Member Engagement
Keeping Members informed
Radius Warehouse and Logistics Services as chairperson for the region. Alex has a wealth of forwarding experience and Members are encouraged to get in touch with him so that he can represent their views at BIFA Council. Alex will work closely with Paul Cunningham to ensure regional issues and events are communicated to Members. James Stangroom, director at Bristol Port Company, provided the Members with an overview of the company’s history and its business activities. The Bristol Port Company runs two docks – Royal Portbury Dock and Avonmouth Dock. There has been investment of £645million over the last 33 years at Bristol Port, which handles over 8.5 million tonnes of cargo per annum. The BIFA team updated Members on all policy areas with CDS exports, aviation security and planned sustainability reporting legislation being the topics that raised the most discussion.
Northern England & the Midlands
Members in the south of the Midlands area. Members arrived for breakfast sandwiches and coffee to hear from Bruce Hailey about the issues he has seen recently and some suggestions as to how BIFA Members can better protect themselves. Again, Bruce received a number of detailed questions to which he gave succinct guidance. Carl Hobbis addressed the meeting, giving updates on the apprenticeship scheme, BIFA training courses and details of a new sponsored training development available to Members with locations in West Midlands local authority region. South & South West Opening the Avonmouth regional meeting, Paul Cunningham was delighted to welcome Alex Large of
In April we hosted two meetings in the Midlands area, the first being near East Midlands Airport, with a number of Members in attendance. Andrew Melton, regional representative and Robert Windsor, Member Policy & Compliance Director, brought Members up-to- date with the latest information from the policy groups. Bruce Hailey of Salvus Law apprised those present on the issues he is seeing across his legal practice’s desks, including issues relating to indirect representation and duty under-payments. This generated a lot of discussion and interaction around the room. The meeting concluded with information about the training available from BIFA. The second meeting was held at the Holiday Inn Coventry for
Avonmouth YFN Group launches with Bristol ports tour
BIFA continues to grow the Young Forwarder Network with the first meeting of the newly formed Avonmouth region centring around a tour of Bristol ports. James Stangroom, director at the Bristol Port Company, gave 10 Members a really insightful tour of the Avonmouth and Portbury ports. Cars, jet fuel, aggregates, construction equipment, containers and many other types of cargo are handled
across the two ports, giving an impressive operational capability. YFN Members from the region learnt from seeing the operations up close and networked after the tour discussing the realities of freight forwarding and ideas for the next meeting. The local committee would like to thank James and his colleagues at the Bristol Port Company for their generous hospitality.
BIFA Regional Representative, Paul Cunningham (left), accompanies Members of the newly formed Avonmouth YFN Members on a tour of Bristol port.
14 | June 2024
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