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have since handed over to another employee. I am now head of operations for the company,” he summed up. Lee finds it deeply rewarding to be in a


position, now, to help new recruits develop, using his own experience to guide them. For instance, he has trained and mentored 11 graduates, one of whom opened his own branch – just as Lee himself did – in October 2017.


Pushing boundaries Lee’s development within 512 is not the only example of how a young newcomer to the logistics industry is making a difference at the company. He noted: “We tend to employ university leavers who are 21 or 22 years old. They are pushing the boundaries, they are more tech savvy and they bring different ideas.” With the UK government seeking to increase


British exports, he hopes for more promotion of the industry at schools, colleges and universities in the future so as to attract more young people with fresh thinking. Areas that he feels need to move forward


more quickly include transparency, which requires investment in technology, software and infrastructure. The shift towards digitalisation of


documentation and improved shipment tracking need to speed up; the logistics industry can be set in its ways and slow to change. Lee said: “A lot of freight forwarders tend to


Lee Wells : Our industry keeps the world turning


Making a difference


A finalist in BIFA’s Young Freight Forwarder of the Year Award category, Lee Wells has demonstrated that with the right opportunities and support, young freight forwarders can really make a difference within the industry


Like many young people in the industry today, Lee Wells got into logistics by chance. He explained: “When I left university I took a temporary job [at 512] to cover for staff illness for a few weeks. I really enjoyed it, but I have a degree [in emergency planning], so I said I would like to stay on as long as there was career progression. “I did not just want to keep doing admin. So the company created a graduate programme


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around me – and now we take on graduates with any degree, and train them internally.” Lee was integral in creating an award-winning


structure for developing staff within 512 and he is the first example of what the programme can achieve. “Starting with the company [seven-and-a-half


years ago] as a temporary shipping clerk, I went on to open and maintain a profitable new 512 branch (situated at Doncaster airport) which I


do things a certain way because that is how they have always been done, whereas people with no industry knowledge will question things. That sort of naivety leads to progress. “We need to encourage a mentality that asks


for change and avoid blinkered thinking,” he added.


Further afield Looking back over his career so far, Lee considered: “I enjoy this industry and how it relates to everything everyone does. It keeps the world turning – everything relies on it. We have different challenges every day and it is also growing, which keeps us on our toes.” He has now stepped away from the


operations side of the business and is working closely with management on various means of developing 512. For example, there are plans to open more offices across the north of the UK – and further afield, too. China, the US and the Middle East are all possibilities. Lee can certainly see himself heading up an


office overseas. “I will go wherever it takes me,” he said. “This is an attractive industry, when you think of what you can achieve and how much of the world you can see.”


August 2018


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