For my first blog, I want to talk about compliance. Transport Compliance. As an Operator, what does it mean to you? What does it mean to your staff? Do you see it as a target, a tick-box to tell the work ‘we are compliant….’ to OCRS, FORS, DVSA etc.
Or are you seeing compliance, and the way to achieve and maintain compliance, as an integral part of your business to achieve optimum working efficiencies and to get the best out of every aspect of transport operations?
So here’s the thing; do you feel confident that compliance is understood and upheld across all systems and employees within your business? I find it a frustrating element when I speak with my clients who know well enough the demands on this industry, and the consequences of non-compliance, yet don’t have this notion of total compliance embedded in to their business.
To me, compliance is not a target, not a shiny badge of honour, something achieved at the end of a mad flurry of work because there is say, an audit coming up. Well, in a way it is, but most importantly, I think, it’s a cultural things. Wanting to do the best, be the best, without asking, without pushing. Can you say that everyone is on board with this?
What if the company has all the processes and policies in place but they are not being upheld by staff? What if you have staff who buy in to every aspect of a professional way of working, but not supported by other team members say, or even management?
This chain, compliance, gets broken. It becomes hard to enforce. People and business become reactive, fire-fighting. How can we get everyone ‘to comply’? It all sounds so Orwellian 1984 but it doesn’t have to be. Policies, procedures, workstreams, systems of work are of little value if not being used or observed.
The ‘buy-in’ to compliance, this chain, the notion that every element of business success depends entirely on every member of staff wanting to meet their professional obligations. How on earth do we do that? Carrot? Stick? Hope for the best?
At its heart, if we all were to understand that no matter what your job is, if it is done well, and willingness to do well, and bring others along, that we, the business, together, cannot function efficiently without this unbroken chain, the reliance on each individual to get it right, want to do it right, compliance will happen all by itself. It won’t be a thing to be feared, a target ‘we must achieve’.
Sounds impossible? Over my career I have learnt valuable lessons and insights as to what it means to be part of a team. If you can to know more, if this strikes a chord with your business, call me. Let’s talk about compliance in real terms. How can we got you, your business and all you staff and systems to where you went it to be?