Record membership growth for TAPA EMEA

A record year of membership growth despite the economic downturn is testimony to the importance manufacturers and their logistics and transport suppliers place on tackling cargo crime, according to Thorsten Neumann, Chairman of the Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.

TAPA EMEA has attracted 36 new members so far in 2009 – taking its total membership in the region to an all-time high of over 260 companies.
UPS, the world’s largest package delivery company, is the latest to join. UPS serves 7.9 million customers a day and delivered 3.9 billion packages and documents in 2008. Combined with its supply chain and freight services activities, the company has over 2,700 operating facilities worldwide.
 

Howard Stone, Europe Region SCS and Aviation Security for UPS, said: “UPS ispleased to become a member of TAPA EMEA. Security has always been a high priority at UPS. We look forward to working with the security professionals from other transportation industry stakeholders and manufacturers to further develop safeguards and standards to improve and enhance global supply chain security."

As well as new transport and logistics members from across the region, TAPA EMEA’s membership has also been boosted this year with the arrival of a host of high profile manufacturers, including Electrolux, Procter & Gamble, Samsung Electronics and Sony Ericsson.

Thorsten Neumann said: “While other associations have seen their membership drop off as businesses have cut back, TAPA EMEA is going from strength to strength. We are continuing to provide real benefits to members through crime intelligence, enhanced security standards, networking opportunities and our continued dialogue with bodies such as the EU on the compatibility of our Freight Security Requirements (FSR) with AEO. Just as importantly, we are seeing record attendances at our conferences and no shortage of volunteers for task groups which I believe indicates TAPA’s success in producing measurable benefits that can be clearly linked to improving the bottom lines of our members.”

According to its latest data for Q2 2009, TAPA EMEA members reported 525 incidents of crime with a total loss value of €12.2 million.

Source: Transportweekly