The PSL Group receiving their award from Brian Sullivan (l-r) Sally Boazman, BBC Radio 2 Travel Reporter; Richard Gibbs, PSL Freight; Kevin Johnson, PSL Freight; Mark Ford, PSL Freight; Michael Douglas, PSL Freight; Brian Sullivan, TT Club. Photo credit: Photographer Philippa Gedge
London – 4th February 2016: At the British International Freight Association (BIFA) Annual Awards Lunch in London last month, the global freight insurance specialist, TT Club presented the European Logistics Award to UK-based, independent freight forwarder The PSL Group.
The Award attracted a wide-range of entries, which the panel of judges praised for their innovation and technical prowess. This year’s winner, The PSL Group is a multi-service global forwarder with strategically located offices throughout the UK. It provides a range of supply chain management and forwarding services to a variety of industry verticals including fashion, healthcare and publishing.
Brian Sullivan, TT Club’s Development Director, in presenting the Award said, “TT Club is once more delighted to sponsor this Award and appreciates the role BIFA plays in encouraging best practice in the international freight and logistics industry. The judges were particularly impressed by the investment PSL made both in their staff and in quality systems to deliver a new rapid response offering”. The result is that PSL customers benefit from much faster turnaround times and the company has been able to generate new routes and new customers.
As in recent years, TT Club and BIFA have found from the excellent entries for the Award that innovative technology is very important in advancing customer service, but what ultimately makes the difference is the investment that an organisation makes in its staff. IT solutions are employed in a tailored fashion to improve efficiency but, critically, the human touch has not been abandoned. In fact, an emphasis on stable personal relationships and effective customer service has proved crucial to success.
“Perhaps the ‘human touch’ can become a modern day panacea for the operator searching for that elusive competitive edge,” concludes Sullivan.
TT Club is certainly seeing more extensive services being provided by its customers. Many companies that in the past offered traditional freight forwarding now take on a much higher degree of supply chain risk and become exposed to greater liability by providing increasingly complex and sophisticated services. The trend is, however, seen as positive. The increased complexity of service offerings and the ingenuity of operators in designing alternative supply chain solutions strongly demonstrate the logisticians’ value and provide opportunities for new entrants as much as established logistics companies.
ENDS
Notes for Editors:
The TT Club is the international transport and logistics industry’s leading provider of insurance and related risk management services. As a mutual insurer, the TT Club exists to provide its policyholders with benefits, which include specialist underwriting expertise, a world-wide office network providing claims management services, and first class risk management and loss prevention advice.
Customers include some of the world’s largest shipping lines, busiest ports, biggest freight forwarders and cargo handling terminals, to companies operating on a smaller scale but whose operations face similar risks. TT Club specialises in the insurance of Intermodal Operators, NVOCs, Freight Forwarders, Logistics Operators, Marine Terminals, Stevedores, Port Authorities and Ship Operators.
The TT Club is managed by Thomas Miller.
Thomas Miller is an independent and international provider of insurance, professional and investment services. Founded in 1885, Thomas Miller’s origins are in the provision of management services to mutual organisations, particularly in the international transport and professional indemnity sectors; where today they manage a large percentage of the foremost insurance mutuals. Thomas Miller also manages insurance facilities for all the self-employed barristers in England & Wales, as well as trustees of pension schemes, patent agents and housing associations.
Principal activities include:
- Management services for transport and professional indemnity insurance mutuals
- Investment management for institutions and private clients
- Professional services
- Building defects insurance