To many consumers, logistics is an invisible industry but public awareness is growing and with it corporate responsibility.

“Consider for a moment where one might be today if trucks, trains, ships, and aircraft that deliver all the products in our lives were to stop operating,” says Alex Borg, regional director of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport for the Middle-East Region.

“We would be faced with unprecedented levels of change. At present, we benefit from manufactured goods sourced out from low-cost labour centres in the east. As consumers demand 24-hour availability, more choice and lower prices for everything that we buy, the pressure is certainly on for millions of people involved in the logistics and supply chain.

“On a daily basis logisticians are coping with increasing demands to deliver customer service and with an ever-increasing regulatory burden, yet few people outside of the logistics world are aware of this, until, of course, something upsets the balance and goods fail to arrive.”

Logistics represented by the smooth flows of goods, services and people are essential to a successful economy. Any uncertainty resulting from interruption or constraint of such flows leads to a lack of confidence from customers and investors.

Our logistics infrastructure, including road and rail networks, airports and harbours, is under tremendous pressure as we bring more manufactured goods into countries to service growing and increasingly affluent populations. At present, the needs of these consumers are being satisfied, but significant private and government investment is required if we are to continue to do so in the years ahead.

“Fulfilling consumer demands while managing environmental quality and working with an aged and inadequate infrastructure sounds like an impossible task. The management of demand across all modes of transport, in addition to infrastructural investments, impact on the lives of all. Logistics may be unrecognised by many today, but its value will be increasingly appreciated by many tomorrow,” says Mr Borg.

For more information visit www.ciltuae.org.