British International Freight Association Annual Report and Accounts ...

President’s Report
Contents
2 President’s Report
4 Chairman’s Report
6 Director General’s Report
8 Year in Review
14 Report of the Board of
Directors on the Accounts
15 Report of the Independent
Auditors
16 Financial Statements
23 Our People
Since May
2007, when
I became BIFA
President,
I have been
able to look back on my
time in the early 1980s
when I was Secretary of
State for Transport. During
the two years in which I
had Cabinet responsibility
for our vital transport sector,
I inevitably had to keep a
weather eye on how it was
performing.
This hands-on experience of enacting
legislation that informs, directs and
controls freight movement in the UK means
that, as BIFA President, I have taken a
keen interest in the legislative activities of
my successors as they have touched this
sector during 2008.
Domestic UK politics were quite benign to the
sector in 2008, compared to forces outside
the commercial control of any BIFA Member.
In London, the wider implementation of the
Low Emission Zone (LEZ) was postponed
by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson,
while the Chancellor put the industry on
notice that he intended to replace Air
Passenger Duty (APD) with a ‘Plane Tax’.
HM Treasury brought into play new money
laundering regulations, while the Corporate
Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act
2007 came into force.
There was Government tightening of the
law on illegal working, in response to public
concern over border security and the growing
Membership Figures
At 31 Dec 2008
Registered
Members
1,213
Associate
Members
38
Probationary
Members
153
Total
1,404
2 BIFA Annual Report and Accounts 2008
1,972
1,696
68