On Wednesday 29th March 2017, Seamus Kavanagh presented Ireland's version of the FIATA Diploma course to FIATA's Advisory Body Vocational Training (ABVT). FIATA's ABVT are responsible for investigating all global FIATA Diploma programmes to ensure that the Minimum Standards (guidance on topics to be covered for each Module) are appropriately implemented and to ensure that suitable training methodology is employed. With Representatives from across FIATA's global membership of Freight Forwarding professionals, this group is best positioned to review the course material and ensure that the content is relevant and up to date with the latest industry regulations and market place information.

Ireland's FIATA Diploma programme is somewhat unique among the 54 participating FIATA National Association's that offer this course, given its online approach. A full demonstration of IIFA's methods was presented to the assembled ABVT and following a thorough questions and answers session, IIFA was presented with a Re-Validation certificate. Of particular note from this re-validation was FIATA's praise for Ireland's results with doubling of webinar output across the 2015 - 2016 year group and its international achievement with its course offerings. As part of the 2015 - 2016 class group, Ireland worked with a Participant based in the USA who did not have a local option for this programme. The appeal of the FIATA Diploma to this participant was the international recognition the Diploma programme could provide and IIFA worked with FIATA's ABVT and that individual Participant in order to be the first FIATA National Association to deliver training internationally.

Regarding Ireland's place on the global FIATA Diploma scale, between 1996 - 29th March 2017, there have been 12,944 FIATA Diplomas issued worldwide. 523 of these have been to Ireland. Within Europe, the top Country for FIATA Diploma is France with 1396 however Ireland is within the top 5 and continues to grow.

This was the second re-validation for Ireland, with the course having been validated in 2008 and re-validated in 2013. Previous to this, Ireland did have a FIATA Diploma programme available through FAS between 1996 - 2010. At the time of writing, Ireland through FAS issued 361 FIATA Diploma Certificates while IIFA, since September 2008, has issued 162 directly. The present class group has 35 Participants and the 2017 - 2018 group, the tenth class group, will commence in September of this year.

CLECAT's Maritime Logistics Institute analyses developments in the container shipping market. In recent months, focus has particularly been on consolidation and alliances and their impact on carriers' service offerings. Recently, debate has continued on these topics with regard to the crunch in capacity on Europe-Asia services and the launch of the latest alliance structure on 1 April.

 

CLECAT will approach DG Competition of the European Commission to discuss Forwarders' concerns and the current position of the Commission as concerns these recent market developments. The European Shippers' Council has also approached the CLECAT Secretariat to present Shippers' concerns with these issues and to discuss joint initiatives towards DG Competition.

 

A draft letter to the head of the Transport Antitrust unit in DG Competition, outlining the concerns of CLECAT and the ESC in this regard is under development. The proposal is to send an introductory letter at this stage, and to request a follow-up meeting in July once further evidence of market developments has been collected by CLECAT Association Members and the Commission services. In order to be able to present DG COMP with the relevant facts, CLECAT is asking the Members of their Association bodies to provide feedback on their direct experiences as concerns liner consolidation, alliances and the capacity issues to Asia, at this stage and as developments progress in the coming months.

 

Note that the intention at this stage is not to bring a case of anticompetitive behaviour against the Carriers, but to raise industry concerns and enquire as to the Commission's thinking.

 

Any IIFA Members that wish to have their experience shared with CLECAT and for inclusion as part of a draft letter are asked to send their feedback to the IIFA Office via e-mail to [email protected]. As a new Member of CLECAT, IIFA wish would like to contribute to the lobbying power of CLECAT and would very appreciate Irish input on this issue.

The annual Irish Logistics & Transport Awards were held on Thursday 30th March 2017 and IIFA Members were well represented on the night. With 22 Awards available, IIFA Members were featured in half of the Awards. Winning Members were DHL Global Forwarding, DOPsys (HyTech Logistics), Kuehne & Nagel, SEKO Ireland and Wheels We Deliver, which joined IIFA only this year.

