The Award will be presented to the winning entrant by Heike Deggim, Director of the Maritime Safety Division at the International Maritime Organization at ICHCA's international conference in Malta this November. The Award aims to highlight the importance of safety at a time of increased operational demands on cargo handling infrastructure and operations worldwide. The Award champions and celebrates the many companies and individuals around the world who are 100% dedicated to 'making it safe' every day. Equally, it acknowledges and fosters innovation to improve safety in cargo operations and logistics.

The 2^nd Award was won in 2017 by Hapag Lloyd for its Cargo Patrol system.  This innovation is an industry-leading attempt to reduce fraudulent cargo declarations that obscure the true identity of dangerous goods transported around the globe. Entries for the 2017 award were numerous and varied, and the judges were pleased also to award a 'Highly Commended' prize to Safety Ammo for its RFID-based safety solution, developed with DP World Brisbane, to minimise the dangers faced by workers who physically handle twistlocks on the underside of containers on the waterfront.

The full report from the 2017 Award, including details of all entries submitted, has been published and is available to download for free here.

Both ICHCA International and TT Club have a fundamental commitment to risk reduction throughout the supply chain and, in particular, to safety within cargo handling operations. Promoting such safety advice is paramount to the philosophy of the two organisations and the Award reflects this commitment.

In announcing the opening of the Award entry process for 2019, TT Club Risk Management Director Peregrine Storrs-Fox said, "TT Club has always emphasised the critical nature of loss prevention in its role as a primary supplier of liability and property insurance to those operating in the freight supply chain industry.  As such, we remain dedicated to encouraging safety awareness and are delighted to maintain our support of this joint initiative with ICHCA.  This award aims to tease out and profile equipment, systems or processes that result in improvements in safety - effectively helping to ensure that workers can return home night by night.  We look forward to examining the wealth of safety innovation that will once more be encouraged by this Award."

The Award is open to anyone - an individual, team or company - involved in cargo handling or logistics.  Entrants are required to show that a product, idea, solution, process, scheme or other innovation has resulted in a demonstrable improvement to safety.

The deadline for entries is 31 August 2019 and full details of the entry process and judging criteria can be found here.

The Award Ceremony takes place on Tuesday 12 November in Malta after day 1 of ICHCA International's 20/20 Cargo Vision Conference & Exhibition and is a principal part of the evening's programme. ICHCA's flagship event promises to bring together the most influential professionals in cargo handling to discuss the best ways to improve as an industry. Tickets are reduced by 25% for those who book before 25 June here.