GFB International Inc., formerly the Georgia Freight Bureau and the leading advocate of the state’s development as a transportation center through the 20th century, will not face the logistics and transportation challenges of the 21st century.
GlobalFax learned last week that the bureau’s board of directors has voted to close down the nonprofit independent shippers association, a year shy of its 100-year anniversary.
The bureau’s affiliated programs including the International Intermodal Expo, the Institute of International Transportation and Logistics (ITRAN) and the TransAsia Expo also have been closed.
John Parrish, the bureau’s executive vice president, said in a telephone interview that association members had turned more to independent means of lobbying to pursue their goals.
He also said that anti-trust legislation made it increasingly difficult for the bureau to attract the wide-ranging support from the transportation sector that it needed to survive.
The successful educational programs and expositions that the bureau held were unable to keep the entire operation afloat, he added.
The International Intermodal Expo was first launched in 1983 and became a leading forum in integrated transport methods and technologies, attracting in recent years some 5,000 visitors to the Georgia World Congress Center annually from around the world.
GFB International founded ITRAN in 1997 to provide training and education in transportation and logistics. It joined with the Logistics Foundation of America Inc. (LFA) two years later to extend its professional certification nationally.
The TransAsia Expo was held once in Hong Kong in 1999.
To learn more about the bureau, visit www.gfb-expo.com. Mr. Parrish may be reached at (404) 524-7777.