basictraining
BY ART VAN BODEGRAVEN AND
KENNETH B. ACKERMAN
the logistics of human transport –
people movers aren’t just walkways in airports
WE DON’T GET IT. AGAIN. THIS TIME, WHAT HAS
us puzzled is why people so often assume “logistics” is
only about freight. The logistics components of our
supply chain management professional organizations
are all about moving goods, from node to node in the
supply chain, from port to distribution networks, from
wherever to market. We don’t get into how best to
move people—ever.
Why not? In Europe, the scope of logistics practice
and research encompasses the transport of human
beings. Not that Europe always has to be the model for
The next level would entail how to bundle these folks
into what transport modes to find the right balance of
time, cost, and ergonomic considerations.
Choke points
In Billy Joel’s words, “You may be right, I may be crazy,”
but all this people movement consumes enormous
resources today. And whatever challenges we face right
now will only intensify as economic recovery takes hold.
One of those challenges, of course, is how to accommodate the rising volume of both freight and passenger traffic on roads that are already near—or over—
capacity. The highways are jammed at all hours of the
day and night in logistics hub locations and on the
main arteries of commerce. Many cities are plagued
with crippling traffic standstills at any hour, and for no
apparent reason.
Passenger rail is being touted as a solution in many
localities, but that raises a whole host of other concerns.
In some places, a toe-in-the-water approach to reintro-
ducing passenger rail is to establish service using the
same tracks that freight runs on. That might sound rea-
sonable until you consider that the rail industry is
already struggling with significant capacity and infra-
structure constraints. The tier one railroads are double
tracking and double stacking as fast as they can, but
these projects require sizeable capital investments.
