With the economy growing steadily, some would say positively booming compared to Eurozone economies, investment is rising and forklift sales are up.
Securing the future
The highlight from the year was BITA coming together with the Fork Lift Truck Association to launch a single apprenticeship scheme covering the whole of the UK. This was a major, and some would say overdue, development with the clear aim of securing the future of our industry by addressing the skills gap and bringing more young people into the industry by promoting the career opportunities available.
This required a lot of behind the scenes work to bring together the two organisations and set up the company to deliver the training, but with scores of young people already taking advantage of the new scheme it demonstrates that a united front on major industry issues can be genuinely beneficial.
It is great to see that this initiative is going so well a decade after we joined forces with the FLTA to establish the materials handling industry’s own accredited scheme for Thorough Examination. By establishing and delivering a single, uniformly high standard throughout the UK, the CFTS scheme has proved an unparalleled success with more than 400 companies now accredited. Everyone involved in the single apprenticeship scheme wants this to be a similar success and it has been heartening to see how many young people want to get involved.
Emissions clouding the horizon
Looking ahead to next year, we have no doubt we will start to see the impact of the new EU emissions legislation for non-road diesel vehicles. That is something BITA will be keeping a very close eye on both domestically and through our involvement in the FEM, the European manufacturers’ association for materials handling, lifting and storage equipment.
We all want to see cleaner more efficient engines and lower emissions, and it is an interesting development that trucks complying with these new standards are potentially usable in warehouses where previously only electric trucks would have been suitable.
However, this latest legislation is very stretching and regulators must think hard about what comes next. Fork lift trucks should not become unattractive to purchase because of high upfront cost, high continuing cost of ownership or reduced functionality compared to maintaining existing equipment.
As further even more rigorous standards are applied, this could mean European truck manufacturers in effect having to develop separate ranges for export markets, which are not subject to the same regulatory controls, so losing some of their economies of scale which seems counter-intuitive in our globalised world.
On behalf of BITA, I wish everyone a fantastic end to the year and look forward to a 2015 to remember.
The British Industrial Truck Association, BITA, is a substantial and dynamic trade association representing a membership of 73 forklift truck manufacturers, suppliers, service providers and media operating in the UK.
BITA is the voice of the industry in matters technical and legislative at the highest levels in Europe and internationally. It enjoys a close working relationship with bodies such as the UK Health and Safety Executive, the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the International Standards Organisation (ISO).
As a member of the British Materials Handling Foundation (BMHF) BITA is allied with the Fédération Européenne de la Manutention (FEM), the European manufacturers’ association of materials handling, lifting and storage equipment.
Phone: 01344 623800
Email: info@bita.org.uk
Web: www.bita.org.uk
Comments are closed.