A logistics-oriented and industry-based analysis approach for understanding transport logistic trends of innovative Tasmanian firms

Understanding transport logistics trends and characteristics associated with firms has become important for long-term transport policymaking aimed to support industries. A group of firms that deserves particular attention is innovative firms because of their higher contribution to the economy and its growth. This paper presents an analysis approach that was developed within a research program (PhD) on identifying transport logistics trends of innovative firms in the small-scale economy of Tasmania, Australia. The analysis approach consists of a logistics-oriented and industry-based quantitative analysis. It is based on the subdivision of the freight task into intrastate, export, and import freight subtasks; the association of these with six transport logistics parameters; and the development of the concepts of firm class, logistics intensity, and freight value intensity. The analysis approach was applied to the Tasmanian land freight task between 2002103 and 2005106 (period for which detailed freight data are available). The application led to the development of several matrices, the analytical examination of which allowed to acquire comprehensive understanding of the evolution of transport logistics patterns and characteristics associated with Tasmanian industries. This understanding represents an essential prerequisite for the development of long-term transport policies that take into account current and future needs of Tasmanian industries in terms of logistics requirements. The analysis approach can be applied to any freight data that have similar structure to the Tasmanian freight data, and to any group of firms.