The Australian Logistics Council (ALC) has welcomed the federal government’s commitment to an Electric Vehicle Strategy and called for the inclusion of heavy vehicles.
ALC has also repeated calls for a discussion on the future funding of transport infrastructure, as the uptake of electric vehicles depletes fuel excise revenue.
ALC CEO Dr Hermione Parsons said the supply chain sector was on a path to emissions reduction and congratulated Minister Bowen and Minister King on their efforts to progress the next steps in establishing the nation’s first National Electric Vehicle Strategy.
“While the transport sector faces a number of challenges in reducing emissions, it is an obvious focus for action to achieve Australia’s emissions reduction target,” Dr Parsons said.
“ALC has developed recommendations to support our net-zero transition,” she said.
“The freight and supply chain sector is already on a path to emissions reduction with many ALC members committed to net zero targets. It is critical that the new strategy consults widely with the freight and logistics sector and factors in the needs of our heavy vehicle fleet.”
Dr Parsons continued that across the end-to-end supply chain, there is a varying degree of difficulty in decarbonising activity.
For example with road transport, electrification is relatively straight-forward for smaller vehicles, she said.
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On the other hand, long haul and heavy loads bring additional challenges around weight and the high-power needs for fast charging.
“In the interests of our national economy, jobs and standard of living we must make the transition to alternative fuels a success, freight, transport and logistics is critical,” Dr Parsons said.
“This will be influenced by a range of factors including access to the right technology, industry incentives, customer expectations, regulatory settings and investor sentiment, as well as global capital markets,” she said.
ALC again reiterated the need to address the impact on fuel excise revenue and called on all governments to start planning now for alternative road funding methods.
“Simply put, less petrol and diesel vehicles will mean less fuel excise revenue collected,” Dr Parsons explained.
“This source of funding is tied to road transport infrastructure funding and ALC again calls for National Cabinet to address the uncertain future funding of transport infrastructure,” she said.
“Australia has a national economy and our roads connect our nation, we need to put in place a fit-for-purpose and nationally consistent road user charge for all vehicle types,” she concluded.
Source: ALC media release.