February 25, 2025
Freight Futures emphasizes a proactive approach to mitigate risks and capitalize on emerging opportunities within the evolving landscape of the global supply chain. It provides comprehensive recommendations and guidance on implementation and funding opportunities to advance these strategies.
The supply chain is a delicate web of connections between producers, distributors, and consumers. This system is highly vulnerable to shocks from external forces like climate change, geopolitics, and new technology. To develop strategies and recommendations for making the supply chain in Greater Philadelphia more sustainable, resilient, and equitable by the year 2040, DVRPC staff undertook a scenario planning exercise. The findings are now available in Freight Futures.
With input from government agencies, transportation authorities, rail and port companies, and local development corporations, staff identified future forces–key external trends and conditions that affect the supply chain and are not under the control of the region’s freight stakeholders. Two key drivers, external disruption and innovation, were singled out as the most influential sets of forces and used to form four scenarios:
- “Pre-Pandemic Déjà Vu,” which envisions a return to pre-disruption and a globalized supply chain;
- “Green and Clean Growth,” which forecasts increased demand for sustainable goods and investment in clean industrial policies;
- “Disruption is the Only Constant,” which anticipates the continuous need for adaptation to supply chain disruptions; and
- “America’s Workshop Reborn,” which predicts revitalized domestic manufacturing and technology adoption.
For each scenario, potential impacts were documented across different facets of the freight system, including workforce development, rail service promotion, truck parking provision, adaptive reuse, and incentives for electric vehicle connectivity. Freight Futures emphasizes a proactive approach to mitigate risks and capitalize on emerging opportunities within the evolving landscape of the global supply chain. It provides comprehensive recommendations and guidance on implementation and funding opportunities to advance these strategies.
View the report, and look for presentations on Freight Futures at the New Jersey TransAction Conference and the American Planning Association’s online National Planning Conference.