The Confederation of Belgian Freight Forwarders is commonly known as CEB. This acronym stands for the Dutch name "Confederatie der Expediteurs van België", as well as for the French one "Confédération des Expéditeurs de Belgique".
CEB in its actual shape was founded on July 5, 1982. It is the national umbrella organization of freight forwarders and custom agents in Belgium, which means that members of CEB are the regional associations of freight forwarders and custom agents :
-ADESO (Vereniging der Expediteurs en Douane-agenten van West- en Zuid België) (Union des Expéditeurs et Agents en Douane de l'Ouest et du Sud de la Belgique).
-AFFA ( Antwerp Freight Forwarding, Logistic and Works' Agents Association) ( Vereniging voor Expeditie, Logistiek en Goederenbelangen van Antwerpen )
-BAFI ( Belgian Airfreight Institute )
-BELOTRA ( Belgische Beroepsvereniging van Logistiek-, Vervoer en Baanbevrachtingsondernemingen / Union Professionnelle Belge des Entreprises de Logistique, de Transport et d'Affrètement )
-BELTOP ( Belgian Transport Operators )
Associated members are:
-BCA (Belgian Courier Association )
Through its member-associations, 340 companies are affiliated to CEB. The number of affiliated companies was of course much higher before January 1, 1993, the date of the abolishment of the intra-European borders. Indeed as from this date many custom agencies had to stop their activities and a considerable number of employees lost their jobs.
The Board of Directors is composed of 20 members and is representative for the Belgian freight forwarders' community, taking into account the geographical strenght of the profession in the country.
The secretariat is headed by a Manager, and the work is done by a joint secretariat CEB-AFFA; it is situated in Antwerp.
Being the umbrella organization, CEB deals with items and problems at a national level. Indeed, local items are to be solved by the local associations in Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent and Zeebrugge or by the specialized organization at Brucargo-Zaventem Airport or the AFFA for deep seatransport matters.CEB deals with national customs problems, national VAT-items and the social items, which in our country are a national matter.
CEB has therefore regular contacts with the national Customs Authorities, the VAT-administration, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Transport, etc.
A conditio sine qua non to become a member of a Belgian professional organization of freight forwarders is that the company must hold a license of freight forwarder ("commissionnaire de transport" in French). This license, granted to the company, is linked to a Certificate of Professional Knowledge, granted to individuals , active in the Company. Individuals must prove a professional activity for at least 5 years on a high level (2 years for holders of a university degree)or must give proof of a diploma granted by a recognized High School or Institute. One of the conditions for the companies is a minimum capital; furthermore a bond has to be posted and a yearly contribution is to be paid.
The license is granted - or withdrawn - by the Ministry of Transport; the competent body is composed by officials of the Ministry and representatives of CEB.
Vocational training is an important item, to which much attention is paid to by CEB. Together with the Ministry of Transport, CEB created BITO (Belgian Institute for Transport Organizers). Main objective is to set up minimum standards to which High Schools must adhere in order to enable them to grant diplomas which facilitate young people to obtain a Certificate of Professional Knowledge. So, CEB does not organize vocational training by its own, but controls both the educational and vocational system, and the Certificates granted to people who want to start their career in the freight forwarding business.
Besides the contacts we have with the Authorities, CEB has regular talks with other professional organizations e.g. the road hauliers, the employers' organization, the national ICC-chapter, and of course CEB is member of CLECAT (European Association for forwarding, transport, logistic and customs services).
For the moment being, the member-organizations and the individual companies are informed on a regular basis by circular letters on all items which might be of interest to them. It is planned to replace as soon as possible this way of communication by E-mail messages to the companies and the regional organizations.
CEB of course puts at the disposal of the affiliated companies the FIATA M.T. B/L, (FIATA Multimodal Transport Bill of Lading) the FCR (FIATA Forwarders Certificate of Receipt) and the SDT (FIATA Shippers Declaration for the transport of dangerours goods).
In order to grant an even greater importance to the FIATA M.T. B/L, CEB decided to link a compulsary insurance cover to the document via an insurance policy subscribed by CEB.
This means that each FIATA M.T. B/L sold by CEB to its members is properly insured on conditions well known by CEB.
CEB has always been and still is a strong supporter of FIATA (International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations) and its activities: L. Verhulst was President from 1955 to 1959 , G. De Petter from 1993 to 1995 and many other CEB-delegates participated and still participate very actively in the FIATA-work. Furthermore, the FIATA-congress was organized in Belgium already 3 times : in 1930, 1955 and 1987.
F. BOOGAERTS Manager C.E.B.