Manyanda Maziku | Group Head of HSSEQ | 01 October 2021
Alistair Group is increasingly concerned with achieving and demonstrating health, safety, security, environment and quality performance. The logistics industry is complex and exposes employees to a variety of risks; the hazardous nature of its operations means that the industry has a high accident rate. These include not only accidents on the road but also injuries resulting from unsafe use of equipment, long-term health risks due to poor manual handling techniques and the consequences of poor fire safety.
With this in mind, Alistair Group understands that sensible and proportionate risk management is integral to good business practice. While accidents do happen, the risk of injury can be significantly lowered by ensuring the implementation of sufficient manual handling procedures and training staff to be well equipped with the knowledge they need to carry out their work safely. We make it a priority to ensure that our employees arrive home safely after a day of work, regardless of their role.
Since its inception, Alistair Group has demonstrated its commitment to managing the integrity of its operations responsibly with due considerations to the health, safety, quality and security of personnel, stakeholders and the environment in which we operate. It is for this reason that Alistair Group has emerged as a Compliant HSE Company in Africa.
We believe that Health, Safety and Quality are not only vital in ensuring businesses run smoothly and employee fatality remains low but it is at the centre of achieving our vision of making our customers work better. Accidents and incidents have disruptions in the planned flow of operations and will present as supply chain risks that inevitably affect our clients. With this in mind, Alistair Group is committed to upholding our well-established Health, Safety, Security and Quality Management System which is designed in line with the international standards management systems.
Alistair Group is proud to be a certified company for ISO 9001: 2015 Quality Management Systems, ISO 45001 2018 Occupational Health and Safety Management System and ISO 14001 2015 Environmental Management Systems. Maintenance of our ISO 45001, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 has helped our organization demonstrate compliance with environmental, health and safety laws. However, when possible, we go beyond what the law requires.
OUR JOURNEY TO INTERNATIONAL HEALTH, SAFETY, QUALITY AND ENVIRONMENT CERTIFICATION
The implementation of a risk management system was a strategic and operational decision at Alistair Group to improve effectiveness and the ability to achieve its intended HSSEQ. With leadership and top management commitment, the company took several steps to build a robust system using in-house resources:
- Communicated that risk management is everyone’s business within Alistair Group
- Set a framework and processes so that all key risks are mitigated and managed to be as low as reasonably practicable throughout Alistair Group’s activities.
- Integrated risk management with all aspects of the business, including governance, strategic planning, operational planning and management and reporting.
- Developed, implemented and communicated processes and procedures for our service lines and support functions.
- Implemented internal audits to verify whether Alistair Group activities were complying with planned arrangements and the effectiveness of the management system against the applicable audit standard.
- All non-conformities detected were corrected and effective corrective actions were implemented based on the results of the audits.
- Invited a Certification Body for an independent system’s assessment, and upon successful accomplishment of the audits, Alistair Group became an ISO certified company.
These steps are still being followed daily to not only ensure we maintain but continually improve our HSSEQ system.
WHAT DO INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS MEAN TO US?
ISO certification not only ensures that we advance efficiency across our business; it allows Alistair Group to be seen as an elite category of business in the Logistics Industry and recognized as an important partner in the regions we operate. We are actively demonstrating our commitment to continuous improvement of safety and performance and in return, it helps us to earn the trust of interested parties.
OUR SUCCESS
International standards have made it easy for us to meet regional health and safety requirements. In 2021 Alistair Group emerged as the winner of the Tanzanian Occupational Safety and Health Award (AOSH) in the Transportation and Logistics Sector. The win came after demonstrating remarkable strategies and programs in health and safety management including hazard prevention and control, workplace risk assessment, Policies and Procedures, OHS training, Incident/accident statistics, and fitness-to-work initiatives.
