The winners of the nine General, Modal, and Specialist categories in the Awards, which has established a benchmark of quality for the British freight forwarding industry for more than a quarter of the century, are: Specialist Logistics Services, Charles Kendall Freight, Hemisphere Freight Services, OIA Global, Metro Shipping, Uniserve Group, NNR Global Logistics, Bermuda Forwarders and Freightport Logistics.
In the Individual categories, the winner of the Young Freight Forwarder Award is Luke Brown of Daily Groupage Services. The winner of the newly-introduced Apprentice of the Year category is Thomas Turner of Panalpina World Transport.
This year’s Awards luncheon was hosted by double Olympic champion Colonel Dame Kelly Holmes who gave a motivational speech about what it takes to be a winner whilst dealing with physical and emotional issues.
BIFA President Sir Peter Bottomley MP again welcomed guests to the luncheon ceremony, which was attended by 500 people, and – along with Dame Kelly – presented all the finalists with their certificates.
Robert Keen, BIFA Director General, says: “The BIFA Freight Service awards are all about rewarding excellence and the luncheon is an excellent opportunity for Members and guests to network, cement existing relationships, and develop new ones.
“All the companies that entered this year’s awards could have no finer example to follow than someone who struck Olympic gold twice in Athens in 2004.
“A BIFA Freight Service award, like an Olympic gold, is the ultimate reward for endeavour and professionalism and demonstrates high standards, determination and professionalism. Both represent the ultimate recognition of special achievement.”
The finalists and winners in the eleven categories were as follows:
General categories
Project Forwarding Award – sponsored by Peter Lole Insurance Brokers
Winner – Specialist Logistics Services
Finalists – Dimerco Express Group, Hemisphere Freight Services, Ucargo
Specialist Services Award – sponsored by Forward Computers
Winner: Charles Kendall Freight
Finalists – B&H Worldwide, The PSL Group, Uniserve Group
Staff Development Award – sponsored by Albacore Systems
Winner: Hemisphere Freight Services
Finalists – Kuehne+Nagel, Simarco Worldwide Logistics, Uniserve Group, Unsworth
Supply Chain Management Award – sponsored by BoxTop Technologies
Winner: OIA Global
Finalists – Core Management Logistics, Davies Turner, Yusen Logistics
Individual categories
Young Freight Forwarder Award – sponsored by Virgin Atlantic Cargo
Winner: Luke Brown of Daily Groupage Services
Finalists – Christopher Carter of Peterson UK, Markus Knudsen of GAC Services, Lisa North of B&H Worldwide
Apprentice of the Year Award – sponsored by Outsource Training & Development
Winner: Thomas Turner of Panalpina World Transport
Finalists – Paige Baldwin of TPS Global Logistics, Kyle Lawrence of Unsworth, Harry Underwood of Dachser Ltd and Jay Williams of Kuehne + Nagel Ltd.
Modal categories
Air Services Award – sponsored by IAG Cargo.
Winner: Metro Shipping
Finalists – Bermuda Forwarders, Dimerco Express Group, Ligentia
European Logistics Award – sponsored by TT Club
Winner – Uniserve Group
Finalists – Dimerco Express Group; Jordon Freight; Simarco Worldwide Logistics
Ocean Services Award – sponsored by Corrigan Bentley Recruitment
Winner: NNR Global Logistics
Finalists – Dimerco Express Group, UCargo
Specialist categories
Cool Award – sponsored by American Airlines
Winner: Bermuda Forwarders
Finalists – DB Schenker, Kuehne + Nagel; Morgan Cargo
Extra Mile Award – sponsored by Descartes.
Winner: Freightport Logistics
Finalists – Espace Europe; ISCA Forwarding, UK Customs Solutions