Human resources developments in maritime and intermodal transport in Europe: needs, problems and opp

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• Human resources developments in maritime and
  intermodal transport in Europe needs, problems
  and opportunities

Eric van Drunen ECORYS Transport The Netherlands
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Contents of presentation

• Developments in (intermodal) freight transport

• Effects on human resources issues

• Needs, problems and opportunities

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Basic ITS picture
Source European Commission, DGTREN

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General trends

• Continuing globalisation and outsourcing
• Increasing consolidation and focus on supply
  chain management
• Increasing automation and use of ICT applications

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Globalisation/outsourcing

• Loss of production jobs locally
• Growth of global transport flows
• More jobs in supporting services such as
  transport, forwarding, logistics

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Consolidation/Supply chain

• Larger transport service providers
• Larger in size
• Offering door-to-door solutions
• Rationalisation focus on efficiency and
  cost-cutting
• Around the clock operations
• More complex transport chains

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Automation

• Automation trend continues
• Automated handling
• Fully or largely automated warehouses
• Highly automated container terminals

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Automation

• Effects on labour force
• Less physical/lower skilled work, more skilled
  work
• Reduction of physical complaints, increase in
  psychological complaints
• Human physical labour still needed

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Automation

• Effects on work organisation
• Improved productivity per employee
• Less employees needed
• Rationalisation of processes
• Easier to organise around the clock operations
• Reduction of human error factor increased safety

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Automation

• Effects on working environment
• Physical conditions improve, less exposure to
• noise
• vibrations
• weather
• heat

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Automation

• Effects on labour relations
• Loss of jobs could lead to tensions with unions
• Redundancy schemes with early retirement, good
  bonuses, outplacement projects, re-training
• Changing job characteristics likely to be more
  acceptable if unions are involved dancing
  rather than boxing approach

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Increasing use of ICT

• ICT applications become widespread and more
  integrated
• Tracking and tracing satellite, GSM, GPS,
  barcode or RFT scanning
• Communication EDI, xml
• Warehouse mgt. systems
• Transport chain mgt. systems
• E-commerce

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Increasing use of ICT

• Effects on labour force
• Less data entry jobs
• Less paperwork
• More jobs in systems control and other service
  sectors
• Net loss of jobs (less jobs per ton of moved
  goods)
• Loss of privacy (TT)

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Increasing use of ICT

• Characteristics of labour force need to be
  adapted
• Less lower skilled, more high skilled jobs
• (Re)training and education
• Employees need to become more multidisciplinary

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Increasing use of ICT

• Effects on work organisation
• New approach to organising transport
• Complex chains become manageable promotes
  intermodal transport
• Further rationalisation cost savings
• Performance monitoring

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Increasing use of ICT

• Effects on work organisation
• Reduction of human error factor increased safety
• Change from top down leadership to co-operative
  teamwork
• User acceptance is crucial
• Early user involvement
• User hearings
• Make advantages visible

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Increasing use of ICT

• Effects on working environment
• Fear for loss of personal contact, and of
  understanding of problems at the other side
• Stress may increase
• higher workload per employee
• speed of information processing
• But higher transparency could also be stress
  reducing factor

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Increasing use of ICT

• Effects on employment conditions
• New functions need to be created
• With matching descriptions and conditions

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Needs

• More flexibility in working time around the
  clock shifts
• Need for higher educated personnel
• Need for multidisciplinary personnel
• Involve unions
• Automation and ICT tools to cope with
• Growth in transport flows
• Increasing complexity of chains

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Problems

• Attracting skilled personnel is difficult
• Image of working in transport business
• Lack of specialised education
• Low margins limit remuneration
• Resistance to change with employees
• Possibly increasing stress levels
• Conflicts with unions

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Opportunities

• Paying attention to education
• Specialised schools
• Training existing employees
• Improving working conditions by further
  eliminating physical work or repetitive work
• Improving career opportunities by creating jobs
  for skilled people
• Involving employees at an early stage
• Introducing job rotation schemes to prevent
  stress and repetitive work

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Concluding

• General trends are unstoppable
• Need for automation and ICT
• Opportunities offered need to be exploited
• Possible negative effects need to be mitigated
  where possible

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Concluding

• Thank you for your attention

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