Steve Parker Director General, British International Freight Association
By the time that Multimodal 2024 opens for business, I will have been Director General of the British International Freight Association for 18 months. What an 18 months it has been!
After my appointment, one of my goals was to improve BIFA’s engagement with members, both regionally and digitally. We have made five appointments to strengthen the work of our regional and policy and compliance teams, and also strengthened and expanded our events team.
Two brand new initiatives have been launched, the Business Leaders Forum, which will hold its latest event before Multimodal begins, and the Sustainable Logistics Policy Group which has already held its first two meetings.
Our senior management and policy and compliance teams continue to represent our members on a variety of fronts with high levels of engagement with HMRC, various government departments, other trade associations and key stakeholders. Those teams address legislation and policy that is often complex and make it accessible to and understandable by our membership.
BIFA arrives at Multimodal 2024 in good shape with significant momentum, a clear strategy, and a record number of members and our presence at the heart of the BIFA Forwarder Village gives us a further opportunity to support and engage with our members and others on all sides of supply chains.
It also enables us to showcase what the trade association is doing to address the current challenges facing our members, and the supply chain and logistics community they serve.
Since I became Director General on 1 January 2023, from a policy and compliance perspective, there has been a continued focus on customs-related issues and an ongoing review of all frontier policies as well as the introduction of new policies applicable to all of the UK’s international trade.
So, it will not be surprising if conversations about customs affairs occupy a good deal of BIFA’s time during the three days at Multimodal 2024, which gives us the opportunity to provide some useful insight and advice on the current state of play.
BIFA will also be using the event to showcase some of the work that it is doing in other areas, such as training and recruitment, as well as sustainability, so I welcome all visitors that are looking for advice designed to help deal with the big issues, to our stand in the BIFA Forwarder Village.
For more information, please visit: www.bifa.org