Transporters with Woolworths contracts may be forced to supply "extensive details" of operations to comply with chain of responsibility
By Brad Gardner | June 22, 2010
Transport carriers with Woolworths contracts may be forced to supply “extensive details” of their operations as part of the supermarket giant’s bid to comply with chain of responsibility law.
Woolworths will send a letter to all its contracted carriers before the new financial year outlining the requirements of companies doing business with it.
The letter was discussed by the Australian Trucking Association during a recent board meeting and listed in the recent ATA council meeting documents obtained by ATN.
The document says operators will only need to provide evidence of insurance cover and some extra questions “if your organisation is a RLSC (Retail Logistics Supply Chain) participant, or is TruckSafe accredited”.
“All other operators need to supply extensive details of their operations in order to retain Woolworths’ work,” the documents reads.
“This will apply to all Woolworths primary and secondary freight and will be implemented when contracts are renewed.”
The RLSC is a code of conduct developed by the Australian Logistics Council and launched in 2006.
The group says the code has 10 points on chain of responsibility and sets out clear operational and administrative guidelines for compliance.
“While the Code is voluntary and applies only to signatories, the requirement to be a signatory will become a requirement of doing business with the major retailers,” the ALC says.
Signatories include Woolworths, Coles, Metcash, Toll and Linfox.
TruckSafe is a safety accreditation program run by the ATA.
Chain of responsibility puts the onus on all parties involved in the delivery of goods to ensure a heavy vehicle is not overloaded and the driver is not forced to breach speed or fatigue management laws to make a deadline.