IOC were in strength at Europe's Largest Road Transport Conference on Tuesday. The Microlise Transport Conference is a must-attend, annual, free one-day event for those involved in the operation of a road transport fleet. IOC fellows and members attended and here we bring you the big headline summaries. National Highways and the strategic road network, DfT and keynote operator Chris Welch from the Welch Group talking shared EV charging infastructure.
It was an opportunity to network and natter, learn from industry leaders and subject matter experts and acquire new insights into the future of road logistics. 1,200 fellow industry professionals with joint goal to be successful now, and in the future.
More than a conference, with a trade show stand that builds every year from gas and EV truck to electric Transit to tech and govt departments. An AI inspiration wall for operator comments.Transaid in strength showcasing their next charity bicycle ride, Southern Ireland in Sept.
Lights camera action, Countdown from twenty, the main Theatre agenda was introduced by Kate Russell, Host & BBC Presenter. A word art question of where the audience came from mapped the UK from north to south, big numbers from Nottingham, Rugby and Derby. Interactive app question focused challenge on finding drivers. Reason to attend question was topped with 'achieve insight'. Microlise conference, A place to drive change, talk and exchange. A place where logistics is shaped. A full arena of transport operators on the grey carpets split from headline govt keynote first half, a network and natter tea break before a Cyber security panel opened the second half of a magical transport delivery event at Coventry.
Nadeem Raza, Chief Executive Officer, Microlise
Our sector is at a cross road. AI, sustainability, education, crime, alternative fuels. Today we are about knowledge and sharing experiences. Nadeem spoke passionately about Cyber attack. Microlise, the Role of the Strategic Road Network in Connecting UK Industry: Driving Change
Microlise Driver of the year awards winner from 240 thousand commercial drivers went to 41-year driver, Unipart Graham Pagett.
Richard Leonard, Divisional Director Network Planning - Customer, Strategy and Communications, National Highways.
95 billion miles travelled.
Lower Thames crossing will be transformational.
‘Roads are important and form the key to the majority of all travel. 20,000 bridges, 150,000 signs, 100,000 streetlights, 10,000 miles of carriageways, 95 billion miles travelled every year. Strategic economic roles for the road network, supporting reliant sectors, Strategic connectivity. Recognising clusters of warehouses to road hot spots of logistics. Major enhancements such as A14 have been significant to drive times. Lower Thames crossing is set to be transformational and one of largest schemes in Europe. Richard spoke about RIS3 Roads investment. A key challenge on the network is ageing assets for roads built in the sixties and seventies. ‘We need to improve on what we have.’ ‘We recognise your request for reliability.’ ‘ Regions need to be connected, ports need to be connected.’
Iain Forbes, Director, Logistics and Borders, Department for Transport - Future of Freight Strategy – ‘Freight is critical to Govt Strategy.’
The Govt's approach to the future of freight, this govt is mission-led, joined up to achieve objectives. DfT Secretary, Heidi Alexander priority is for better integrated transport networks. Greener transport. The efficient delivery of freight. ‘The road network is key and part of strategy to build. Transport and logistics has been recognised as critical infrastructure in the national planning reform. We need to innovate. DfT are looking for pipelines to enter into the freight innovation fund. Iain spoke about zero emission HGV and future clean solutions. We need the right people and skills. We need to improve facilities for drivers, security showers and food facilities.
Chris Welch, Managing Director, Welch Group – Welch was one of the first to collaborate and share HGV charging.
Chris explained "at Welch we have been running electric HGV for the last three years".
Chris spoke, ‘Beyond the Electric Fleet: Building a Sustainable Transport Ecosystem Through Energy Innovation.’ A fourth generation haulier. ‘We understand the limitations, charge and weight. Chris spoke Changing the model with urban consolidation. Controlling energy, a review of move from diesel to electric, infrastructure to charge. Future signpost is lower weight vehicles will all be electric.’ Intangible improvements, cloud based systems, TMS and WMS, data lake or however to combine systems. Innovation and collaboration, sharing charging. Welch was one the very first to share charging for HGV.
Cyber Security Panel. 5 Experts – Almost of all us use Google Amazon & Microsoft
‘If your IT is down, can you deliver the payroll for your team?’
Question Time opener, If you are a victim of a cyber attack, would you know who to contact? 55% answered No.
Dealing with people in your business. If your IT systems went down, could you still deliver payroll?
The panel talked about criminal infrastructure. People hear about ransomware, ransom that brings money to the criminal. The material that hooks you in can look very convincing. Driving this issue, cyber criminals make a lot of money. The panel spoke Deep Fake issues in virtual meetings to propose funds transferred. Breadth of impact. Local and wide impacts of Cyber. We are becoming a global economy that uses three platforms, Google, Amazon and Microsoft. An attack on these would deliver a cross-border catastrophe. A local attack on your systems is a catastrophe for you, but leaves the neighbours alone. Unexpected systems may not have been even considered critical. A case study, the label printer in the warehouse, this may have been running on a machine for a decade without update, it just worked. But when gone even replacement is difficult, as you may have little knowledge of where that software even came, and the team member who set this up may have left the business some years ago.
From an insurance lens, think the cost of downtime for the business between three days and two weeks.
Ewan Cameron - AI Machine learning for parcel masterclass
‘Ai is helping us deliver a smoother flow of home delivery’
Ewan Cameron delivered a masterclass on Parcel AI in the Microlise Innovation and Insight arena. AI for self-learning stop times. Doorstop delivery time can count for fifty per cent of the driver action time. Offering the right time slot is critical, how do we work out timeslot estimation against cost. Applying machine learning to process accuracy of route, can then predict more on time delivery results. The machine learning is then adapting the route times over time.
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