Senior TC Beverley Bell is new CILT president

The senior traffic commissioner for Great Britain, Beverley Bell, used her inauguration lunch as president of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) to ask members to consider why more people are not being attracted to work in the supply chain, transport and logistics industry.

Bell, who said she was ‘privileged’ to have taken on the role of president for 2015-16, said that the industry contributed £92 billion to the UK economy – adding that the contribution it made was disproportionate to the profile and recognition it received.

Among the challenges that she said the industry and CILT must address were how to attract the 1.2 million workers the logistics and transport industry will need by 2020; and how to improve the industry’s training record and investment in employees.

Bell also said the industry needed to challenge the stereotypes surrounding it, such as the ‘typical lorry driver image’ – and to champion the good work it does and the successes it achieves.