Qube Managing Director comments on Amazon disruption

On a panel of logistics industry experts at the Future of Freight event held by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) in Melbourne on 17 July, Maurice James, Managing Director of logistics and infrastructure company Qube stated that the arrival of e-commerce giant Amazon on Australian shores will have a major impact of the business and logistics strategies of the nation’s enterprises.
“We are going to see disruptors come into freight,” James said. “There’s a big one coming next year, Amazon.
“Amazon is a logistics company that sells products online, and it’s going to change our freight paths and our freight patterns.”
He noted that the company’s existing retailers are now thinking about how to operate both online and brick-and-mortar models successfully, and how to change their supply chains to compete.
“If we look at any capital city, what we’re going to see is a significant increase in white-van movements, possibly to the detriment of big truck movements,” he said.
Dr Don Gunasekera, Research Fellow in the Centre for Supply Chains and Logistics at Deakin University, added, “We need to look at the way our supply chains operate in a totally different manner – Amazon’s coming, there will be a bit of competition between Amazon and the other providers.
“The issue will be how consumers are going to perceive all these changes, and the extent to which they are going to benefit.”
Gunasekera also noted that the way the industry moves product will likely be impacted, due to the increasing likelihood of driverless trucks, and the declining cost of drone technology.
“All these things will have a disruptive effect, but hopefully the sector is positioning itself to take advantage of these changes,” he said.