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RHA pursues collective claim on overcharging BIFA has previously notified Members about a legal case where European truck manufacturers were found guilty of operating a cartel, a serious abuse of EU competition rules. The Road Haulage Association (RHA) is bringing a collective claim for compensation on behalf of operators (both members and non-members alike) before the Competition Appeal Tribunal. This is because it believes that they paid too much for the vehicles they purchased or leased during the cartel and for a period afterwards. Claimants do not need to be traditional haulage, transport or logistics businesses and below is a summary of those businesses that are eligible to join the claim. Who can be part of the RHA’s claim? Any business, regardless of its size, engaged in road haulage operations for (a) hire and reward or (b) own-account business can be part of the claim if it entered into a contract for the purchase or lease of: • A new truck between 17 January 1997 and 31 January 2014, where the truck weighed 6 tonnes or over and was registered in the UK; • A used truck between 17 January 1997 and 31 January 2015 where the truck weighed 6 tonnes or over and was registered in the UK. Businesses (including sole traders and partnerships) that meet the above criteria are entitled to join the collective action.
Freight forwarding included in new apprentice initiative
The Department for Education (DfE), in partnership with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE), has launched a new initiative to raise awareness of apprenticeship opportunities. The Career Starter Apprenticeships campaign aims to promote existing apprenticeships and encourage more young people to consider this route when making their career choices. Research conducted by the DfE indicates that many young people do not consider the full range of apprenticeships that are available. By promoting certain standards as being particularly suitable for those with little or no work experience, this initiative aims to raise awareness of the opportunities created through apprenticeships to parents, teachers and employers too. The first Career Starter Apprenticeship material has now been published and the International Freight Forwarding standard has
been selected as one of the apprenticeships that will be
promoted as part of the campaign. As one of the stakeholders involved in the creation of this standard, BIFA feels this is another step forward in attracting more talent to our industry. The information being shared contains case studies, details about day-to-day activities, salaries, durations and context for each of these occupations. Three long-
standing members of BIFA’s Young Forwarder Network community have been featured, all of whom entered the industry as apprentices and have already progressed their careers. The DfE continues to promote Career Starter Apprenticeships to young people in schools and colleges across the country through its Apprenticeships Support and
Knowledge (ASK) programme. The DfE is also collaborating with the Department for Work and Pensions
and Jobcentre Plus advisers to promote freight forwarding, where there are vacancies.
QR code: The Freight Forwarding Specialist Apprenticeship standard
Turkey or Türkiye? Does the name change affect you?
BIFA has received several enquiries over the last few weeks regarding the impact of Turkey’s name change from its anglicised version to the Turkish version Türkiye. International organisations like the United Nations, the World Trade Organization and NATO have already adopted Türkiye following a formal request from the Turkish authorities. BIFA contacted HMRC on this
matter, which had to liaise with other government departments potentially impacted by the name change. We have established, and been asked by HMRC, to advise our Members that government will continue to refer to ‘Turkey’ in its guidance and other public materials. Therefore, there is no intention to amend, or expectation for industry to amend, certificates of origin,
carnets or invoices. In most cases, it is expected that invoices and other commercial documents will use a two-character country code anyway, which would reflect either name reference; in Turkey’s (or should it be Türkiye’s) case this would be the identifier, ‘TR’. If this information changes, we will update Members.
For more information contact the RHA at: 01733261131 or email address truckcartel@rha.uk.net
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October 2022
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