Pressemitteilung
Bertschi focuses on safety

European logistics provider and tank container fleet operator Bertschi says “premium safety performance” is its major target for the coming years. The company has started a new safety programme with the objective of reducing incidents and accidents by 50 per cent over the next five years.
One of the key elements of the initiative is ‘Behaviour Based Safety’training, a programme endorsed by the European Chemical Transport Association (ECTA) and the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC). Bertschi has hired five heavy vehicle driving trainers to tutor the company’s drivers on safety issues.
“Most of the trainers have long-term experience in driver training, for example in coaching public bus drivers,” explains Hans-Jörg Bertschi, the company’s chief executive. “Our objective is to reduce the incident rate to the level of the public bus services.
Bertschi is also putting a premium on advanced technical safety control systems. Initiatives will include installing rollover stability systems and other electronic driver control systems on units in the company’s fleet. Furthermore, Bertschi says it is now concentrating its tank cleaning activity with stations holding a valid safety and quality assessment scheme (SQAS) report.
SQAS is a CEFIC-sponsored voluntary safety and quality audit procedure for assets in the dangerous goods transport chain, including tank cleaning stations. Professional groups from the chemical industry and the transport industry are encouraging members to focus cleaning activity primarily on stations that have been assessed under the programme. All Bertschi’s own cleaning stations will be assessed with a recently issued updated form of SQAS documentation as of May 2004.
The company reports that its business volume grew by 14 per cent in 2003, and says it is planning to expand its activities in eastern European countries including Poland, Hungary, and the Baltic states.
“We will be well positioned to take advantage of the growing chemical trade volume between west Europe and central and eastern Europe as we have established operational subsidiaries in four of the new EU member states,” says Bertschi.
 

Quelle:
HAZARDOUS CARGO BULLETIN
April 2004
Seiten 33-34