 

The full list of Awards for IIFA Members is below:

 

Logistics & Transport Team of the Year

DHL Global Forwarding

 

(L) Nicky Gill, Sales Director, DAF, presents Logistics & Transport Team of the Year award

to Maurice Meade, DHL Global Forwarding (R)

" This award is a tremendous acknowledgement for the whole DHL Global Forwarding team who work as one team to deliver the best possible customer experience," said Maurice Meade, DHL Global Forwarding Managing Director in Ireland. "We also aim to reach far beyond the scope of the traditional freight forwarder by continually expanding our service portfolio and finding ways to add value to our customers' business. I believe this is what gives us an edge and keeps us at the top of our game " .

 

 

Emerging Company of the Year

DOPsys

 

Innovation in Action Award

DOPsys

 

The Heavey RF Supply Chain Achievement Award

DOPsys

A press release from DOPsys commented on their success with the following : "We are delighted to announce that we picked up awards in all three of the categories we were nominated in last night at the Irish Logistics and Transport Awards 2017. This a great achievement and a testament to the hard work that everyone at DOPsys has put in over the last few years, and we would also like to say a big thank you to all involved in hosting such a fantastic evening."

 

Employer of the Year

Kuehne + Nagel

 

Freight Forwarding Company of the Year

Kuehne + Nagel

 

Logistics Company of the Year

Kuehne + Nagel

 

Overall Logistics & Transport Excellence Award

Kuehne + Nagel

 

The Kuehne & Nagel Ireland Team at the 2017 ILTAwards

Garry McCabe, Human Resource Director of Kuehne & Nagel Ireland praised this team's tremendous sweep of Awards, "To receive 4 awards at such a competitive event among an extremely strong peer group is truly remarkable."

 

"This is valid recognition of our companies continuous journey to improve our Business, our Customer Partnerships and our Employee Engagement practices. How we interact with our customers and our employees is fundamental to our success and we will continue to strive for excellence in both areas and we will continue to set the benchmark for our industry in Ireland in both areas."

 

"We are humbled and proud to be positioned with confidence to participate in these awards processes due to the belief and TRUST our colleagues have for our company. We take this opportunity to thank our colleagues for all of their efforts that make Kuehne + Nagel the Best Overall Logistics Company in Ireland."

 

 

Technology Award

SEKO Logistics Ireland

 

Martin Cunningham (Centre) accepting the Technology Award

Terry Allen, Director of SEKO Logistics in Ireland, commented: "We are extremely proud to have been recognised for the scope of the technology solutions we now provide to customers of all sizes. They enable us to compete successfully at the 'top table' of global logistics service providers and often surpass the capabilities of much bigger competitors. Through our ability to offer fast-to-implement, customizable and scalable software, our customers can use the same technology solution to manage their global supply chains whether they are doing business in Dublin, New York, Hong Kong or Sydney.

"Much of our growth is now being driven by our ability to demonstrate measurable benefits to customers looking for a highly integrated and highly sophisticated 3PL partner which offers bundled software and shipping solutions."

 

 

Courier Company of the Year

Wheels We Deliver

 

International Achievement Award

Virtu Financial Global Assets Logistics Project - Wheels We Deliver

 

L to R, Bernie Kinsella, MD, Wheels We Deliver, Joe Brannick, Operations Director,

Wheels We Deliver and Mike Kelly - Head of CI, Keeling's

A press release on from Wheels We Deliver thanked their clients for the role they played in Wheels success:

 

"Despite extremely tough competition across all the award sectors, we are so proud to announce that we awarded  Courier Company of the Year 2017  & we also won the  International Achievement Award  for a Global Logistics project in collaboration with our client, Virtu Financial. We are immensely proud of the huge efforts our whole team of staff & exceptional fleet of drivers have made to make this possible, they are phenomenal."

 

"We also want to acknowledge that this award is as much our clients as it would not have been possible without their fantastic support & loyalty over the years. So just to say a  BIG THANK YOU, we really appreciate it!"

