TT Club: Innovation in Safety award 2023 opens for entries

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Following the recent success of this annual Award with record number of entries, the 2023 award will continue to form the centrepiece of TT Club and ICHCA’s on-going efforts to encourage players in the freight transport and cargo handling sectors further in continuing to improve operational safety and efficiency through innovation.

London, 4 September 2023

ICHCA International, the global cargo handling association, launched the 2023 TT Club Innovation in Safety Award today inviting entrants to submit details of their innovations by 13 November 2023. The Award, which is open to an individual, team or company involved in cargo logistics, has seen the prestige associated with winning or being highly commended, grow year-on-year. Past winners have ranged from individual entrepreneurs and specialist suppliers to employee teams in major industry businesses. Entrants are required to show that a product, idea, solution, process, scheme or other innovation has resulted in a demonstrable improvement in safety.

Details of how to submit entries and of the judging criteria can be found HERE

Both ICHCA and TT Club have a fundamental commitment to risk reduction throughout the entire freight supply chain. Promoting safety advice and good practices is paramount to the philosophy of the two organisations and the Award reflects this commitment. As such, the Award and the consequent profiling of the innovations put forward by its enthusiastic entrants, is central to the two organisations’ efforts to support continuous improvement in safety. They will continue to provide opportunities to showcase winners and other entrants, organising Safety Villages at industry forums and other live or virtual events. The range of the safety information and guidance documents these two organisations produce, from white papers to webinars and from advisories to checklists, can be found on their individual websites.

TT’s Risk Management Director Peregrine Storrs-Fox has been a supporter of the Award since its inception in 2016, “In TT’s role as a specialist provider of insurance products and risk management services to the supply chain industry, we have always emphasised the critical nature of loss prevention. At its essence this involves innovation to overcome experienced deficiencies – and then sharing what has been learned to enhance safety and certainty of outcome,” he says.

“TT is therefore proud to have worked closely with ICHCA for a number of years, both in presenting this Award and urging everyone across the entire industry to seek constant improvements in good practice systems and procedures safety. We look forward to celebrating the wealth of safety innovation that will once more be attracted by this Award.”

In past years, submissions to the Award programme have ranged in focus from bulk cargo handling to securing containers and their cargoes; from safety reporting and education to the correct handling of dangerous materials; from environmental monitoring to fire detection and suppression. The 2022 Award went to APMT’S Vessel Inspection Mobile App.  The App was developed in house in collaboration with Maersk and the core tenets made freely available to the industry. It provides a standardised digital platform for terminals to carry out vessel inspections, highlighting potential critical risk.

Two further shortlisted in this latest Award were NCB Exis Technologies for their Hazcheck Detect Innovation, allowing competing carriers the same technical solution with similar rules for immediate outcomes of cargo screening.  Finally Telematics BV (IMT) for its innovative Tank Container Temperature Monitoring system, offering a digital answer to the increasing demand to transport dangerous goods safely and monitor them remotely.

Richard Steele, ICHCA’s CEO comments, “A massive benefit of the Award is that we make the innovative work carried out by the organisations that enter, available to others. Working together in partnership with TT, we strive to achieve this through publishing a Digest of all the entries and helping the innovators to disseminate their knowledge through webinars and Safety Villages at industry exhibitions.”

“At ICHCA we believe that safety is the partner of efficiency, not its opposite.  A well-run safety-conscious organisation is an efficient and sustainable organisation. Accidents cost lives, money and reputation. We challenge ourselves and our industry to move safely forward. We are proud of the innovation our industry has achieved and we wish to celebrate those achievements into the future.”

The Award ceremony will take place in London on 22 February 2024 those shortlisted will present their entries, the winner announced and innovation will be celebrated once more.