Live event freight forwarding company Freight Minds has been launched by a group of highly experienced industry professionals with the aim of providing costeffective solutions in an increasingly demanding sector .
Based at London Heathrow , Freight Minds was founded by a team including Alan Durrant the former MD of Rock-It Cargo where he worked for nearly 34 years . Its other co-founders are former Rock-It Cargo USA executives Geoff Knight and Matt Wright .
Among the services offered by Freight Minds are air passenger and cargo charter , warehousing and logistics , couriers , ATA Carnets , and Brexit-related customs clearance services .
Freight Minds owner Matt Wright says the impact of Brexit on the sector has been hugely significant : “ Virtually everything that goes into the EU now needs an ATA Carnet . For larger tours this means a cost of anywhere between £ 10,000 - £ 15,000 but this is something that can be absorbed by bigger artists . Where this is really having an impact is the smaller bands , for whom paying £ 400 to get the Carnet for a small amount of gear is a big deal . What those smaller tours also have to consider is if they want to sell merchandise , because they ’ ll either have to manufacture it in the EU or pay to bring it in if they are planning on selling it .”
Among the artists to raise the profile of the impact the post-Brexit restrictions are having on young British artists is Elton John .
He told the BBC , “ I want to be
“ It ’ s adding additional costs because , while we are able to do these additional steps , it means we ’ ve had to add more staff and streamline our whole process .” – Chris Palmer
clear that the issues of visa-free and permit-free touring aren ’ t about the impact on me , and artists who tour arenas and stadiums .
“ This gravest of situations is about the damage to the next generation of musicians and emerging artists , whose careers will stall before they ’ ve even started due to this infuriating blame game .”
Mercifully for freight companies , the majority of tour production companies are aware and understanding of the extra costs and time that now needs to be channelled into touring Europe but Wright says that doesn ’ t mean they are not frustrated with the added workload .
All change The pandemic has had a devastating impact on the touring industry , with the last two years seeing a huge drop in the number of artists being able to perform due to Covid-19 mitigation measures including lockdowns , capacity caps and the restriction of movement in to and out of countries . Now that many venues have reopened and the industry is preparing for what has the potential to be a landmark year for event numbers , the question is whether the battered events industry supply chain remains robust enough to cope with the demand .
Wright says transporting touring show equipment by air has become much more challenging , with much of the air cargo capacity on flights coming from Asia being absorbed by the demand for PPE being shipped around the world . It has also become far more expensive – with the cost of transporting equipment across the Atlantic , for example , upward of double what it was pre-pandemic . Wright says sea freight is also
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