New transport labelling standards released

The Australian Logistics Council (ALC) has endorsed the Australian Transport Label Guideline developed by GS1 Australia for the Australian transport & logistics industry.
Based on GS1 global supply chain standards and best practice gathered via the ALC Supply Chain Standards Working Group, the guideline provides guidance to industry on how to physically identify and label logistic and transport units to support efficient transport management processes.
“This significant announcement marks a major milestone for Australia’s transport & logistics industry,” said Bonnie Ryan, industry manager – trade and transport at GS1 Australia.
“The move to introduce freight labelling guidelines based on GS1 standards is foundational for the industry to achieve optimal interoperability and visibility across the supply chain.”
The guideline includes the information required by transport operators, and label formats, that have been specifically designed to enable integrated tracking of freight across multiple transport carriers, reduce relabelling and duplication, and reduce costs in the transportation chain.
“Improving supply chain visibility and interoperability is critical to the efficient movement of freight and will lead to productivity improvements across the industry,” said Michael Kilgariff, ALC managing director.
“With ALC research showing a 1 per cent improvement in supply chain efficiency would boost GDP by $2 billion, the Australian Transport Label Guideline certainly has the potential to help us achieve this goal,” Mr Kilgariff added.
The Australian Transport Industry Label Guideline will deliver a wide range of benefits including a roadmap for Australian transport companies to move from current manual processes where they still exist to full automation, i.e. scanning, electronic transport instructions, and transport status notifications via EDI between buyers and sellers of transport & logistic services.
The standard identification of transport items of any composition, whether a single carton, a pallet containing many cartons or a bundle of steel, will effectively reduce waste and cost of re-labelling freight as it travels across a multi-leg supply chain journey while providing a common tracking identifier to support end-to-end visibility.
David McNeil, chairman of the ALC Supply Chain Standards Work Group and e-commerce manager for OneSteel, strongly endorsed this project and commented: “This initiative lays the foundation for major improvements in the Australian transport & logistics industry that will be of benefit to all stakeholders.”
“Through this strong collaboration between the industry and GS1 Australia we have been able to produce a guideline that will be another significant step in improving the productivity and efficiency of the supply chain,” added Andy Kim, senior IT operations manager at Toll Global Logistics – customised solutions.
The development of this guideline commenced in 2012 with the establishment of the ALC Supply Chain Standards Working Group, which has enjoyed consistently strong industry collaboration and participation from key players in the Australian transport & logistics industry, including operators and traders.