Institute of Couriers chairman Carl Lomas paid five shillings to enter Guildhall Yard, enacting the obligation placed on carters, Carl chose the classic Honda CX500 courier bike as his cart for the ceremony of Carmen. The 1976 courier motorbike carried colours of the eighties. Delta, GLH, Security Despatch, Pony Express & Mercury. Modern day FORS logos and IOC internet web. The shaft drive,  water-cooled v-twin has become the iconic two-wheeler of the eighties final mile. This series one bike is not shy of fame as it has been seen at all the 2018 trade shows from Intralogistex to Multimodal.

The Cartmarking event is without doubt the most ceremonial transport event of the year, and saw a bumper turnout of fellows and members in this very special five hundred and first year.

Hold the front page news for Cartmarking as IFA announces funding band for the driver operative qualification. Fellows gathered from across the UK. Apprenticeship Trailblazer chairman Justin Moore reported the funding band at grade six for the new Express delivery level two, that’s four thousand pounds of levy for new generation drivers and riders delivering final mile.

Top brass talk was all about code of practice in the shadow of the latest employment tribunals, the world of express is all set for the August 1^st date of the heads of industry meeting to review the conduct and practice around employment status.

Everyone mulled the solutions to strategy while it was the classic Honda CX500 courier bike that took centre stage of the ceremony of transport. Let’s talk those eighties colours. It was fully loaded with panniers and top-box of the eighties, yet firmly in the modern day with FORS logos either side.

Carl Lomas comments on the courier bike,

The CX was an iconic machine of the eighties working courier, shaft drive reliability with water cooling and frame strength to carry a great deal of pannier luggage.

Cartmarking Gallery

01 Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell with IOC CEO Tracey Worth
02 Col. Andy Moffat BFPO with Jason Gowan Diamond Logistics
03 Suffragettes remembered with Tracey Worth
04 Five shillings paid
05 Ali Kagalwalla CitySprint
06 LSA Yale fork truck
07 Paul Wagstaffe remembers Security Dispatch from 1987
08 Honorary Fellow of the IOC Leon Daniels
09 Lomas in Hi-Viz with Gareth Powell, new MD of Surface Transport at TfL and Sir Peter Hendy Hon. FIoC, chair Network Rail
10 City of London Corporation Vince Dignam with Carl Lomas
11,12 IOC President Lord Falkland with IOC guests