Steve Parker’s Column
Who is your biggest critic?
BIFAlink is the official magazine of the British International Freight Association Redfern House, Browells Lane, Feltham TW13 7EP Tel: 020 8844 2266 Web site: www.bifa.org E-mail: bifa@bifa.org (A company limited by guarantee. Registered in England: 391973. VAT Registration: 216476363) Director General Steve Parker s.parker@bifa.org Executive Director Robert Windsor, Policy & Compliance – Surface & Legal r.windsor@bifa.org Executive Director Spencer Stevenson s.stevenson@bifa.org Executive Director Carl Hobbis c.hobbis@bifa.org Member Engagement Manager Denise Hill d.hill@bifa.org International Relations Manager Robert Keen r.keen@bifa.org Policy & Compliance Advisor – Customs Igor Popovics i.popovics@bifa.org Policy & Compliance Advisor – Air David Stroud d.stroud@bifa.org Editorial Co-ordinator Sharon Hammond s.hammond@bifa.org Communications Manager Natalie Pitts n.pitts@bifa.org Membership Supervisor Sarah Milton s.milton@bifa.org Published by Park Lane Publishing peter@parklanepublishingltd.com Contributors Steve Parker, Robert Windsor, David Stroud, Spencer Stevenson, Carl Hobbis, Sharon Hammond, Natalie Pitts, Igor Popovics, Brooke Neilson, Nezda Leigh, Robert Keen Note to media: If you wish to use items in this magazine that are older than one month, please contact the editor to ensure that the item in question still reflects the current circumstances. Please be advised that BIFA DOES NOT OFFER LEGAL ADVICE. BIFA is not a law firm and the authors of this publication are not legally qualified and do not have any legal training. The guidance and assistance set out herein are based on BIFA’s own experience with the issues concerned and should not be in any circumstances regarded or relied upon as legal advice. It is strongly recommended that anyone considering further action based on the information contained in this publication should seek the advice of a qualified professional.
My answer to the above question is my wife, Julie! Although she supports what I do and BIFA, she sometimes does tell it as she sees it. On that note, she was quite clear that April’s column was not as good as the earlier ones. In her opinion it was too long and not easily understood by someone not in the industry! So what, I thought (not brave enough to say anything), this is an industry magazine, it is supposed to be for those in the industry. That said, she had a point. What I have seen in my first four months at
BIFA is that so much of what we do is either engaging with people outside the industry to encourage them to join it or taking legislation that is often complex and making it accessible to and understandable by our membership. With those things in mind, going forwards with my monthly column I will cover the key topics as best I can and be both concise and try to avoid industry jargon. Freight Development Pathway I am proud of the work we have done with Manpower on the Freight Development Pathway. By way of a reminder, we take people who have not been in our industry before and give them three weeks of training in both work practices and industry specific requirements. We started in January this year and have already seen BIFA Members recruit some of the individuals who have completed the pathway and obtained greater industry awareness. Interestingly not everyone finishes the programme; some realise that this is not a sector for them, but this therefore reduces the risks to our Members of employing someone who is not going to be the right person. Customs matters My goodness there are a lot of topics regarding Customs. We have several articles in this edition, all worth a read. Whether you are interested in Transit, the Single Trade Window, Border Target Operating Model, or the Windsor Agreement, we cover them all and provide some useful insight. Member engagement One of the areas I am particularly passionate about is how we support our Members and with that in mind April saw some notable developments. Denise Hill joined us at the start of the month as our newly appointed Member engagement director, which is a key element in our strategy to constantly improve engagement with all our Members. A press release has been issued and more details of Denise’s role will be covered in next month’s BIFAlink . Meanwhile, I am pleased to advise that Andrew Melton will be joining us later this year as our regional representative for the North of England. You will be reading more about this in a future issue, but this vacancy has been outstanding for some time, so we welcome Andrew’s appointment. Finally, and again with representation in mind, we are busy making plans for this year’s Multimodal Exhibition and Conference at the NEC from 13-15 June. It provides an important platform to network with Members and showcase what BIFA is doing to address the current challenges faced by our Members and the supply chain and logistics community they serve. It is an event not to be missed and is completely free to visit. Simply register in advance to get your badge, print it off and walk straight in. I look forward to seeing as many of you there as I can. If, during your visit, you want to talk to me about your own biggest critic, there is a little place on the BIFA stand we can go!
Steve Parker Director General
May 2023 | 3
www.bifa.org
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