Many members of the British International Freight Association (BIFA) operate warehousing and logistics facilities which vary in size and functionality.
Whether they are the massive facilities that can be seen populating the fields alongside many of the country’s major highways, or simple short term storage facilities on trading estates across the UK, all play a crucial role in domestic and international supply chains.
Through their warehousing and other logistics services, the trade association’s members make a major contribution to the UK economy, employing thousands of staff, showcasing high tech, fast-moving working environments.
Warehousing and logistics is one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK, which prior to Brexit and the Pandemic, went largely unnoticed.
Those two events served to highlight the essential work undertaken at freight forwarders’ warehouses and people became more aware of the increasingly central role that the facilities play in everyday lives.
As traditional High Street tasks are being taken back up the supply chain by ecommerce, whilst quasi-manufacturing activities like assembling gift-packs or printing T-shirts are pushed downstream, the warehousing function is changing quickly. Our members have seen their facilities becoming hubs for such activities as returns management, recycling, upcycling and repairs, helping reduce waste as part of the circular economy.
They have noted the trend for warehouses to become much higher with a larger footprint and this is likely to continue with the development of more and more so called ‘mega-sheds’ featuring more than one million sq. ft of space.
There is increasing adoption of automation and robotics as part of our members efforts to improve productivity and support the wellbeing of their workforces, while the ever increasing focus on environment issues and sustainability is shaping the development of new buildings in order to reduce emissions and control costs. That includes the increasing installation of solar panels on rooftops offering huge potential for generating clean, affordable solar power.
At the time of writing this article and following the announcement in March 2022 to review The Warehousekeepers & Owners of Warehoused Goods Regulations (WOWGR) 1999, HMRC issued an invitation to all traders dealing with excise goods to share their views on the potential changes to these regulations.
It is reviewing the requirements for the registration and approval of warehousekeepers, owners of goods under duty suspension, and/or duty representatives storing excise goods warehoused in the UK, which form part of WOWGR 1999.
HMRC is keen to hear from the industry on potential changes to these regulations and you can participate by visiting: https://bifa.org
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