Quality data will be crucial as the freight and logistics sectors moves towards a cleaner future, the Victorian Transport Association State Conference has heard.

Executive director for Freight Victoria, Praveen Reddy, told the gathering that even if decarbonising “might not feel as though it is at your doorstep, it kind of is”.

“As big companies have to report their scope 3 (indirect greenhouse gas) emissions which includes supply chains, they will be looking at [trucking operators] to provide that data,” Mr Reddy said.

“You need to have robust data, good platforms, integrity of data, so there is a lot of work to do and there will be a lot of pressure [on industry].”

Mr Reddy said data would be “quite fundamental”.

“You might not be a $500million plus business, but there will be $500million plus businesses looking to you for your data around emissions,” he said.

“There is a lot of work that goes into that.  Data is quite fundamental in terms of how the supply chain works including its efficiency and its productivity.”

Mr Reddy said change was occurring fast, bringing with it opportunities as well as challenges, notably in terms of electric freight vehicles.

“Decarbonisation is here to stay, it is just a matter of how quickly we are going to transition,” he said.

“We need to continue to evolve what a fit-for-purpose freight network looks like.”

Mr Reddy also talked of the “sometimes uneasy balance” between community amenity and freight movement, even as freight is integral to ensure the supply of life’s necessities.

He said it could not be a case of “freight versus the community, rather freight and the community”.

With freight volumes predicted to increase over coming decades, Mr Reddy said it was important to ensure commercial sea ports were able to operate to capacity.

“We are in a unique position to have a city-based port and a lot of distribution is not far from the port,” he said, noting the need for landside capacity to cope with large car and machinery shipments.

“If you have landside capacity then it is more free-flowing in and out of the port,” he said.

Mr Reddy said he had been pushing for the recognition of key distribution centres as being of national significance “because they service more than a regional area and more than one state”.

Addressing the conference, VTA chief executive Peter Anderson said authorities needed to play their part to ensure freight could be delivered efficiently.

“Volumes are not going to decrease, and you cannot deliver freight from a computer at home or by AI. We must touch and feel the goods we handle and be able to move them in the most productive, efficient, and safe manner possible,” he said.

Mr Anderson said it would be difficult to build enough roads to meet future logistics obligations, suggesting more freight would have to be moved via other modes.

“How we do this, how much we will need to spend, and who will make the necessary decisions are questions that need to be addressed now,” he said.

Mr Anderson also criticised some federal transport agencies, saying Austroads and the National Transport Commission had to do better.

“Concentrating on the rules around autonomous vehicles or thinking that one mode will steal freight volumes off the other seems to be regressive and does not encourage the creation of policies that support intermodal harmonisation,” he said.

“The absence of clear and logical thinking in forming government policy around the transport and logistics industry is sadly lacking in this country.”

Mr Anderson said Austroads “needs to lift its game”.

“The amalgam of state road agencies needs to understand what intermodal connectivity is about and it needs to engage with the industry, with operators, with associations, in such a way as to deliver policy and regulation that improves the working environment for the industry.”

Freight minister Melissa Horne spoke at the conference, presenting on the benefits of the North East Link and the soon to be completed West Gate Tunnel.

“As a state that makes things and grows things, we are enormously reliant on having an effective freight sector to ensure our agricultural and manufacturing sectors are competitive,” she said.

“The West Gate Tunnel will bring double-digit improvements in productivity that, in many cases, will completely transform your operations,” Ms Horne said.

“Being able to transport 40-foot containers at their maximum mass from places like Altona and Derrimut to the Port of Melbourne in half the time it takes today will be the game changer you need.”

The VTA State Conference was held at the Silverwater Resort at San Remo, near Phillip Island.

Click here to view images from the event.