Freight Transportation Through Pakistan Railway-Problems and Opportunities

CATEGORY: TRANSPORTATION

INSIGHTS OF THE PROBLEM

“Freight transportation through Pakistan Railway is inefficient and losing trust of customers.”

Pakistan railways is one of the oldest state-owned company and used to be the predominant mode of transportation.

But now-a-days, it’s lagging behind because it is not upto the required pace. It has lost alot of its customers and a major share in market. Its brand equity has ruined from the past years because of lacking value to the customer.

Today is the era of technology and Pakistan Railways is miles away to it. So is why a large segment of public( the passengers) and the corporates (freight customers) have opted for alternatives rather than using the institution of the state. Freight transportation traffic, if improved, can benefit the institution tremendoulsy because not only common people but majorly the corporates would use it and it would return more revenues.

Freight transportation from Pakistan Railway is not efficient and trust-worthy. It takes more time and there is also an issue of misplecement. Even, sometime, the goods which are transported gets lost.

These problems have ruined the brand equity of the company and have made the trust of customers to diminish.

SOLUTION

Adding value to the customer is the important thing for a business to grow in revenue and recognition. We can make use of technology and input internet-of-things to impart value to the customers.

A freight-detecting-system must be installed that can trace the movement of goods. This can prevent misplacement, shipment to wrong destinations and can even eliminate the loss of goods. The customers can see till where their goods have reached and howmuch time is still left for the shipment of freight to the destination.

MODUS OPERANDI

This can be done using radio-frequency identification (RFID) technique. RFID tags can be attached to the freight. Each RFID tag can generate dedicated ID which would be transmitted to the receiver installed at the train.

An App can be made for the customer through which he can fnd the location of his freight on Google map (This can be done using Google Map API in Android).

An intruder system should also be installed at the doors of the containers so in case if the doors of the containers are openned, the signal will be transmitted to GSM module and an SMS will be sent to the Railway authorities to take the necessary actions.

This way the trust of customers can be enhanced and doors good revenues and reputation can be opened.