Luigi D’Amico, senior sales executive, and Julian Hanmer, Senior Consultant, Advisory and Design at iOCO, believe digital technologies offer the solution to the key transport and logistics challenges facing South Africa today. With fuel costs rising and the risks associated with transporting goods increasing, traditional approaches to logistics and planning are no longer enough, they say.
Trade is an extremely import part of the South African economy, with imports and exports equating to around 60% of South Africa's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per quarter. Unfortunately, South Africa's transport infrastructure, particularly our rail and logistics systems, are under severe strain. As a result, the National Logistics Crisis Committee (NLCC) has been formed in order to “implement urgent interventions”.
Many of these interventions will require physical infrastructure management, but many of the country’s logistics challenges can be solved through the use of AI. “We’ve practically exhausted traditional route planning,” says Hanmer. “Organisations now need more advanced solutions to help them be more agile in their planning. For example, how to plan for issues such as an accident closing a freeway, or a hijacking. AI could do that for them, and digital twins can be used to support the ‘what if’ scenario planning. We see organisations with valuable goods using digital twins and 3D visualisation to identify the optimal procedures and routes should something happen along the route. The route planners run the models before sending the vehicles out. Digital twins are happening a lot in logistics now.”
D'Amico highlights another use case for AI in combating crime in a local logistics company: “To be sure drivers aren’t being threatened, or involved in plans to hijack a vehicle, AI analyses regular calls with the drivers to pick up signs of anxiety or deception in the driver’s responses. If a driver shows signs of stress, or answers differently from their usual pattern, an alert is triggered and additional security measures are allocated to the vehicle.”
Hanmer says another threat that increases risk and costs is internal and external fraud syndicates. “There is room for more fraud prevention when it comes to invoicing and tracking payments to suppliers. The delivery note still exists in our world, and we need to get rid of all the paperwork. That process from dispatch door to client’s receiving needs to be improved, digitised and automated for efficiency and fraud prevention,” he says.
They note that IoT devices like sensors and RFID tags are being used to track the location and condition of shipments in real-time, enabling better inventory management, route optimisation, and enhanced supply chain visibility. Blockchain technology to improve transparency and security in supply chains, providing an immutable ledger for tracking the movement of goods.
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