At the British International Freight Association (BIFA) Annual Awards Lunch in London last month, the global freight insurance specialist, TT Club presented the European Logistics Award to UK-based, independent freight forwarder The PSL Group.
The Award attracted a wide-range of entries, which the panel of judges praised for their innovation and technical prowess. This year’s winner, The PSL Group is a multi-service global forwarder with strategically located offices throughout the UK. It provides a range of supply chain management and forwarding services to a variety of industry verticals including fashion, healthcare and publishing.
Brian Sullivan, TT Club’s Development Director, in presenting the Award said: “TT Club is once more delighted to sponsor this Award and appreciates the role BIFA plays in encouraging best practice in the international freight and logistics industry. The judges were particularly impressed by the investment PSL made both in their staff and in quality systems to deliver a new rapid response offering.” The result is that PSL customers benefit from much faster turnaround times and the company has been able to generate new routes and new customers.
As in recent years, TT Club and BIFA have found from the excellent entries for the Award that innovative technology is very important in advancing customer service, but what ultimately makes the difference is the investment that an organisation makes in its staff. IT solutions are employed in a tailored fashion to improve efficiency but, critically, the human touch has not been abandoned. In fact, an emphasis on stable personal relationships and effective customer service has proved crucial to success.
“Perhaps the ‘human touch’ can become a modern day panacea for the operator searching for that elusive competitive edge,” concludes Sullivan.
TT Club is certainly seeing more extensive services being provided by its customers. Many companies that in the past offered traditional freight forwarding now take on a much higher degree of supply chain risk and become exposed to greater liability by providing increasingly complex and sophisticated services. The trend is, however, seen as positive. The increased complexity of service offerings and the ingenuity of operators in designing alternative supply chain solutions strongly demonstrate the logisticians’ value and provide opportunities for new entrants as much as established logistics companies.