Video Coverage of the 2017 Irish Logistics & Transport Awards (click to play)

Keeping up with the trend of container train route development in Eurasia, Latvia is the most experienced country of the Baltic region in the organization of container trains. With 3 regular container trains, Latvia offers container shipments on the following routes:

Latvia also gained big experience in serving of Northern Distribution Network containerized cargo transit to Afghanistan used by NATO.

In 2016 significant increase in containerized cargo volumes showed container train "Baltika Tranzit". The number of containers sent from Latvia during the last year increased by 108% and the number of containers sent to Latvia increased by 93%.

I n November 2016, during the Prime Minister`s Summit of China and 16 Central and Eastern European Countries held in Riga, new pilot container train from Chinese city of Yiwu arrived in Riga. The train crossed 11 066 km to transport goods in 12 days from Yiwu to Riga and proved the great potential for land transportation routes between China and Europe via Latvia. Next container train should arrive very soon from China in Riga and transport cargo further to Hamburg via sea route. There are also plans for new container train routes from India and Iran via Latvia.

With the new container train routes Latvia offers a gateway for Chinese and Asian goods to Northern Europe. Due to convenient geographical location in the center of the Baltic States and Northern Europe it is possible to deliver goods from Latvian ports and logistics centres to the Baltic States and even to Stockholm, Helsinki and Warsaw in 24 hours and in 48 hours to any stores and retail chains in Scandinavia - 26,4 millions of consumers.

Active cooperation is ongoing between Latvia and Duisburg Port to serve the increasing flow of goods from China to Europe. Both sides are looking for new cost effective routes from China to Northern Europe and back. Active cooperation is developing with China Merchant Group, which develops logistics for large China-Belarus Industrial Park "Great Stone" near Minsk. Latvia is offering its infrastructure for equipment delivery to the industrial park as well as for goods distribution to Scandinavia produced in the industrial park. In addition perspective investment projects are offered for logistics and industrial development in Latvian ports and transport nodes. For instance in the framework of the new railway line Rail Baltica near Riga it is planned to develop Asia-origin goods freight village on the crossroads of both railway systems 1520 mm and 1435 mm.

 

On Friday 7th April 2017, Eamonn Rothwell, Chief Executive of Irish Continental Group plc accompanied by Andrew Sheen, Managing Director of Irish Ferries visited the shipyard of Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesselschaft & Co.KG in Flensburg, Germany to oversee the cutting of the first steel plate for use in the construction of their new €144million cruise ferry, which is scheduled for delivery in mid 2018.

 

When in service, the vessel will accommodate 1,885 passengers and crew, with 435 cabins and with capacity for 2,800 lane metres of freight (165 freight vehicles) plus an additional dedicated car deck with capacity for 300 passenger cars.

 

"This first steel cutting is more than symbolic and starts the practical construction of our new build. This investment underpins the confidence the Group has in both the freight and passenger tourism markets between Ireland, Britain and France", Mr. Rothwell said.

As of Tuesday 24th April 2017, DACHSER has become a majority shareholder of its partner in Ireland, Johnston Logistics Ltd. This acquisition allows DACHSER to expand and strengthen its logistics network throughout northwestern Europe.

 

"Our customers in Ireland already benefit from uniform services and quality standards, fixed transit times, and a tightly meshed network of DACHSER branch offices throughout Europe," says Michael Schilling, COO Road Logistics at DACHSER. "In Johnston Logistics, we've acquired a well-established family company that we've worked with and trusted for a long time. We see this investment as an exciting opportunity to further enhance our all-important European network."

 

Albert Johnston will remain a shareholder and Managing Director of DACHSER's new subsidiary in Ireland. "Ireland's tremendous economic growth makes it a key logistics region. This purchase allows us to offer our customers the entire range of high-quality services that DACHSER is renowned for," says Wolfgang Reinel, DACHSER Managing Director of European Logistics for North-Central Europe.

 

Since it entered into partnership with DACHSER in 2007, family-owned Johnston Logistics has tapped international markets and benefitted from daily departures to DACHSER's European overland network. DACHSER organizes Ireland shipments at its branch offices in Cologne, Germany and Zevenaar, the Netherlands. There are also daily connections between Ireland and the UK.