GS1 Australia’s Dharshi Hasthanayake reveals how the company’s traceability standards enhance the end-user experience of rail freight services to promote its role as a more sustainable method of transporting goods.
With the Federal Government’s legislated commitment to achieve net zero by 2050, several industries, including transport and logistics, are beginning to focus on reducing emissions
Commitment to rail freight is one of the ways the industry has looked to diversify, as it can reduce carbon emissions, air pollution, congestion and road crashes.
According to an Australasian Railway Association (ARA) submission into NSW Governments Freight Policy Reform, rail freight accounted for just 4 per cent of total transport emissions, despite handling 56 per cent of Australia’s total freight. An ARA commissioned report in 2020 from Deloitte Access Economics even outlined that rail freight produces 16 times less carbon pollution than road freight.
But more can be done. The transport and logistics industries are now beginning to explore ways to make rail freight even more sustainable.
Manager of Sustainability and Circularity at GS1 Australia, Dharshi Hasthanayake, aid the sector is now actively, for example, investigating ways to reduce the reliance on diesel for rail freight operations by considering alternative fuel types.
“This includes moving away from reliance on diesel for rail freight operations using alternative fuel types including batteries, electrification, hydrogen and ammonia,” she said.
Hasthanayake said that the ARA are core to driving this shift, and are engaged in multiple initiatives
to promote rail freight. The ARA has collaborated with other key industry players on the Future of Freight campaign, and the Rail Freight Productivity Review: Establishing an Efficient Freight Transport Network.
The ARA’s most recent key report on supporting the sector to net zero, the Rollingstock Decarbonisation Critical Path, identified a potential road map transitioning rail to low and zero emissions, which includes opportunities for further decarbonising the rail freight sector.
GS1 AUSTRALIA ENHANCING RAIL FREIGHT SERVICE USER EXPERIENCE
One company that is embracing the potential of rail freight to lower emissions is GS1 Australia, a leading provider of standards for over 25 industry sectors.
GS1 Australia is a not-for-profit organisation focused on providing supply chain solutions for its over 22,000 member companies.
With road freight expected to increase significantly over the next decade, Hasthanayake said the company is playing its part in enhancing the experience of rail freight services to attract more end-users.
“GS1 Standards can assist rail freight in improving the end user experience, providing the confidence and reliability that customers seek from their supply chain services,” she said.
“Growth in this area will reduce the reliance on road transport and support achieving our national net zero targets.”
GS1’s global supply chains standards streamlines experience of rail freight services by implementing a standardised barcode system that tracks goods and enhances operation visibility.
Hasthanayake said a flagship for GS1 Australia is ‘Scan4Transport,’ a global standard for encoding transport data. This initiative captures key information from a freight transport label and accurately processes and integrates its data into the relevant systems.
“The standard supports companies across the transport process including first mile, sortation and last mile activities and enables them to keep pace with the growing needs of their customers,” said Hasthanayake.
‘Scan4Transport’ then sends vital details regarding the shipment, such as its recipient and destination, to be managed through the supply chain network.
“Scan4Transport standards enable interoperability across networks and supply chains which will allow Customers agility to utilise rail freight services and maintain traceability that is standardised within the Road freight networks,” said Hasthanayake.
Hasthanayake mentioned that Global GS1 standard barcodes – a part of this standardised system – offer several advantages that enable businesses to move away from manual paper-based systems. She said the use of these barcodes allows for the storage of a large amount of digitally embedded data that couldn’t otherwise be handled by traditional systems.
“2D barcodes are particularly useful for storing information relevant to the transport process – for example ship to address, dangerous goods information, weight – as it enables the information to be available in both on-line and off-line environments by simply scanning the barcode,” said Hasthanayake.
Hasthanayake continued by saying that GS1 barcodes, such as the GS1-128, offer quick and highly accurate data capture.
“Barcodes such as the GS1-128 are used to encode data like the serial shipping container code. They allow for quick and accurate data capture, which is essential for managing logistics on rail, ensuring that goods are efficiently loaded, transported, and unloaded,” she said.
Hasthanayake also detailed GS1s adoption of Application Identifiers (AI) that are now a part of the company’s standardised barcoding system.
“The new Application Identifiers released are part of this standard. They unambiguously indicate the meaning of the data element following it. Enabling the data to be encoded in a globally standard manner that all stakeholders can understand,” she said.
To underscore the effectiveness of the company’s standards and barcode services in the logistics industry, Hasthanayake recalled a recent case study involving an Australian steel manufacturer.
“An iconic Australian steel manufacturer implemented barcode scanning for the picking and loading function of reinforced steel bundles. With the implementation of SSCC barcode labelling, warehouse staff were able to load trucks 2.5 times faster,” she said.
By utilising the standards developed for transport labels, Hasthanayake said that customers will begin to experience smoother processes.
Specifically, she noted that GS1 Australia customers often see improvements in first and last mile processes, sortation, visibility of task requirements, efficiency and interoperability.
Not to mention, GS1 standards will also enable businesses to comply with environmental regulations.
“With the additional of the benefits of Project i-Trace, the GS1 Standards will enable businesses
to comply with environmental regulations, providing the framework for reporting and verification,” said Hasthanayake.
Going forward, GS1 Australia will continue to support rail freight by enhancing its end-user experience, in turn encouraging more in the industry to adopt this sustainable mode of transporting goods.
For more information on GS1 Australia, click here.