Striving to create a “zero harm” environment

It is more than its ability to provide an innovative transport logistics solution that has ensured Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Cargo Carriers remains a preferred partner to leading participants in specialist and highly-regulated industry segments.

Customers also value the credence this supply-chain solutions specialist continues to place on safety, health and environment (SHE).

This culture has been firmly entrenched in the company, ensuring strict adherence to local legal and regulatory requirements while also complying with its customers’ own internal safety, health, environment and quality (SHEQ) protocol.

The company’s focus on excellence starts at the production site and encompasses all critical activities involved in the safe and timely delivery of raw materials that are used to drive other key cogs of the economy.

A case in point is the substantial quantities of fuel, hazardous and non-hazardous chemicals, as well as fertilisers that are being transported to other industries that also strive to create a zero-harm environment for their many employees, and those of their service suppliers.

The company has refined the handling of these products throughout southern Africa as part of a continuous process that has also included adopting systems and procedures that are considered to be best international practice, in terms of SHEQ.

This focus is also mirrored by the stellar 99,2-percent scoring, achieved recently by one of the company’s operating sites, in a mandatory Safety and Quality Assessment System (SQAS) audit undertaken on behalf of one its chemicals and hydrocarbon production customers.

Cargo Carriers has ensured excellence by adopting integrated systems that provide a holistic view of SHEQ to ensure accurate compliance reporting.

Certified by independent third-party accreditation body, Dekra, the company’s policies and procedures are regularly reviewed and updated, while all employees undergo regular training to update risk-assessment and reporting standards.

Moreover, the company conducts its own bi-annual internal SHEQ audits to monitor health and safety standards across the group and the outcomes are used as critical benchmarks to implement improvement wherever possible.

ISO 9001:2015 accreditation informs quality management, while ISO 14001:2015 and OHSAS 18001:2007 guide environmental, as well as occupational health and safety protocol, respectively. Cargo Carriers is also affiliated to the Chemical and Allied Industries (CAIA) and is a voluntary signatory to its Responsible Care programme.

The company’s 24-hour emergency-response line ensures swift action is taken in the event of an incident, which will also be reported timeously to the relevant government department.

Daily briefings are held at branches where safety-related information, including route-risk hazards, is shared among drivers before they set out on their routes.

Drivers also attend de-briefing session after every trip. These provide an important forum for obtaining feedback of any constraints encountered on their daily routes, or at delivery points, and corrective action is then implemented.

Last year, Cargo Carriers bolstered its training and skills-development initiatives geared at health and safety, while broadening the scope to include new employees during the induction phases to bolster compliance standards. Training is aligned to the various job functions, and ranges from defensive driving, awareness and first-aid through to fire-fighting and Hazchem.

Meanwhile, the company continues to strive to reduce the carbon footprint of its operations, mirrored by the continuous monitoring and efficient use of fuel, the company’s largest environmental impact. This has been achieved by deploying sophisticated information technology and maintaining a strict fleet-maintenance regime.

This efficient use of finite resources has also contributed towards lower operating costs by prolonging replacement truck-replacement cycles and a marked reduction in fuel consumption.

Committed to retaining its standing as a leading transporter to key industrial segments of the South African economy, Cargo Carriers aims to deliver an unrivalled transportation and logistics service that is, importantly, safe and environmentally sustainable!