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The timber industry has led the way as far as load control and self regulation is concerned. |
The Minister of transport mentioned the introduction of self regulation standards for the road transport industry at the launch of the Donkerhoek Traffic Control Centre in June, citing the success achieved by the timber industry's Load Accreditation Programme. He also said that self regulation measures would be applied to the coal and paper and pulp industries. So what then is self regulation exactly?
According to Andrew Crickmay of Crickmay and Associates, one of the country's leading logistics and benchmark consultants in the implementation of self regulation in the timber, pulp & paper and sugar industries, "Self Regulation as we see it, is a process of moving the whole supply chain towards becoming accountable for the way it runs in terms of safety and overloading. Used correctly it becomes a solid foundation upon which to improve efficiency across the whole supply chain and reduce costs."
As one of the founder members of the Road Transport Management System (RTMS), which started in the timber industry under the banner of the Load Accreditation Programme (LAP), Crickmay and Associates (CA) were instrumental in bringing about a 50% reduction in overloading in the timber industry over the past four years, he says.
"LAP initially focused on overload control, but as the project progressed it incorporated issues of driver wellness, vehicle fitness and productivity. LAP was later reconstituted as RTMS with a National Steering Committee being formed. It was through this committee that RTMS developed a set of standards for hauliers (SABS: ARP 067-1 2007), with standards for consignees and consignors due to follow in July 2007," explains Crickmay
"Historically, the consignees and consignors have created the environment within which hauliers operate, and by pursuing the cheapest transport rates at all costs, consignees and consignors have often, inadvertently caused hauliers to overload their vehicles and break the law in order to compete for work," he adds. "Self regulation is a systematic approach to preventing illegal operations and non-compliance. It has to be accompanied by a focus on efficiency though. Our experience shows that self regulation involves more that just the RTMS standards, although the standards are crucial. We have found that self regulation is a process and that attitudes and practices need to change if it is to be successful."
Measure and manage
According to Crickmay, self regulation succeeds when certain generic elements are implemented and properly managed. "It is important to identify what a supply chain wants to achieve out of the process. Defining business objectives is the point of departure. One also needs to define how the RTMS standards are to be applied in the context of the supply chain. Data acquisition is also crucial. Peter Drucker's old adage 'you can't manage what you can't measure' holds true here. We never cease to be amazed at how much benefit one gets simply by measuring correctly. CA also has a well developed web based system of collecting and managing the data required by RTMS, such as a database of nominated vehicles and their legal carry capacities."
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The RTMS will seek to implement self regulation in the coal transport industry. |
Benchmarking and sharing results
Many supply chains don't know how good or bad they really are, or know what opportunities exist until they compare themselves with others, Crickmay says. "We encourage our clients to share their results, such as levels of over and underloading within their own supply chain. This openness exposes poor practices, helps change attitudes and was, in our opinion, a key component in the success achieved in the timber industry. However, CA is sensitive to the confidentiality of each client's needs and pin numbers are used when necessary to achieve this. Some of the industries we work with go so far as to declare their overloading results publicly in an effort to 'nail their colours to the mast'. It certainly is the ultimate demonstration of taking ownership of the problem."
Building understanding
Crickmay believes there is a limit to the contribution hauliers can make individually to supply chain efficiency, without the willing cooperation of the entire system. "When consignees and consignors get involved in self regulation, significant opportunities should emerge to improve the efficiency of the system as a whole, as people begin to understand how their practices affect their supply chain partners. Our contribution is that we have become skilled in providing the assessments and information to facilitate this process."
Evaluating the risks and being properly prepared for changes that need to be made, especially those requiring much capital, are other vital elements of any self regulation process. "The value in implementing small, low risk changes in the beginning is that their success usually generates confidence and credibility for logistics staff to tackle bigger challenges later on," explains Crickmay. "It is interesting to note that what constitutes a big change in one supply chain maybe considered small in another supply chain. Often many small changes can be tackled simultaneously."
By consolidating, tracking gains and repeating the process, confidence improves and the self regulation roll out process accelerates in speed, says Crickmay. "Crickmay & Associates have been most encouraged by the Department of Transport's support of self regulation and their understanding of the role they can play in improving the supply chain's competitiveness. There is some incredibly forward thinking being done based on principals being applied in Australia and New Zealand."
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