Carl Lomas IOC chair was proud to be at one of the most interactive and sincere exchanges of freight issues in the history of the TfL forum. A key note by Mike Brown, the very last word from Ian Wainwright and strong interaction at the round tables for the mayor’s strategy on London for transport. TfL Ben Plouden summarised into six key themes.
IOC Heads of Industry – Oct 18th IOD, Pall Mall London SW1
TfL, DWP and DfE(BIS) at the IOC Heads of industry fellows round table event despite ultra congestion as Trafalgar Square closed for the Olympic celebration medal party. It was a full house to share best practice and put issues to the table. Opening with a transport style bacon butty lunch for a network opportunity of like-minded teams to focus on key express issues. IOC Chair Carl Lomas MBE opened with introductions, ‘City Sprint, Hermes, DPD,GLH, Diamond, Gnewt, DHL, GSG, Rush, Swift, UK Mail and more introduced themselves as Lomas urged talk about key and imminent issues.
Innovation win for logistics training at Heathrow
Unique collaboration between college, employers and sector institute for win in logistics hot-spot of workforce need.
The skills & logistics centre trains young people and adults to meet the growing demand for skilled workers in the logistics industry, the project is a collaboration between West Thames College, System Training, the Institute of Couriers, business leaders and the local authority.
Tracy Aust, principal West Thames College quotes,
We are delighted to have received the highly commended accolade for innovation with our new skills and logistics centre. This has been the result of a strong partnership between West Thames, the Institute of Couriers, national employers and the local authority. We are confident that what we have created in West London will become a hub of excellence in the logistics sector.
David Cormack, System Training commented,
I am very pleased to see the logistics facility at Feltham being recognised for the contribution it makes to logistics sector not only at Heathrow but in the wider community in the capital. System are proud of their involvement with the facility and our part in delivering the next generation workforce for Heathrow. It offers a breadth of qualifications from foundation learning through to apprenticeship and degree level providing a valuable resource to the logistics, Express couriers and Air freight sector.
Hounslow council leader Steve Curran talked expansion of logistics around Heathrow. 'This is a success story of local people.’ Tracy Aust college principal, IOC chair Carl Lomas, ‘ Express logistics numbers are exploding, Heathrow is a hot spot location for this sector.’ Adam Sage, ‘West Thames college is committed to the next generation of logistics workforce.’
Carl Lomas, Inst of Couriers Chairman,
This is one of the UK hotspots for express logistics, there is a clear need for next generation workforce, the Logistics skills centre is a great success for local need and a sector match for Express delivery. The next step is levy and the new express trailblazer apprenticeship that should re-inforce excellence for local people and supply local courier and express companies with the workforce they need.
FORS - Fleet operator recognition scheme. More focus for vans as scheme achieves four thousand members. IOC chair Carl Lomas sat at the Governance council Oct bringing more van vision to the London standard turned national. FORS passed four thousand members in the last quarter, half of the vehicles are vans, the FORS emblem born in London has become a national representation of fleets working inside the standard to look at workforce, vehicle, compliance and clean air. The very latest standards V4,1 are published, take a look here, The bar has been raised a little for gold standard and some silver requirements have been passed down to Bronze.
Storm Rannard for Insider News reports - Geman giant moves for UK Mail
Insider news report - Germany's Deutsche Post DHL looks set to acquire UK Mail after a £242.7m takeover bid was recommended to shareholders of the parcel delivery business. Under the terms of the offer, UK Mail shareholders will receive 440 pence per share and will also be entitled to an interim dividend of 5.5 pence per share. Peter Kane, chairman of UK Mail, said: "We have made good strategic progress in recent years, establishing leading positions in our key markets of parcels and mail, investing in additional capacity in our operations and in IT and product and service innovation. "However, the board believes that UK Mail will benefit significantly from becoming part of Deutsche Post DHL, and will be better positioned to continue to develop our parcels and mail businesses with the benefit of Deutsche Post DHL's greater financial and operational resources." The offer is subject to approval from UK Mail shareholders. The company's directors were advised by Investec Bank and described the bid as "fair and reasonable". Jürgen Gerdes, board member of Deutsche Post DHL, added: "The on-going expansion of our parcel network in Europe is driven by increasing demand within our e-commerce customer base for cross-border deliveries.
Infrastructure scored top priority for action, a national flavour with speakers from Coventry and Manchester. Guests from major players to small SMEs and two fully electric fleet operators.
Air quality, payload to weight, range, distance and legislation around charging were the big topics driven from the floor.
Chair Carl Lomas,
The van group clearly has two streams, operators who return vehicles for fuel or charge to their base and operators whose drivers take vehicles home, they are unlikely to have off-street parking, garage or charging facilities, The two groups are very different and each face infrastructure challenges that are quite different.
© 2026 Institute of Couriers