Quality Approved Freight Forwarding - ISO 9001:2000

R W Freight Services achieved quality approval for forwarding services in 1989 Quality Manager Jane Willis explains the benefits.

Forwarding remains one of the few businesses which have low entry costs. It's still possible to set yourself up as an 'international freight forwarder' with not much more than an office, a phone and preferably a website.

But how can small companies gain credibility in a transport industry increasingly dominated by large multinationals, which gain business mainly on the strength of their name - or 'brand', to use consumer marketing terminology.

One way is for the company to show its commitment to quality, by introducing a quality management system which is approved to ISO 9001:2000.

When R W Freight began this process in 1989, it was considered a necessity when competing for blue chip clients. Major shippers from quality-aware industries would refuse to do business unless the forwarder was approved to what was then BS5750.

As our client base has grown this often means that we are dealing with customers who have not heard of us before, and who want some reassurance that we will do what we say.

That's where the quality system comes in - we can reassure potential clients that we have an established system, which is annually audited by an independent third party (the assessment body) which will not hesitate to withdraw approval if we do not comply with the system's requirements.

As an important by-product, we have found that the Standard has helped us improve our training, customer relations and management control.

The quality system enforces:

• Regular assessment of the effectiveness of our training programmes
• Effective collection of customer feedback, leading to corrective and preventive actions
• Internal audits to pinpoint areas of weakness in our own performance and that of our suppliers
• The Quality system helps us to look at ourselves critically and gives us a mechanism to improve performance.