Despite rising unemployment and the continuing economic decline, the UK logistics industry is more optimistic about the future than it was a month ago, research from Transport Intelligence suggests. According to a survey of more than 500 transport professionals around the globe, the industry in the UK was confident that the economic prospects facing it over the next three months would be better than those in the previous three months.
However, those looking for green shoots of recovery should be wary: the research shows the UK transport industry is still pessimistic about the future, just less so than it was a month ago.
Transport industries in China, Western Europe and North America are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the future. Globally, pessimism is still on the increase. In the long term, to March next year, the automotive industry was most pessimistic, while the consumer sector was most pessimistic in the short term - to June this year.
Alan Braithwaite, executive chairman of supply chain management consultancy LCP Consulting, says there will be just one mantra for CEOs and their boards in the transport industry: 'manage for cash'.
"We believe that how organisations manage their supply chains against this objective will be a critical success factor for their survival and profitability in the next few years," he says. Companies use a variety of terms to express their renewed drive for cash, talking about 'releasing tied up capital' and "freeing up cash flow". But the focus is, simply, getting and keeping as much cash as possible."