Four regional finalists representing the future of freight forwarding will travel to Los Angeles in October for the FIATA World Congress, where one of the four from Germany, Australia, Canada and South Africa, will be selected to receive the overall International Award. Part of the winner's prize will include a week's training at one of TT Club's regional centres in London, Hong Kong or New Jersey.

This year, the Steering Group of the Award was very pleased to receive fourteen outstanding papers from candidates across the four regions. The subject matter covered key import and export issues pertaining to various major cargo commodities. Members of the Group commented on the high standard of the entries, which made selection of the regional winners a very challenging task.

As Chairman of the Steering Committee, Andrew Kemp, TT Club's European Regional Director commented, "TT Club is firmly committed to encouraging best practice in all aspects of freight transport. Our risk management and loss prevention resources are continually aimed at informing forwarders, carriers, cargo handlers and transport operators of best practise in stowage, documentation, safety, security and many other aspects of the business. In the same vein the Club promotes professional training at every opportunity. We are proud to support FIATA's initiative in this respect."

In addition to the week's training the overall winner will attend the Thomas Miller "Insight into Transport Law and Insurance" course in London, of which TT Club are part of, and also receive a subscription to two of the industry's leading media information sources, International Transport Journal (ITJ/ITZ) and Lloyd's Loading List.

The 2012 Regional Winners are:

Africa/Middle East: Mr Daniel Terbille, South Africa

Americas: Mr Salman Ali, Canada

Asia/Pacific: Mr Christopher Yabsley, Australia

Europe: Ms Nadine Baumgartner, Germany

Documentation for the 2013 Award will be distributed to FIATA Association members towards the end of August 2012 with the usual deadline for nominating candidates of 15 January 2013.