FIATA – which refers to the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations – derives its name from the French abbreviation of Fédération Internationale des Associations de Transitaires et Assimilés. It is the largest non-governmental transport association of freight forwarding companies. Founded back in 1926, FIATA is presently headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. As one of the most reputed associations of the freight forwarding industry, becoming a FIATA member comes with a set of unique advantages. Keep reading today’s post to find out more about this organization and how independent freight forwarders can benefit by becoming a member.
What is FIATA?
FIATA is an association of freight forwarding companies that has a consultative status with the United Nations. In other words, documents generated by FIATA have a bearing on the international trade laws. Most governmental authorities as well as private organizations recognize FIATA as a representative body of the international freight forwarding industry. Presently they consist of 109 Association Members with over 5,500 Individual Members. Additionally, FIATA members are represented by over 40,000 freight forwarding companies from all over the world.
The objectives of FIATA
FIATA has five principal objectives. They are as follows
- They forward to bring together the international freight forwarding industry
- FIATA aims to promote, protect and represent the interests of the logistics sector. Moreover, they take up the role of industry experts during conventions of the global transportation and logistics industry.
- Yet another objective of the FIATA is to standardize and enhance the level of services provided by freight forwarding companies. To this end, they promote and create standardized trading conditions and forwarding documents.
- The FIATA seeks to familiarize the freight forwarding industry and its customers with the services provided by logistics companies. They do this by broadcasting relevant information and publications.
- Lastly, the FIATA supports vocational education for freight forwarders. Moreover, they also provide several e-commerce platforms plus barcodes and e-data exchange facilities. They also help their members with liability insurance problems.
Types of FIATA memberships
FIATA members can be classified under two categories: Association Members and Individual Members.
Association members
FIATA’s Association Membership implies global representation of the members among the chief participants and industry experts in the transportation and logistics industry. They advocate member-friendly policies that are aimed to benefit their members in their local environments. Furthermore, the Association Members of FIATA get to join an international community of freight forwarders. FIATA provides them with a range of resources and platforms to amplify their voices in the industry. If your want to become an Association member your first step is to write them an email at this address: info@fiata.com.
Individual members
Competent independent freight forwarders can choose to become the Individual members of FIATA. It will immensely help to augment the reputation of the member freight forwarders. The Individual members are required to comply with the rules and objectives of FIATA. The Business Integrity Statement will give you a fair idea about the rules that you’d be required to abide by as a member. Moreover, the reputation associated with being a member of a highly protected brand like FIATA will allow the freight forwarder to obtain new projects.
Group members
FIATA’s group members consists of global companies that represent the logistics branch of a number of countries. However, if all the group members are national associations, they are referred to as Association members. They can also consist of global forwarding bodies that embody similar interests as that of FIATA. It also includes groups whose members are only active in a particular department of the freight forwarding sector.
The Type Yellow Membership
This membership is intended for carriers, suppliers, shippers and other groups that work within the freight forwarding industry. Even lawyers specializing in logistics law can become a Type Yellow member of FIATA. For Type Yellow membership, one needs to pay a total registration cost of 1,185 CHF (Swiss Frank). Apart from this there is an yearly membership fee of 1,000 CHF, a courier service fee of 35 CHF and an one time entrance fee of 150 CHF.
Type Blue & Green Membership
This type of membership is ideally meant for the independent freight forwarders. Type Blue members are those organizations that are in countries with a FIATA Association member. Members in territories without FIATA association members are the Type Green members. Blue and Green Type members have to pay a net registration cost of 335 CHF. Additionally, they also have to pay an annual membership fee of 250 CHF, a one-time entrance fee of 50 CHF and courier fee of 35 CHF.
How FIATA’s Blue Type membership can benefit the independent freight forwarders?
There are several advantages of Type Blue membership for independent freight forwarders.
- To begin with your, company name and contact will be featured in the FIATA members’ directory. In other words, partners and customers looking for services in a particular territory on the FIATA directory will easily find the company’s contacts.
- You will receive the FIATA Review 5 times annually. This review is a publication that will keep you updated with all the industry defining issues along with the latest news from FIATA.
- You will receive FIATA publications at a discounted price. These publications include- FIATA Documents and Forms, Code of Abbreviations, Legal Handbook on Forwarding, The Law of Freight Forwarding and several other articles.
- As a member you will also get legal advice from FIATA. Moreover, in several territories FIATA recommends on request legal professionals in the freight forwarding sector.
- There is an FIATA arbitration court that mitigates disputes between the FIATA members.
- The Individual members of FIATA can use the FIATA Logo on their business cards, company brochure, letterheads, vehicles, website and print materials.
You can check out FIATA’s Member Brochure in English, French, and Spanish for further information about FIATA membership.