Pictured: Dayna Thackrah, Pharma Operations, Rhenus Air & Ocean Ltd with Sandra Morrissey, Branch Manager, Eastway Global Forwarding Ltd and President of Irish International Freight Association
At the 2024 Annual General Meeting for the Irish International Freight Association, held on 30th May 2024, Dayna Thackrah, of IIFA Full Trading Member RHENUS Air & Ocean Ltd., was presented with a trophy as the winner of the inaugural Young Irish Freight Forwarder of the Year Award (YIFFYA).
The Young Irish Freight Forwarder of the Year competition was launched in late 2023 by IIFA as an initiative to promote and recognise the work of young professionals in the industry. Four representatives of IIFA Full Trading Members took part with this inaugural competition in January of this year, with Dayna chosen as the winning candidate for the title in early February 2024.
As the winning candidate for the YIFFYA, Dayna advanced forward to represent Ireland with the 2024 FIATA Young Logistics Professional (YLP) competition. This required research and writing of a 6,000 word thesis on a key export and import commodity. Dayna spent 3 months preparing her thesis, which focused on the movement of time and temperature sensitive pharmaceutical shipments. Entitled “Freight Forwarders - The Beating Heart of Pharma International Logistics,” Dayna’s thesis was submitted to FIATA and the YLP Award sponsor the TT Club at the end of April 2024.
Irish International Freight Association are proud to see Dayna Thackrah deservingly awarded the title of Young Irish Freight Forwarder of the Year for 2024. The IIFA Judging Committee complimented the research and planning that went into the thesis, which very much highlighted the care and attention to detail which Freight Forwarders give to shipments, in line with Good Distribution Practice (GDP) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). “Freight Forwarders - The Beating Heart of Pharma International Logistics” is a strong thesis and IIFA are proud to see Dayna and her hard work representing Ireland at FIATA level.
FIATA’s Steering Committee for the YLP are reviewing Dayna’s thesis and other entrants from across FIATA’s global network. There are two rounds to the competition; regional and global. Dayna’s thesis will compete in the European region section of this award and a winner will be announced in July 2024. If successful for the European region, Dayna’s thesis would move forward to compete for the global prize of FIATA Young Logistics Professional against the 3 other FIATA regions (Americas, Africa and Middle-East & Asia-Pacific) at the 2024 FIATA World Congress, which is being held in Panama City in late September 2024.
L-R: Rob Stead, Managing Director, Rhenus Air & Ocean Ltd., Dayna Thackrah, Pharma Operations, Rhenus Air & Ocean Ltd., Sandra Morrissey, Branch Manager, Eastway Global Forwarding Ltd and President of Irish International Freight Association
The Young Irish Freight Forwarder of the Year Award was well received by Members at the AGM today. A 2025 competition will launch towards the close of the summer months and IIFA look forward to engaging with Members interested in putting candidates forward for consideration.
The four IIFA member firms which took part with this inaugural competition were Emerald Freight Ltd, Expeditors Ireland Ltd, Hawthorn Logistics and RHENUS Air & Ocean. 3 of these 4 representatives were able to part in a webinar early in 2024 as part of the 2024 Logistics & Supply-Chain Skills week. Speaking on the topic of Careers in Freight Forwarding and Customs Clearance, that video can be viewed through IIFA’s YouTube channel:
