Steve Parker’s Column
A week of two halves
BIFAlink is the official magazine of the British International Freight Association Redfern House, Browells Lane, Feltham TW13 7EP Tel: 020 8844 2266 (A company limited by guarantee. Registered in England: 00391973. VAT Registration: 216476363) Director General Steve Parker s.parker@bifa.org Member Policy & Compliance Director Robert Windsor r.windsor@bifa.org Member Support Director Spencer Stevenson s.stevenson@bifa.org Member Services Director Carl Hobbis c.hobbis@bifa.org Member Engagement Director Denise Hill d.hill@bifa.org International Relations Advisor Robert Keen r.keen@bifa.org Policy & Compliance Advisor – Customs Igor Popovics i.popovics@bifa.org Policy & Compliance Adviser – Sustainable Logistics Mike Jones m.jones@bifa.org Policy & Compliance Advisor – Air David Stroud d.stroud@bifa.org Editorial Co-ordinator Sharon Hammond s.hammond@bifa.org Membership Supervisor Sarah Milton s.milton@bifa.org Web site: www.bifa.org E-mail: bifa@bifa.org Published by Park Lane Publishing peter@parklanepublishingltd.com Contributors Steve Parker, Robert Windsor, David Stroud, Spencer Stevenson, Carl Hobbis, Sharon Hammond, Igor Popovics, Robert Keen, Denise Hill, Mike Jones 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.
A s I wrote this column in mid-June, I had just had a week with two very different days; both had an impact on our industry and association. Roy Baker Wednesday 15 May was certainly the saddest of my time at BIFA, when I attended Roy Baker’s funeral. Roy served the association for four decades, and there is a formal obituary to him in this edition, so my thoughts here are just personal ones. I was privileged to be on the BIFA board when Roy was also a board
member and latterly a Vice President. As such, we were present at many meetings and social events. I always found Roy to be a true gentleman who spoke wisely, and excellent company (especially if you wanted to talk about steam trains). I am pleased that last year I was able to find the opportunity to meet with him and even though he was clearly unwell, his mind was sharp and our conversation engaging. Carri Marais I guess many of you will not have known Carri, but she was a trainer at BIFA and one of our own. Sadly, on the day of Roy’s funeral, we heard she had passed away. Carri had been unwell for some time, it was nonetheless, still a shock and we will miss her. My thoughts and prayers go to both families as this time. Business Leaders Forum On 16 May, we held our third Business Leaders Forum. Over 130 signed up and nearly 100 were present, which represented the biggest attendance at the event to date. We had some excellent guest presenters. Ian Wilkins, deputy director at HMRC, spoke very openly about all things Customs and Border related. Then, Kelly Hobson, the founder and managing director of UK- based consultancy Shape Tomorrow, joined David de Picciotto, CEO and founder at Pledge, to give us a clear update on the direction of travel regarding the environment and sustainability issues. My thanks go to all three of them and I hope all those gathered left at least one word wiser than when they arrived. Please place 10 October 2024 in your diary. This is planned as an enhanced Business Leaders Forum as we hope by then ITN Business will have completed the documentary that it is working on about our industry and use this as the launch event. BIFAlink TV As I have mentioned the Business Leaders Forum, I must also advise that we are planning a significant change to the way we communicate with you electronically; instead of weekly newsletters and ad-hoc messages, from 1 July we plan to launch a daily email sent to you early every morning and containing just one topic. We are calling this your Daily Dose of Industry Information . The topic will be clearly outlined in the email header, so if you don’t want to read it all you can file it in your BIFA folder and keep it in case it becomes useful later. However, if you do want to read it, the email contains a link to a short video in which we will explain what you need to know on that topic. Key to this being useful and successful is that we have the correct details for all BIFA corporate Members and your staff. To that end we are working on our database and you will soon receive an email asking you to confirm the contact details we need. Multimodal 2024 Finally, I am at this event on all three days and will be happy to talk to any of you. Just come along to our stand in the BIFA Forwarders Village and say hi.
Director General
June 2024 | 3
www.bifa.org
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