Spotlight on the Policy Team

Tate Butler, Policy Data Analyst.

I joined the Policy Insights Team at Logistics UK in Autumn 2024, and prior to that was at university studying maths and statistics. What drew me to working in the logistics sector was its ever-changing nature. It is such an interesting time to be a part of the sector with decarbonisation, the use of AI, group optimisation and lots of new technologies impacting how it operates.

In addition, working for a sector which contributes £170 billion to the UK economy each year and employs over 8% of the nation’s workforce highlights how it is a key enabler in the wider economy and underpins everything we see.

In terms of day to day, my role involves working with a lot of the numbers that members, colleagues and industry stakeholders see in terms of figures quoted in our press releases, results from our member surveys and analysis to support our government consultation responses. A lot of this information is gathered from our member survey responses, but we also use national statistics to provide insight to complement all our wider policy work, which covers infrastructure, economic growth and contributions, decarbonisation, skills and trade. This is then used both internally but also to inform our members and wider stakeholders.

One of the biggest projects I work on with the team is our Logistics Report, which will be published at our annual conference in June this year. A large part of the content draws on our Logistics Industry Survey which is live this month and so I really encourage all members to take a look and respond. Being a trade association means it is so important the voice of our membership comes through loud and clear, and our surveys play such a key role in understanding member views and experiences. In addition to the annual Logistics Industry Survey, we run quarterly Logistics Performance Tracker surveys too, which are shorter and allow us to track quarterly trends more closely.

Other projects I am involved with include working with the Public Affairs team to support their campaign work. Recently, I was researching and collating facts to use in our ‘Nothing moves without logistics’ campaign advent calendars which were sent to MPs, with facts about the sector behind each door – highlighting the importance of the sector at such a busy time of year and ultimately, its role in making Christmas happen!

What I enjoy most about my role is taking the analysis and numbers and telling a story. It’s satisfying to take the raw figures and document them in a way which can gain traction and be collated in a way that paints a picture.

With data evolving, we are always thinking about how best to inform and provide value. Last year I worked on new visuals and produced an interactive map for MPs which shows what percentage of jobs across different constituencies are made up of logistics roles. This was well received and it was great to take a lot of data and turn it into something so accessible for everyone to see.

In the world that we are in at the moment, numbers and data play such a critical role in shaping business decisions and informing next steps. It’s incredibly important to source reliable data that ensure it is understood correctly.

This year work is underway on a range of new projects, so I look forward to helping it all take shape.