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QUESTION OF QUALITY
Page 62
Page 63
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The race for BS5750 is on. For years, many hauliers ignored the quality mark: now many are finding that without it they may lose customers.
• One of the strongest trends in the road transport industry over the past 18 months has been the snowballing of interest in the BS5750 quality mark. So far, some 15 operators have won BS5750 status; seven of them in the past three months.
The British Standards Institution, which awards the standard, has received 183 enquiries and 55 applications from hauliers this year. Many applicants, particularly among tanker companies, fear that without BS5750 they could lose customers — and the risk is all too real. Already chemicals giants such as BP, Esso and Shell have said they will only use distributors which have or are working towards the award.
But this is the wrong reason to apply, says Geoff Bulled, the BSI's head of process and service industries: "The best companies go for BS5750 because they want it in its own right," he says. "It's a way of providing a quality system to control your business, to make sure people know what is expected of them and the customer is satisfied."
The standard measures a company's quality management system. 'Phis includes how it keeps records, maintains vehicles, monitors safety and ensures cleanliness. About 3,000 firms hold BS5750, in industries ranging from food to construction and even banking. It was introduced in 1983, but it took a few years for hauliers to take an interest. Partly because of pressure from oil companies, and partly because of a BSI publicity drive, several tanker operators began to get interested in around 1986.
Teesside haulier Sadler, then owned by Kuwait Petroleum and since bought out by its management, was the first to win the award in May 1988. Within a week it was joined by Wincanton's Purfleet operation; hauliers Charles Kendall and Wim Vos also followed last year.
Most of the transport companies to earn BS5750 so far are tanker specialists, says Bulled, but interest is now strong in all sectors of the industry. Other recent winners include Prestons of Potto, Freighthire and John Forman of Cleveland, and Reliant Tankers of Cheshire.
QUALITY CONTROL
To apply for BS5750 a haulier must submit a quality control manual to the BSI and be audited by BSI inspectors, which takes two years. Once a company has the award, BSI will turn up unannounced at least twice a year to make sure standards are being maintainted. If not, the standard will be withdrawn.
Companies have to pay to be BSIregistered: the institution is a non-profitmaking body. Costs of registration depend on the size and nature of an operation: a haulier with, say, 50 trucks might expect to pay £2,500 for the six man-days it takes to carry out an inspection, followed by around £1,000 a year to stay on BSI's books. If a haulier uses outside drivers and maintenance and runs tankers rather than flats, for example, the assessment will cost more.
THE BENEFITS
The benefits of BSI registration are huge, says the BSI. Companies appear on the Department of Trade and Industry's Register of Quality Assessed UK Companies (available from HMSO), which can reduce other inspection costs and help with quality registration for exporters. BS5750 is also a good marketing tool, says Bulled. Certification marks and symbols can be used on company publicity, packaging and literature, customers are less likely to demand their own quality inspections if they know a supplier is BSI-registered.
Working towards the standard would even help reduce wastage, executive time and lost orders, because BSIregistration requires a full-time manager to take charge of quality and draw up a code of practice and one of his required tasks is to look at ways of saving money.
BSI has awarded its quality assurance mark since 1926, but it was only in 1983, as a result of the Government's National Quality Campaign, that BS5750 came into being. In 1987 it was brought into line with the international and European quality standards IS09000 and EN29000. The standard is awarded to a company's operation rather than a firm itself. Wincanton, for instance, has just won its fourth BSI accreditation, for its milk distribution subsidiary based in Wincanton. Its Manchester, Darleston and Purfleet operations already have the award.
According to Nick Lewis, managing director of Teesside tanker haulier Freighthire, the BSI registration cost is only a fraction of the total cost of bringing a company up to BSI standards. He estimates that the 14-month preparation period has cost his company £30,000, including the cost of a full-time quality manager, a consultant and stationery. "Whether it will pay to have
3S5750 will only be answered in time," e says. "What it has probably done is ecure the future of the company, with Pio customers like ICI, Shell, BP and xxon Chemicals all demanding BS5750
the last quarter of 1990."
Lewis, who operates 26 tractors and semis on gas and bulk liquids work, ays pressure from these four major ustomers was his main motive for leciding to go for the standard. The rocedure has introduced an "ethic of ;ening it right first time" across the ompany, he adds.
BS5750 provides proof to customers hat an operation is being run efficiently, .ays Bryan Johnson, general manager of )restons of Potto. It was the first reneral haulier to win the award; "We've lways said to our customers we're a tuality organisation. Now they don't tave to take our word for it." he says. 'restons runs 175 tankers, flats, box rans and curtainsiders.
ILSSESSMENT
ohnson says BSI assessment was made anger because Prestons has a wide ange of operations, including naintenance and warehousing: "It makes : more complex," he says. "It's easy if ou run one type of vehicle and contract ■ ut maintenance; then the assessors are inly interested in traffic n anagement." Like Prestons, Keith 1-kose, manager Wincanton Distribution's milk and Dods division, says his firr was under o pressure from customei s to win 3S5750. "We want to be b ?tter than the rthers and saw this as a pi .blic way of howing that our business was of a high tandard," he says.
A Wincanton local site manager .evoted 40% of his time to preparing he operation for BSI assessment, says louse. Wincanton Distribution itself, vhich "made a corporate decision to go BS5750 across all its divisions", has central quality co-ordinator.
Sadler 'rankers claims to have been he guinea pig for BS5750 in the ransport industry. Managing director 'hil Gate became interested in the mark ihen he went to an ICI seminar for its istributors on the subject of quality in 987. "For the first time it was uggested that a haulier could win IS5750," he says. Despite pressure .om the chemicals and fuel companies, owever, Gate feels that the industry is low to accept quality. "People still find IS5750 a chore," he says. "Compiling a ianual and tightening loose ends is a assle, and the inspiration has to come -om the top."
ISSOCIATIONS
■ oth of the major trade associations are iking BS5750 seriously. The Road faulage Association plans to appoint a ill-time quality officer to advise members on applying for the mark, and the Freight Transport Association's railways chief, David Mitchell, is helping its members on questions of quality.
Several bodybuilders have been accredited with BS5750, including Besco, Coachwork Walker, Lawrence David and Wilsdon. Besco's managing director Don Wilson, who chairs the quality committee of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, predicts that many bodybuilders which ignore BS5750 will go to the wall after 1992.
Workshops are also coming under pressure to improve quality, and at CM Workshop Exhibition on 10-11 October. Bill Beadnell, chairman of North East Leyland Daf in Billingham, will tell delegates that there is room for improvement in the service sector. 1:1 by Murdo Morrison
EFor more information contact the BS on (0908) 220022, or write to BSI quality assurance, Business Development, Milton Keynes MK14 6PE. To date the following haulage companies have won BS5750: Sadler Transport, Wincanton Distribution, Charles Kendall, Wim Vos, Phoenix Brewery, AS Jones, Dennis Dickson, Samas, YoungsStokesely, Prestons of Ponta, Freighthire, Thomas Allen, John Forman and Reliant Tankers.