SmartFreight

Team Name

AUSR

Team Members

Project Description

Project Description: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16tLKxM1PNB7sAPGMHSbf07OKavkGk0j9/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=101073660354177681714&rtpof=true&sd=true

Australia relies on freight to keep the economy moving. The transport and logistics sectors of the Australian economy are estimated to contribute 14.5 per cent of GDP, therefore the strategic planning and performance of freight are crucial in economic activity through investment in warehousing, road, rail, sea and air transport.

But how do we know where freight is moving to, from and around Australia? How they are being moved and if there are any physical bottlenecks for an efficient movement of freight, how can freight operators plan out their route to avoid worsening the traffic conditions?

A fairly accurate visualisation of where freight goes: Freight operators and government want to know what and where are the opportunities for freight movements to be more efficient and safer.

Data Story

Most datasets such as estimates of freight travelling to and from a highway, or planned roadworks and rest stop for truck drivers are static data. They are not updated daily and they are not accurately providing a predictive model for truck drivers to plan out their routes.

Throughout Govhack weekend and our brainstorming sessions, we realize one of the data that gets updated constantly and daily when there is traffic coming through them is tolls. The fact is, most large-size commercial vehicles use toll highway. They do not have an option to use all other road networks but instead only large highways with multiple lanes and generous height clearance for them to move tons of goods.

The question apparently then comes to mind:
“How do we utilize toll data along with National Freight Data Hub to create a predictive model in estimating traffic flow characteristics in highway usage in Australia?”

We proposed Smartfreight, a visualisation tool that utilizes toll data and National Freight Data Hub datasets to compute the most efficient route planning for freight operators.