Intelligent Multimodal Logistics Control and Brokerage Centre

The public/published information about logistics transport volumes and costs is very broad. The statistical information is split into very broad categories and difficult to use for any practical purpose. There is also considerable pressure for companies to transfer traffic away from road to more sustainable means, but the levels of rail penetration of the markets, especially internal UK logistics, are stubbornly low. The purpose of the project as a whole is to develop and test a system which it is believed will enable significant further modal transfer. The University part of the project will be to develop a monitoring mechanism which will both establish the levels of benefit actually achieved and identify potential for further actions to facilitate more transfer.The Coventry University contribution will be to work with partners, freight forwarders and transport providers to understand the costs and benefits for each of them from operating in different modal patterns. The University team will then build a financial and technical model which will enable the costs and benefits for each stakeholder to be computed from the actions they take during the trial stage. This information will be reported regularly, each stakeholder seeing their own data, but the open reports protecting individual confidentiality.