Clients often get nervous when I tell them that 100% of the time, our team finds some failing issue on the compliance audits we perform.
One reason for this is due to our lengthy and in-depth first-hand experience in working as shippers of dangerous goods on behalf of companies, governments and private citizens worldwide in preparing and offering dangerous goods for transportation via all modes. And, as with other shippers of dangerous goods, we too have been subject to compliance audits by the governing authorities on more than a few occasions.
Another reason is that the compliance audits that we perform include not only the mandatory legally required items of the applicable transportation regulations, but they also include numerous items and actions that, although not required by the governing authorities, establish a definite “intent to comply” which is, in part, what an enforcement auditor is trying to assess in an organization.
When a company decides to perform a self-audit through a reputable and experienced outside source, they have already begun to establish an “intent to comply” and with each additional action taken that is above and beyond that of the mandatory regulatory standards, that intent is magnified. Actions such as performing checklists on outbound shipments of dangerous goods before offering them for transportation; or, providing General Awareness/Familiarization training to purchasing agents to raise the awareness of the dangerous goods status on items intended for re-shipping shows an auditor that the issue of dangerous goods compliance is being taken seriously.
Over the course of our +26 years our dangerous goods program and procedures have passed each and every compliance audit that we have been subjected to and as a result we have garnered the respect of the regulatory authorities. It is this same ATP Standard that we bring to our auditing process.
