The Freight Transport Association (FTA) has announced that it will change its name to Logistics UK from the end of May.
The move comes as the organisation looks to achieve more for its members and change the way it is perceived by people outside the industry.
FTA chief executive David Wells said: “It is important to note that we are not changing our focus, or the important services, support and advice that we provide to members.
"This is a natural progression in our name, which has been under way for several months already. Evolving our name is not something that I or the board take lightly, but it’s something that we believe is essential if the FTA is to continue to grow and achieve more for its members in a fast-changing world.
“To understand why we need to continue evolving our name, it’s important to understand how we achieve those policy wins. FTA is strong because of its size and scale, and because we already represent all of logistics, a very large sector critical to the success of UK plc.
"Our breadth, size and scale is unique, and gives us strength and depth in expertise across important issues in all of the sectors we represent. Increasingly, policymakers and the media look to consult with organisations which can represent the whole sector. This has been especially important, and continues to be so, in our discussions around Brexit.
"Most broadcast and national media now describe us as ‘FTA, the organisation that represents all of Logistics in the UK’. This has been a very natural and frictionless evolution for FTA, and our latest change of name will continue that journey. We’ve worked hard to take that space, and our media coverage and influence are growing, but sometimes our name does not reflect what we do.
"FTA is really well known and respected in the industry, but increasingly it’s the people outside our sector, like politicians, young people (who may never have considered careers in our sector), and journalists who will be critical to us achieving even more for members.
"It is vital in today’s fast paced media environment that those stakeholders quickly understand who we are and what we do. We need to continue to raise our voice in the media, to give us extra strength with government, and our name is an important part of achieving that."
Wells made the announcement as he celebrated ten years at the helm of the organisation.
"The past ten years have been really fulfilling from a personal and professional point of view, as our work has brought logistics to the forefront of many people’s minds," he said. "In that time, the industry has changed beyond all recognition – when I started at FTA, things like autonomous and electric vehicles were in their infancy, while the idea of drone deliveries was the thing of imagination, yet now they are accepted as part of our supply chain."
