Outstanding achievements earn company chemical industry award

Imperial Logistics group company Freightmax has been awarded the Responsible Care Haulier Award by the Chemicals and Allied Industries Association (CAIA).

This annual award recognises companies in the South African chemicals industry for outstanding achievements in health and safety, resource efficiency, pollution prevention and product stewardship, explains Imperial Logistics chief business development and strategy officer Cobus Rossouw.

He adds that the candidates are shortlisted based on improvements in these critical areas, and, thereafter, sites are visited and evidence is physically audited and assessed.

Expanding on the criteria that the association used to select its winning haulier, Rossouw says the winner was required to show continuous, year-on-year improvement in all aspects of health, safety and the environment, with open communication about its activities and achievements.

Candidates’ commitment to sustainability – including the betterment of society, the environment and the economy – was also stringently assessed. “The CAIA member companies must strive to ‘do the right thing', even when no one is being policed. They must innovate and strive for safer and greener products and processes.”

A total of 68 transporters were in the running for the CAIA’s Responsible Care Haulier Award. The candidates that Freightmax competed against are also all approved CAIA members, South African Safety Quality Assessment System-accredited and Responsible Care signatories.

“We are very proud to have been awarded top honours, and I must commend everyone at Freightmax for their contribution to this achievement,” says Rossouw.

He notes that the recognition reflects the success of the company’s increased exposure to the chemicals industry, and serves as a huge motivation for Freightmax management and staff to continue striving for the highest levels of health and safety.

The CAIA has launched an updated process safety management course, risk-based process safety management (RBPSM), as part of its Responsible Care initiative. Internationally accepted as an industry requirement by the chemicals industry, the association is now offering the course to the South African industry.
The course is geared to improving sustainable safety performance in industries that manufacture, consume or handle chemicals by focusing on new ways to design, correct or improve process safety management practices. It also has industrywide benefits, as it encourages a better perception of the chemicals industry by non- industry members.

Integrated with safety, health and environment management systems, the RBPSM course ensures that delegates begin at the design phase, include construction, pre-startup reviews and key aspects of production and maintenance, and consider human factors. It is a management system focused on the prevention of, preparedness for, mitigation of and response to the catastrophic release of chemicals and energy from a process.

The association has 164 members that include chemicals manufacturers, traders and industry service providers. As part of a global network of chemicals industry associations, the CAIA seeks to promote the continuous improvement of performance in the safety, health and environmental arenas, as well as to boost the productivity and competitiveness of the chemicals and allied industries in South Africa, thereby enhancing their sustainability.