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After the success of its Van Excellence accreditation scheme, the FTA is launching a separate accreditation aimed specifically at HGVs, called Truck Excellence. As the name implies, Truck Excellence is intended to establish and reward high standards of safety and competence within the larger vehicle sector of the haulage industry. By the Haulage Industry, For the Haulage Industry As with Van Excellence, much of the value of Truck Excellence stems from the fact that it’s researched and implemented by FTA members, that is, by people with first-hand experience of the industry. Rather than comprising arbitrary targets set by out-of-touch bureaucrats, the FTA’s Fleet Excellence schemes are developed by people working in haulage, ensuring that the requirements for achieving the accreditation are both relevant and realistic. Truck Excellence is assessed in modules, preserving its flexibility in a rapidly changing field. Examination takes the form of an FTA audit, and focuses on areas such as management, maintenance, licensing, working hours, and reputation. What’s more, the process is specifically designed to avoid the usual problems with such audits, wherein a company pulls together just for the audit, rendering the qualification meaningless. Instead, Truck Excellence is developed specially to ensure that a complying body will have the requisites for Excellence in place on a permanent basis. Advantages of Qualification A Truck Excellence qualification has a number of advantages. Most obviously, it will represent an industry-standard seal of approval, signifying to potential customers and investors that your haulage firm is in compliance with the very highest standards, thus safeguarding consumer confidence and helping distinguish you from the competition. The accreditation places a heavy emphasis on safety too, so complying firms will have the satisfaction of knowing that all road users, whether those employed by them or passers-by, are benefiting from their exacting safety standards. Finally, accredited operators will be safe in the knowledge that their fleet is 100% legally in the clear, which itself should help drive down those ever-present overheads. Haulage is a rapidly growing field, and as such, any method of distinguishing yourself from other companies is valuable. More than that, ensuring that your fleet is doing its utmost to keep both its own and other road users safe is a top priority of any manager, and Truck Excellence is a great way to both ensure and advertise that you operate in compliance with tight safety standards. It looks like the FTA’s Fleet Excellence awards will be of increasing relevance in the contemporary logistics landscape, and operators would do well to get accredited as soon as possible, especially as a wealth of opportunities continues to open up for newcomers to the industry. Norman Dulwich is a Correspondent for Haulage Exchange, the leading online trade network for the road transport industry. Connecting logistics professionals across the UK and Europe through their website, Haulage Exchange provides services for matching haulage work with available drivers. Over 4,000 transport exchange businesses are networked together through their website, trading jobs and capacity in a safe 'wholesale' environment.
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