25.11.2008

Freight by Water Launched

On 21st November, Sea and Water, the promotional body for water-freight transportation in and around the UK, became Freight by Water. This is the last act in the organisation's restructuring process which began in late 2007.

Over the last few months, Freight by Water has worked to redefine the organisation, focussing on its promotional and policy work on behalf of the UK's water-freight industry. In order to do so, Freight by Water has held three major membership events, published its comprehensive report, UK Freight Trends Towards 2018 and Beyond, obtained abundant coverage in both the national and trade media and worked with Government to encourage policy initiatives that provide support to water-freight transport in the UK. These efforts have strengthened Freight by Water as a membership organisation which defines and redresses obstacles for water-freight transport and promotes industry success stories.

The name change better reflects Freight by Water's core objective - to facilitate the transport of freight by water in and around the UK. When Sea and Water was inaugurated five years ago, the water-freight sector was highly fragmented and poorly understood by the transport industry. Raising awareness required a more esoteric approach backed up by careful research. Today, water freight is recognised as a real choice by the logistics industry, policymakers and consumers. Freight by Water's role is now much clearer: to get on with solid promotion.

Freight by Water member Cory Environmental takes 100,000 lorry movements per year off Britain's roads by moving waste via water

The rebranding will be an ongoing process, to be completed in early 2009 with the launch of a new website, rebuilt from the ground up and a much improved water-freight transport database. Our address and telephone number will remain the same, whilst the existing domain and email addresses will automatically be rerouted to www.freightbywater.org.

Executive Director, Francis Power said "It was an obvious choice for us to change our name to Freight by Water and it has gone down well with everyone we have talked to. I have been closely involved with Sea and Water since its launch in 2003 and have watched it develop into a recognised and respected organisation.  What to many was then a curiosity is now increasingly mainstream. With this name change comes clarity of our role as the UK's short-sea, coastal and inland water freight promotion centre. We will focus our work to build on the successes of the last five years and ensure that difficult market conditions do not setback our goal of delivering a reduction in carbon, congestion and costs to the UK consumer".

For more information, please contact:

Freight by Water;
Queen Anne’s Business Centre
28 Broadway
London SW1H 9JX
Sam Webber or Yariella Coello
Tel +44 (0)20 7340 9531