The 2016 Young International Freight Forwarder of the Year (YIFFY) Award was announced at the World Congress in Dublin this week. The winner was Shanon Gould from Australia

7^th October, 2016

Together TT Club and FIATA celebrate the achievements of young freight forwarders working for logistics companies around the globe at the FIATA Annual Congress each year. This year the winner of the award representing the Asia-Pacific region was Shanon Gould from Australia.

Insurance provider to the international freight transport industry, TT Club is proud to have sponsored the award for the last eighteen years and continues to do so. TT Club’s Senior Loss Prevention Executive, Mike Yarwood was on hand to announce the winner and present the award. He emphasised the important achievements made by FIATA and its members to train the future freight forwarding and logistics professionals. Commenting on the outstanding quality of the work presented to the judges this year Yarwood said, “From a bewildering, yet highly professional array of entries the YIFFY Steering Committee selected a shortlist of four regional finalists. These four young professionals were then invited here to the FIATA World Congress to present their dissertations to the judges. Congratulations to all four finalists for their hard work and excellent presentations and especially, of course to our winner Shanon.”

In addition to Shanon the regional finalists were:

Lorraine Zhou, Zimbabwe – Africa/Middle East region

Evgeny Kapustin, Canada – Americas region

Kostiantyn Hapii, Ukraine – European region

The entries this year were, as ever of a high standard and drew from a wide range of dissertation topics. The work of the entrants demonstrated the complexity of processes carried out within the global supply chain and the logistics skills required to service it.

Among the diverse subjects covered by the dissertations prepared by this year’s entrants are the shipping of cotton bales; the challenges of transporting tyres and turbines and the solution to moving a 40’ tall fire breathing dinosaur robot across continents.

The TT Club sponsored award is presented in recognition of operational excellence in the logistics field and was established by FIATA with the support of TT Club to encourage the development of quality training in the industry and to reward young talent with additional valuable training opportunities and enhanced visibility. The TT Club has been a sponsor of the award since its inception and remains firmly committed to the importance of individual training and development within the global freight forwarding and logistics community, which is regarded by FIATA as a strategic important cooperation.

Speaking on behalf of TT Club, Yarwood said, “We are pleased to be continuing our sponsorship of this unique award, with the finals to be held at the FIATA Congress next October in Kuala Lumpur. Once again, we hope that the competition will prove to be successful in terms of attracting outstanding candidates from across the globe to improve even on the record entry of twenty-seven this year. Despite the high volume, the quality of the dissertations and presentations were of a consistently exceptional standard and it was clear that a lot of research, planning and hard work had gone into their preparation.”

The Advisory Body Vocational Training Chairperson, Mr Thomas Sim, said “I am delighted with the level shown and that this investment has been through the years the best way to to ensure that FIATA of the future professionals is well mounted in our today’s programmes.  The YIFFYA has an in-built gender balance nature which comes naturally as networking does in Dublin”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

TT Club is the international transport and logistics industry’s leading provider of insurance and related risk management services.  As a mutual insurer, 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. TT Club is managed by Thomas Miller.

www.ttclub.com

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

www.thomasmiller.com

About FIATA

FIATA, the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations, was founded in Vienna, Austria on May 31st 1926. It is a non-governmental organisation that today represents an industry covering approximately 40,000 forwarding and logistics firms, employing around 10 million people in some 160 countries. FIATA has consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations (inter alia ECE, ESCAP, ESCWA, etc.), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) as well as many other UN related bodies, e.g. the World Bank. It is recognised as representing the freight forwarding industry by many other governmental organisations, governmental authorities, private international organisations in the field of transport and logistics, such as the European Commission (through CLECAT), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Union of Railways (UIC), the International Road Transport Union (IRU), the World Customs Organization (WCO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), etc.

The three-month settling-in period suggested by the IMO to its Member States in which competent authorities were urged to adopt a ‘practical and pragmatic’ approach to the enforcement of the SOLAS revision stipulating all packed containers have a verified gross mass (VGM) before being stowed aboard a ship comes to an end on 1^st October.

29^th September, 2016

Long-time champion of the cause of safer container transport and a leading insurer of the international freight industry, TT Club believes that, although reported levels of compliance since the introduction of VGM on 1^st July have been encouraging, much still needs to be done to achieve accurate VGM certification and universal enforcement of the rules.

A recent declaration by the liner shipping association, the World Shipping Council (WSC), together with feedback from various container terminals, indicates that the current compliance rate is as high as 95%. The WSC told an IMO sub-committee meeting in early September that the requirement for shippers to produce a VGM for each packed container tendered to its member lines for shipment had been met “without any appreciable disruptions to international containerised supply chains”. In addition, it was noted that the compliance rate rose steadily from 1^st July onwards, with the WSC confident that this rise will continue.

Speaking after accepting the Lloyd’s List Maritime Insurance Award for TT Club’s work on VGM, Risk Management Director, Peregrine Storrs-Fox commented, “This high degree of awareness of VGM requirements and the outward signs of compliance are indeed encouraging. However it remains to be seen whether the declared VGMs are accurate, representing the result of an actual weighing process, regardless which of the two permissible methods is adopted”, he said.

It is known that certain terminals and carriers have been engaging with shippers over the three-months since July where inaccuracies are apparent. Anecdotal evidence suggests that shippers are, in the main, simply adding the tare mass of the container to the previously declared weight of the cargo to arrive at a VGM. “While it is positive that shippers recognise the difference between bill of lading or customs declaration weights and VGM, it is insufficient just to add the container mass. The industry needs the comfort of authenticated VGMs comparing the actual mass of packed containers obtained by check-weighing in order to have a true picture of compliance,” said Storrs-Fox.

The WSC has also reported that some IT communication challenges have been, and remain significant. Concern has been raised that some terminals have yet to implement the recommended BAPLIE 2.2 EDIFACT message format, which fundamentally restricts their ability to communicate VGMs to carriers. Where this is the case, TT Club urges immediate action between the counterparties to resolve the situation, not least since it will hinder evidence of compliance being provided to the various port state control authorities.

Post the three-month IMO-recommended period of ‘light touch’ enforcement that ends on 1^st October Storrs-Fox emphasised, “There will remain a need for regulators the world over to continue their work in arriving at a uniform standard of enforcement, including consistency in the degree of latitude given to non-compliant shippers. Even now, there would be value in providing national guidance on such matters, where it has yet to be given.”

Industry guidelines issued by TT Club, in partnership with WSC, the cargo handler’s association ICHCA and the Global Shippers Forum (GSF) in the form FAQs, together with further comprehensive information on the VGM regulation, are available here http://www.ttclub.com/loss-prevention/container-weighing

ENDS

Notes to editors

TT Club

TT Club is the international transport and logistics industry’s leading provider of insurance and related risk management services. Established in 1968, the Club’s membership comprises ship operators, ports and terminals, road, rail and airfreight operators, logistics companies and container lessors. As a mutual insurer, the 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.

TT Club is managed by Thomas Miller

www.ttclub.com

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
• Managing general agents

www.thomasmiller.com