New Year Message from ICHCA’s CEO 2025

Success in 2024

ICHCA members worked hard in 2024 to continuously deliver safety and health improvements across cargo handling. In February we held the TT Club Innovation in Safety Awards as a live in-person ceremony and published a 100 page digest of the 28 amazing safety ideas being delivered throughout our industry. Every organisation could look at the digest and see something to inspire their next game changing intervention.

The Innovation in Safety Award is now firmly established as a year-round cycle. In June, we partnered with TT Club and TOC Europe at our bigger-than-ever Safety Village, featuring exhibitors and over a dozen speakers including innovators from Awards past and present. We also continued our monthly Technical Panel Calls; an open forum where you decide what we discuss, ensuring that we explore topics of importance to you.

It was a full-on year for the International Maritime Organisation and we were actively engaged at the IMSBC editorial meeting helping to update the code. We were part of the vehicle transport (including EVs) correspondence group drafting amendments to existing and designing new Special Provisions. Recognising the priority of Confined/Enclosed space risks we played a keen part in the IMO Enclosed Spaces Correspondence Group revising Resolution A.1050(27), protecting lives on board ships.

Even more members attended IMO meetings in-person and on-line through our Non-Governmental Organisation status, via a streamlined request process. Much of the IMO work culminated in September’s intensive Carriage of Cargoes and Containers meeting.

Several projects significantly progressed towards completion, including a terminal/vessel familiarisation syllabus designed to be used with first responders as part of emergency response planning. Others included a port worker guide to dangerous goods, guidance on stacking and handling of flexitanks, segregation of dangerous goods in the yard, a quick guide to transport of dangerous goods regulations and a hidden dangerous goods video. We completed the development of our first on-line learning module – an introduction to the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code, ready for 2025.

We finalised the draft standard and began trials of our Vessel Workplace Inspection tool designed to enable ports and terminals to assess common criteria for safe working on board during load and discharge. We improved its functionality, including allowing uploading of photographic evidence, and the ability for organisations to run it on their own network and export results to a shared database that can be hosted by ICHCA.

Building effective industry partnerships to extend our impact is a key strategic goal. We worked intensively with partners, attending and speaking at their events including PEMA, PSS, ABTO and at the first European Transport Workers Federation and Employer joint Safety Conference. The latter event reaffirmed our tripartite working: employers, regulators/associations and workforce with a shared vision for the safety and security of global trade. We were delighted to work with LEEA on ‘Global Lifting Awareness Day’.

As part of several industry stakeholder groups, we continued what will be a longer-term journey to identify new requirements for control of invasive pest contamination, including consulting with members on and contributing to a revised draft of container cleanliness industry guidelines. We delivered our PEST Week campaign to help members understand the risk of phytosanitary pests, the cost (40% of global crops and $220 billion trade losses/year) the position of the regulators and their expectations of our industry.

We bracketed the start and end of the year with webinars. These included a first viewing – for the vast majority of members – of images taken from the salvage of Freemantle Highway. Then, in December, with partner Port Technology International we delivered 6 hours of port safety content for an audience of over 500 people from over 100 ports.
Our Safety Alerts spotlighted 22 important learning points to members who also saw 16 member enquiries addressed. Our digest format newsletter ‘ICHCA Insights’ regularly delivered to your in-box every month.

We shared learning videos, and workplace checklists, continued the work to update the CTU Code with the UNECE and Cargo Integrity Group partners. More of you joined the Technical Panel, the engine that drives ICHCA’s technical expertise and credibility.

We also began developing basic safety rules for managers, port workers, visiting drivers and crew.

Our high consequence risk research database now documents over 1500 severe cargo workplace incidents from around the world since 2000. From this we can robustly evidence that crush by cargo, struck by handling vehicles, falls from height and confined spaces are the top four severe outcome risks to port personnel. We turned this database into a dashboard for members to both draw down learning and to provide the evidence-led focus for our programme of communication and delivery. We will continue to update this vital source of learning.

To keep all of this work ‘on point’ our – member driven – Technical Panel Steering Group continued to set the direction and programme of work for ICHCA and its project teams such as our Dangerous Goods working group.

Into 2025…
In addition to once again benefiting from all the value-add member services that we delivered to you in 2024, you will see new works as well as conclusions of projects that started this year. We aim to publish the cargo sector basic safety/life-saving rules and the vessel inspection standards. We will publish various dangerous goods content including new material on the handling of dangerous goods in tanks in terminals, a dangerous goods in ports port worker awareness guide and emergency response training content. We will release the hidden dangerous goods video. We will continue work on, and provide updates for, topics such as battery fire safety and slinging operations. We will continue our campaigns on confined spaces – aligned with the expected adoption of the update of IMO resolution A.1050(27) – as well as workplace transport and safety of lashing bridges.

There will be continuation of the CTU Code revision, PEST risk management, transport of EVs at IMO as well as adding a fire safety infographic to the web site linking to multiple sources of critical information. We will start a new project on working in hot and cold conditions and members can look forward to this year’s Innovation in Safety Award ceremony in February and Safety village at TOC Europe in the summer.

Perhaps most ambitiously, we will invite members to participate in Accident Data sharing in 2025. This important idea of collating learning from multiple organisations is far from easy to achieve but we believe that it is within our reach and we will thoroughly explore the art of the possible.

Finally, we have our ITP meeting Barcelona in May. This will be first proper opportunity to meet many of you in-person for the first time and I am really looking forward to it!
With your help these are just some of the key areas we will focus on together in 2025.

As always, new challenges and opportunities will emerge as the year unfolds and in the years ahead. Every day, I’m inspired by what we can achieve as the ICHCA community.
The opportunity, determination, and expertise exist to continue transforming cargo handling and coordination—making it safer, healthier, and more efficient. Every single member of ICHCA plays a vital role in reaching this shared goal.

I hope you will continue to support our mission in 2025, and I look forward to working alongside you to make a lasting impact and help shape a safer, smarter future for our industry.
Together, we can keep driving meaningful change.

Richard Steele
Chief Executive Officer
ICHCA International