National Chair’s Report
Rachel Morley National Chair
I was pleased to be elected to succeed John Stubbings as BIFA’s National Chair in May 2021, having been associated with BIFA for many years, and being appointed a director of BIFA in 2017. When I replaced John as
Chair, The Customs Institute Chair and the Secretary General post. We also had representation on Working Group Sea and the Advisory Body Legal Matters. As FIATA transitions its own profile and staff capabilities, this high level involvement is a nod of approval for BIFA and will help us influence FIATA policy, hopefully for the benefit of BIFA Members. Now, I would like to encourage you to read the Director General’s report before turning your attention to the Year in Review section of the 2021 Annual Report, in which you can find out how BIFA’s Secretariat, Policy Groups, Regional committees and Representatives continued to provide excellent services and support to Members, in a year during which they faced so many issues and challenges.
This was further discussed during the remainder of the year, and although BIFA’s exact approach remained to be finalised, as many large and medium Members already have sophisticated policies on these matters, it was agreed that this area of BIFA’s work needed to be strengthened. The trade association’s existing guidance is generic and covers a multitude of subjects such as re-usable packaging and return of such material to origin, environmental impacts of plastic packaging, installation of energy efficient light bulbs, better insulation, and so forth. measurement will be an ever more important subject for the membership over the coming years, it was agreed in 2021 that a sustainable logistics portfolio would be developed in 2022, under the management of a new recruit for the policy and compliance department. Another thing not covered elsewhere in this Annual Report is BIFA’s participation within FIATA, the freight industry’s global association. I am pleased to report that BIFA’s involvement is at its highest level since the mid- 1990s when Brian Kelleher was President and JimWhite was Multimodal Transport Institute (MTI) Chair. In 2021 BIFA held three senior FIATA posts: The MTI In light of BIFA’s belief that carbon footprint
Articles of Association, had their terms extended at the Board’s discretion until May 2023. The practical approach taken by BIFA to assessing the various issues that affect Members’ business activities in 2021 is clearly demonstrated in this Annual Report, which outlines the work done by BIFA during the year to facilitate discussions on issues and policy, communicating and providing information at various levels and delivering advice, guidance and support services that really help the membership. The impact of EU-Exit and the COVID-19 pandemic on Members’ work receives comprehensive coverage in this Annual Report and I will not repeat what is said elsewhere, but note that the twin issues continued to present significant time- consuming and complex challenges in 2021 for the trade association, its members and the wider freight and logistics sector, keeping the Secretariat and Policy Groups very busy. One thing not covered elsewhere in this report is what BIFA has been doing in regards to environmental and sustainability issues within logistics. At a meeting of the BIFA Council in May last year, there was recognition of the importance of developing an environmental portfolio for the trade association.
Chair, I felt that my ambitions for BIFA were very similar to those of chairs that have preceded me. I was confident that having many years of practical and successful experience in the freight forwarding and logistics sector would help me to assist the trade association in its efforts to develop clear strategies for continuing to fulfil its remit. I believe that the contents of the 2021 Annual Report demonstrate quite clearly that BIFA continued to provide effective and broad representation and support for the UK’s freight forwarding community during the year as that community continued to underpin the country’s international trading efforts. It contains comprehensive information about the interaction between BIFA’s Secretariat and Policy Groups with various stakeholder groups in government and elsewhere, on behalf of the membership. As well as my appointment at the BIFA AGM in May, Charles Hogg, commercial director of Unsworth Global Logistics, who is also a BIFA director and Chair of BIFA’s Maritime, Road and Rail Policy Group, was appointed deputy chair. Furthermore, four of the five Vice-Presidents (Clive Broadley, Philip Stephenson, Roy Baker and Ian Moran) who had completed their full terms in accordance with the
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BIFA Annual Report & Accounts 2021 | bifa.org
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