VSBC is due to meet with the Victorian Transport Association to discuss a code of conduct for pallet loss prevention
By Ruza Zivkusic-Aftasi | June 4, 2012
The Victorian Office of the Small Business Commissioner (VSBC) is due to meet with the Victorian Transport Association to discuss a code of conduct for pallet loss prevention.
The VSBC has been in talks with 30 national freight and logistics operators for the past two years as part of a business improvement program.
It is due to reveal whether operators are willing to agree on one single code of conduct, Pallet Loss Prevention Director John Stuart says.
Speaking at
last week’s VTA state conference, Stuart says the industry is at crossroads and needs to decide what to do next.
“There’s been a process organised by the VSBC trying to get a voluntary code of conduct up. At the moment the commissioner isn’t really making statements of what the outcome is until they discuss it more with the VTA in a couple of weeks’ time,” Stuart says.
“It’s been a long time and I’m hoping something will come out of it.
“If the voluntary code of conduct isn’t supported then the option may be a mandatory code of conduct. We’re not sure which companies did not want to support it.”
Hundreds of thousands of dollars are lost in pallets each year, with companies whose customers are major retailers unwilling to speak up, Stuart adds.
“They don’t want to upset them so they need a body that can stand up for them,” he says.
He is calling on companies to monitor their accounts each day and to train their staff, saying the “enemy within” is operations staff that has different priorities than monitoring pallets.
“They struggle sometimes to get to pallets as they have to get freight moving,” he sys.
“You need to check your position. Do you have a lost pallet liability? Are your staff adequately trained and are you in control?