, partly as a result, we are at the forefront of technological and market changes in addition to shifts within logistics networks.
Our world-class scientific base means the UK will be at the forefront of technological advances, with a number of research centres exploring clean technology initiatives and the Department of Transport recently announcing that driverless lorries will be trialled.
There is much still to do, however, with the DfT calculating that empty running still stands at ???% in the UK.
SCALA will be attempting to be a driver of change by bringing together manufacturers to agree collaborative transport arrangements and help reduce congestion and greenhouse gas emissions.
We are undertaking these initiatives in our role as one of the partners of NexTrust, an EU-funded project that brings together more than 30 partners to drive collaboration in the logistics industry.
The objective is to increase efficiency and sustainability by creating interconnected, trusted networks that collaborate together along the entire supply chain.
We are developing a new way of working and this innovative model aims to create long-term solutions that solve real problems in the logistics sector.
The main obstacle we face are cultural barriers involving trust between competing companies, but the environmental and efficiency gains are too great to allow such concerns to hold sway.
I look forward to working with industry leaders in shaping the logistics networks and supply chains of the future.