Aston University and Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) are collaborating on an exciting research project which looks at the feasibility of establishing a West Midlands Freight Transport Observatory (WMFTO). The Government’s Future of Freight Plan and work undertaken for the new West Midland’s Local Transport Plan has identified a disconnect between the public and private sector and the need to foster better collaboration to achieve better shared outcomes.

At the core of this project lies the need to address some of the big challenges that the freight logistics sector is faced with (e.g. environmental and social impact, improved operations).

The WMFTO is a novel concept that advocates a partnership between public and private stakeholders in sharing freight traffic data and thus provide improved visibility and analytics on urban freight traffic movements. This is essential in order to inform policy development and to develop better approaches to support freight logistics practices in urban areas. Stakeholders who share data would have access to the analytics and visualisations provided by the WMFTO to support their commercial operations.

If you operate in the region and you want to play a role in shaping the future direction of freight transport towards evidence-based smart freight transport policies, please contact Mr David Harris (David.Harris@tfwm.org.uk) from TfWM or Dr Francis TONG (h.tong1@aston.ac.uk) from Aston University.