www.bifa.org


Robert Keen’s Column


BIFAlink


BIFAlink is the official magazine of the British International Freight Association Redfern House, Browells Lane, Feltham TW13 7EP Tel: 020 8844 2266 Web site: www.bifa.org E-mail: bifa@bifa.org (A company limited by guarantee. Registered in England: 391973. VAT Registration: 216476363)


Director General Robert Keen r.keen@bifa.org Executive Director Robert Windsor r.windsor@bifa.org Executive Director Spencer Stevenson s.stevenson@bifa.org Policy & Compliance Advisor Mike Jones m.jones@bifa.org Policy & Compliance Advisor Pawel Jarza p.jarza@bifa.org Training Development Manager Carl Hobbis c.hobbis@bifa.org Editorial Co-ordinator Sharon Hammond s.hammond@bifa.org Administration Controller Jane Robinson j.robinson@bifa.org


Published by Park Lane Publishing peter@parklanepublishingltd.com Contributors Robert Keen, Robert Windsor, Mike Jones, Spencer Stevenson, Carl Hobbis, Sharon Hammond, Pawel Jarza


Regional Consultants to BIFA Scotland and the Borders Len Hobbs: bifa.scot@gmail.com Northern Ireland Carson McMullan: carsonconluce@aol.com Midlands and the North Paul Young: youngyes@aol.com London West and the South West Colin Young: young_colin.t21@btinternet.com Anglia, London East and the South East Paul Newman: paul@pnauk.com


Please be advised that BIFA DOES NOT OFFER LEGAL ADVICE. BIFA is not a law firm and the authors of this publication are not legally qualified and do not have any legal training. The guidance and assistance set out herein are based on BIFA’s own experience with the issues concerned and should not be in any circumstances regarded or relied upon as legal advice. It is strongly recommended that anyone considering further action based on the information contained in this publication should seek the advice of a qualified professional.


May 2018


Facing up to your problems


When I was a forwarder and something went wrong, I would usually jump in the car and visit the customer in person if it was practical. I found that anger was always diffused if you were face to face, and often any damage to the relationship was minimised. I tried to put this into practice when I joined BIFA and upon visiting a Member who was irate, he informed me that he was amazed to see me as he thought of BIFA as a hidebound organisation that pontificated to the membership from Feltham. Happily things have changed, and with our regional representation supported by the secretariat staff, any BIFA Member can access someone from the Association easily.


However, we do still pontificate but hopefully in a positive way. Despite thousands of


shipments being processed without problems every day by BIFA Members, it is only the ones that go wrong that people call us about. We therefore have a knowledge base of issues to beware of and we have provided advice over the years in our Good Practice Guides, which can be found on our website. As you will have seen from the cover these have been revamped, and I have written more information on page 8.


It is the annual MultiModal trade show at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham during the first week


of May. We will be there as usual and looking forward to meeting the many BIFA Members that drop by our stand. You will also find BIFA staff talking at some of the seminars. I am talking on the Wednesday with my colleague Robert Windsor in a Brexit seminar. As regular readers will know, we have tried to avoid speculation about Brexit although we did think that we would have a better idea of how leaving the European Union would affect Members by now. We have been asked to talk about the Irish border and will be joined by the Irish International Freight Association, so hopefully we will have clarity from the government before then.


I mentioned last month that we are planning seminars regarding the upcoming change with entry processing


from CHIEF to Customs Declaration Service (CDS) by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Our plans are initially to hold five major events in partnership with Agency Sector Management (ASM) and HMRC. We have tried to cover areas with the greatest number of BIFA Members and you can see the schedule on page 9. We will of course cover other BIFA regions in the autumn, so the plan detailed in this magazine is just the start of our activity.


This is of tremendous importance to BIFA Members as the changes to how you currently work are radical.


Volume 3 of the Tariff will be completely different with new requirements. Data fields that you are used to are changing. We understand that software houses will be making the screens look as similar as they can. Another big change will be to Box 44, with LIC99 disappearing, and we are not yet sure how you will show that a preference certificate is attached to an entry.


The key thing to remember is that the introduction will be phased and there is a long timeframe. If you start to


educate yourselves and talk to software suppliers, there should be no need to panic. Relevant BIFA Training courses will be updated to reflect the changes.


Finally, can I remind BIFA Members that are still using the old Standard Trading Conditions to move to the new 2017 edition during this year. The changes are nothing that will leave you at risk but there are additional safeguards and enhancements introduced. If you would like detailed information, refer to the website or e-mail me.


Robert Keen Director General


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