“When I started at FTA, things like autonomous and electric vehicles were in their infancy, while the idea of drone deliveries was the thing of imagination, yet now they are accepted as part of our supply chain,” said David.
“The industry has changed beyond all recognition over the last decade, with our work having brought logistics to the forefront of many people’s minds, and in the past couple of years we’ve been really successful in raising our media profile.
“Our mission is always to achieve more for our members, and I have worked closely with the team to ensure we are representing the needs of those we represent at every level of government and industry. Over the past five years membership numbers have grown by almost 25%.”
Among the new initiatives to be implemented in 2020 is a change of name from the Freight Transport Association (FTA) to Logistics UK.
“It is important to note that we are not changing our focus, or the important services, support and advice that we provide to members,” explained David.
“This is a natural progression in our name, which has been under way for several months already. Evolving our name is not something that I or the board take lightly, but it’s something that we believe is essential if FTA is to continue to grow and achieve more for its members in a fast-changing world.
“Our policy team, which now numbers more than 30 people, is one of the most influential of any business group, with contacts at all levels of government, and the personal relationships they have developed with opinion formers on all aspects of transport and logistics have enabled us to drive more than 70 quantifiable policy wins – on topics ranging from infrastructure to regulations, recruitment, the environment and the future shape of the industry – in the past year alone.
“The future of the logistics industry will be very different from the one we all operate in today,” added David.
“The creation of a new ministerial role, minister of state for the future of transport, to oversee and shape the development of the logistics sector, directly acknowledges the interconnectedness of supply chains. The new minister will be visiting the Innovation and Technology in Transport Expo in May (13th/14th), a major new free to attend event in the logistics calendar. www.itthub
The second annual Logistics Scotland Conference will be held at the Macdonald Inchyra Hotel in Falkirk on Thursday 7th May. Focusing on key issues – future work force challenges, sustainability, movement of goods specifically between Scotland and Northern Ireland and modal shifts for goods between road and rail, there will also be an up to the minute briefing on the arrangements for Glasgow’s COP26 and how this could affect logistics movements