CILT hopes new global day will boost appeal of transport and logistics

The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) hopes that a new initiative to celebrate transport and logistics supply chain will be a catalyst to attract new people to the industry, addressing a widening skills gap.

The International Day of Supply Chain, Logistics and Transportation (IDSCLT) will take place on November 3 and marks 105 years to the day since the establishment of CILT. IDSCLT will become an annual global day to recognise the vital contributions of the supply chain, logistics and transport industry in keeping the world connected.

The inaugural event, entitled ‘The World In Motion’, will include events, launch initiatives and activity by CILT and other member organisations across the world.

Speaking to Fleet News, CILT secretary general Sharon Kindleysides said a key priority was to raise awareness of a sector that plays an important role in the lives of everyone.

“Transport and logistics gets ignored; we want to raise its profile,” she said. “School leavers don’t want to go into transport and logistics; they don’t understand how important it is. But it’s a career for life and there is a wide range of jobs and skills – HR, finance, systems analysis, data. It’s not just drivers and warehousing, although they are also important and a great opportunity.”

At a time when competition for skills is intense, Kindleysides hopes that bolstering awareness of the sector will also broaden its appeal to a more diverse employee base, especially women.

“HGV and bus drivers are an issue – their average age is well into the 50s,” she added. “We also have maintenance people and, with electric vehicles, a whole new skills set is needed.”

Ultimately, it is incumbent on all stakeholders, particularly the Government and the industry itself, to make the workplace appealing for everyone.

This includes ensuring apprenticeships are relevant, particularly for those businesses paying into the apprenticeship levy which they are then unable to access due to a lack of authorised programmes for their business requirements.

Some gaps in the workforce could ultimately be filled by autonomous technology, which Kindleysides suggests has “a huge role to play”.

She explained: “Autonomous shunters on private land can be done now and that will help with the scarcity of drivers. We also have autonomous warehousing, and that relies on data analysts. There are areas of inefficiency that autonomy and digitalisation can help with.”

CILT is also supporting members with their sustainability objectives, sharing information on use cases for electric and hydrogen vehicles.

One issue is the location of major warehouses which tend to be built close to major roads; however electricity supply tends to be restricted in those areas, so future warehouses might need to be nearer the supply to minimise the civil engineering works.

“We may see a change in the hub structure and the way things are moved around,” Kindleysides said.

She would also like to see a change to the free returned goods policy which results in “so much wastage and inefficiency – there has to be a better balance with the environmental side”. Far too many people order clothes “in three colours for example and send two back”.

Kindleysides added: “People will have to start to pay, and we are seeing smaller companies starting to do this. But for there to be a groundswell, it needs the big organisations to do it as well.”