Member Engagement
Keeping Members in the picture
Liverpool regional meeting meeting – 21 January 2025 Just short of 30 BIFA Members attended the January Liverpool meeting, kindly hosted by Hill Dickinson in its board room overlooking the Mersey. Following 30 minutes of networking over coffee and sandwiches, Colin Lavelle of Hill Dickinson welcomed Members to the meeting. BIFA regional representative Andrew Melton then presented the latest information from the BIFA policy groups, after which Colin Lavelle and his colleague Tom Turner talked about competition law pertaining to CBER, dawn raids and how to handle them, followed by the legal responsibilities for Members undertaking the ENS (S&S) declarations. Suzannah Lines of TRS training informed Members of newly available local government sponsored training available in the Liverpool area. Andrew then updated Members on the training and education offerings available to Members through BIFA, including the new BIFA bitesize courses. Solent regional meeting – 30 January Eastleigh College welcomed BIFA Members in the Solent region with positive news from Steve Harris, the South Hampshire College Group head of planning and operations, about the success of the Logistics Bootcamps run by the college in recent months and the plans for further growth this year. All this has been made possible by the collaboration between Solent BIFA Members and the college. Two senior managers from Border Force gave updates, which were followed by a lively question and answer session on safety and security data compliance. Steve Freeman, board member of the Rail Freight Group and chair of RailX, talked through the latest initiatives and available capacity on UK rail freight. He explained how RailX, the digital platform and train booking app, enables booking capacity on UK container services, providing
Andrew Melton, BIFA regional representative
Border Force intelligence unit. Its office covers the north of England, and its representatives present offered some insights around the threats to the UK security and wellbeing that they look to intercept and disable. Much of their work is countering organised crime gangs. Humber regional meeting – 12 February The following day, Andrew was at the Hamilton by Hilton Hotel Humberside Airport to greet local Members. The meeting started with a full breakfast following which Andrew brought Members up to date with the latest information from BIFA Once again BIFA was pleased to have representatives from Border Force intelligence unit as guest speakers. We also welcomed Alex Silverton from Department for Business and Trade, who was in attendance to support Members with questions for her department. Paul Cunningham, BIFA regional representative
access to intermodal rail across the UK. An instant poll on the level of understanding of AI potential for freight forwarding revealed that while 83% of Members thought AI would have a major impact on the sector in the next three years, only 36% were ready to adopt new AI- driven procedures. The BIFA team updated the meeting on the Cargo Development Plans for Heathrow and all other policy group matters. Yorkshire regional meeting – 11 February The first regional meeting of the year in Yorkshire took place at the Cedar Court Hotel in Bradford on 11 February. Just over 20 Members arrived at the venue to hear from Andrew Melton, regional representative for the Midlands and Northern England, speak about the issues and information being discussed at the policy groups. Lindsey Shantel from RailX gave a short presentation on its latest offerings and advance notice of a major update to its App, which is expected to be available from March. Following a short networking break, the Members received a presentation from the Home Office
“ An instant poll on the level of under - standing of AI potential for freight forwarding revealed that 83% of Members thought AI would have a major impact on the sector in the next three years
All BIFA Members are entitled to attend regional meetings and should register their details at https://bifa.org/events/
March 2025 | 21
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