THE COVID-19 pandemic coupled with lockdown orders have given rise to unprecedented challenges for ports, hauliers and freight forwarders, thus the urgency of digitalisation processes to overcome these challenges.
In this regard, the Association of Malaysian Hauliers (AMH) president Soo Chee Yong stressed that digital transformation by logistic players in the import and export industry is crucial to resolve the turmoil currently faced by ports and supply chains to ensure safety, efficiency and productivity.
“We have observed that ports and its supporting industries that invest in automation and digitalisation have benefited from increased resilience over the past year,” he pointed out.
“Both Port Klang’s ports are still congested especially during the government-imposed movement control order (MCO) and the National Recovery Phase 1 lockdown that is still in force in Selangor.”
As such, Soo urged freight forwarders and hauliers to migrate from manual processes to paperless systems like LinkHaul so that supply chain disruptions caused by lockdowns can be reduced and efficiency at ports can be improved.
LinkHaul is an online unifying platform connecting hauliers and freight forwarders that identifies imbalanced trips and recommend return jobs so that cargo lorries do not come in or go out of the ports empty.
It was an initiative born out of collaboration between Port Klang Authority, Westport and Northport that was launched in 2019 by then Transport Minister Anthony Loke to help reduce traffic congestion caused by container lorries at the ports. Currently, LinkHaul has 83 hauliers and freight forwarders as active users.
By harnessing the use of technology where data is real-time and easily accessed via an app that comes equipped with QR code scanning and a secure payment gateway, time consuming manual processes that require physical contact can be done away with, according to See Soon-An, managing director of Link Effect (M) Sdn Bhd, the developer of LinkHaul.
“The past year has been very trying for hauliers and freight forwarders. Not only are their business operations disrupted by the pandemic, but they also need to constantly ensure the safety of their workers and compliance to the government-ordered standard operating procedures (SOPs),” noted See.
“This will also help reduce the risk of Covid-19 virus transmission among workers.” – Sept 1, 2021
Photo credit: Lvivity
