As an industry stalwart, I cannot imagine a life without FTW/Freight News being there – it is such an integral part of our industry and fortunately I can put my money where my mouth is as I am older than the publication!Congratulations on 50 years, FTW, which, I recall, started out as Freight & Trading Weekly (FTW) and being delivered by the good old postal service, now morphed into Freight News as a daily online publication and still just as relevant as it was 50 years ago.My interesting start in this industry was at Sturrock (Cape) Ltd as ships agents for Safmarine & Lloyd Triestino, becoming Aero Marine Shipping, a division of the Aero Marine Group.I was a ‘water clerk’ assisting with ships husbandry – really starting on the ground f loor!In 1974 I was transferred to Safmarine in the Carlton Centre, Joburg, where I was first introduced to FTW and well, as I say, I never looked back.After eight-and-a-half years in the Carlton Centre, I broke out into the forwarding industry with various Gauteng operators, before the call of the Mother City became too great and I returned home in 1991. My life took a different path as I quickly realised the tourist potential of the Western Cape, opening the Info Centre in Dorp Street, Stellenbosch, as a central reservations and marketing office for the guest houses and conference venues in the Winelands. However, due to the political uncertainty in SA pre-1994, I closed the centre and returned to the forwarding industry, eventually achieving my dream by going on my own, opening Gale Lotheringen Freight Consultants in 2006, as a highly specialised freight forwarder.In the interim, I joined Exporters Club Western Cape (ECWC) committee and saw the incredible potential of the ECWC as a conduit for industry growth.The rest, as they say, is history! This has been an incredible personal journey as I met such wonderful people along the way.Today I am so proud of the relationships that we have forged and how, through co-operation and collaboration, we can and will create a better future for all.
