Chamber of Shipping: One Voice for the UK’s maritime services

Chamber of Shipping logo for press releases

Thursday, 24, Jul 2008 12:00

The shipping, ports and maritime business services sectors in the UK have formalised an agreement to work together and speak with a single voice on key strategic and practical issues of joint concern.

The grouping, to be known as “One Voice”, will meet at a high level on a quarterly basis to provide a forum for discussion and action on relevant issues. A speedy consultation process has also been established to allow quick responses to issues when required.

The chairmanship of One Voice will rotate between the three sectors making up the grouping (business services, ports and shipping) with Richard Everitt, chairman of the UK Major Ports Group, taking the role for the first six months. The day-to-day secretariat will be undertaken by the Chamber of Shipping. One Voice will speak as a single group on agreed issues, either through the Chairman of the day or through the individual member organisation which is most concerned with the issue.

The participating organisations – at least initially – will include the Baltic Exchange, the British Ports Association, the Chamber of Shipping, the Federation Council of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers, Maritime London and the UK Major Ports Group. Others may be invited to join in due course.

The objectives of One Voice are to:

o unite and represent the UK’s maritime services cluster (shipping, ports and business services) – working through and with its constituent organisations

o seek recognition as such by Government, international audiences and the outside world

o identify together common strategic goals, try to reach common positions among the constituent organisations on key high-level issues, and (once agreed) maintain the discipline of a single voice in discussions with the relevant audiences

o build greater political and policy weight behind the positions taken by these vital sectors, thereby expanding their individual and collective influence

o take advantage of new opportunities to build consensus between the partners and dispel any confusion which may have resulted in the past from the projection of several different (even if parallel) messages on the key high-level issues

o facilitate closer working between the participating organisations, thereby increasing their effectiveness and enabling their professional resources to be used/shared better in the future.

“The aim is to achieve greater influence and simplify relationships with UK Government, MPs, officials, other UK maritime-related sectors, international organisations and associations, and other relevant points of influence,” said Martin Watson, president of the Chamber of Shipping. “The UK Government openly states that it sometimes has difficulty identifying whose voice should be considered truly representative on some specific sectoral and cross-sectoral issues.”

“Many associations represent the interests of the wider maritime sector,” commented Michael Drayton, chairman of the Baltic Exchange. “This is in stark contrast to the close-knit public profile of, for instance, the aviation industry. In the past, our message to government has been diluted by the number of groups speaking. We are determined to work effectively together to secure the long-term future of UK-based shipping and wider maritime services by making sure the government receives and understands our messages clearly.”

Increased coordination of the maritime sector is expected to be matched by a greater cohesion within government and especially with the key departments and agencies that work with maritime businesses, including the Departments for Transport, for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, and for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

The two ports associations, UKMPG and BPA, will be relocating to the Chamber building in the autumn. This will give rise to obvious practical opportunities to work with the ports groups even more closely – not least on training matters.

Richard Everitt commented, “the One Voice initiative on top of the action we are already taking to develop co-working between ports and shipping sectors is, I believe, unparalleled elsewhere in Europe. I look forward to chairing the One Voice group over the next six months.”

Ends

For further information please contact Jeremy Harrison 07789 721 293