The impact of innovative telecommunication technologies on the logistics sector

Project Report from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - General, grade: 1,9, European Business School - International University Schloß Reichartshausen Oestrich-Winkel, language: English, abstract: 1 Introduction

1.1 Nature of the Problem and Objective

The role of international trade has been redefined by the emergence and high pace of

globalization. The effects are among other things that routes of transportation become

longer, product life cycles shorten, and the requisite for the availability of goods and

services increases (Christopher, 2005, pp. 207). Keeping this in mind, the logistics industry

is one of the fastest growing industries world-wide and benefitted in particular of

this shift towards a globalized world. Even though logistics as such has prevailed over a

long time, it has been only recently that the industry has received an enormous boost

due to the global adherence and new technical developments. It was mainly because of

the standardized container that this accretion, and globalization itself, could happen. But

also the ¿New Economy¿ accelerated this growth to a significant extent by introducing

computers and telecommunication media, and thereby established a dynamic, high

competitive and world-spanning market. At the same time, companies demand more

and more premium solutions from logistic service providers1 in order to cope with the

competitive environment. The importance of the innovative and crucial factor of telecommunication

technology (TT) in this specific sector can therefore not be denied.

More importantly, it is of significant matter to have an understanding, as well as knowing

how to implement and take advantage of these technologies, in order to gain or

maintain a competitive edge over rivaling companies. (Christopher, 2005, p. 9).

The objective of this paper is therefore to describe the impact which modern and innovative

TTs can have on the logistics sector. In order to pursue this goal, it is important

to focus on three points: the understanding of several TTs which are of use for commercial

usage, their effects on logistic issues, and the linkage of these two points to practical

examples as they can be found today. Due to the fact that the area of logistics spans a

lot of different modalities and areas, like passenger logistics or document logistics, the

focus will lie on container cargo shipment, exemplary for the drivers of this industry. In

addition, particularly this field of logistics makes already, and has great potential to

make, use of TTs for improvements in its field of activity.