The following is the text of a press release issued by the International Shipsuppliers & Services Association:
(LONDON) — The International Shipsuppliers & Services Association has underlined its commitment to quality ship supply by introducing new membership criteria which will ensure more companies meet the terms of its enhanced 2010 ISSA Quality Standard.
From January 1st, all companies joining as associate members will have to be audited under ISSA’s expanded quality conditions. The same applies to any full ISSA members renewing their membership of the ISSA quality standard.
Jens Olsen, President of ISSA, says: ʺOur aim is for ISSA’s 2010 Quality Standard to become a beacon for quality and an example to other sectors on how to work with regulators to gain maximum benefit for member companies.
“ISSA’s global membership is already being assessed according to the Quality Standard on a voluntary basis. But from next year, any new associate member joining ISSA will have to be ISSA Quality Approved. In this age of self assessment and service transparency, ISSA has taken it upon itself to ensure that customers can be certain that ship suppliers carrying the ISSA logo meet the high quality standards necessary to trade and to supply as demanded by our clients the ship owners and the ship managers,†he added.
Quality of supply service has long been a cornerstone of ISSA’s work to improve the image of the industry and enhancements to its existing Quality Standard take into account a number of fresh initiatives such as catering standards onboard ship; security aspects in light of ISPS and many environmental considerations such as avoiding the excessive use of packaging and better control of the disposal of toxic and carcinogenic material in port.
ISSA has received the finest endorsement to date of its efforts to improve the quality of global ship supply after the World Customs Organisation praised the progress it is making in upgrading its 2010 ISSA Quality Standard.
In a letter to ISSA President Jens Olsen, Kunio Mikuriya, Secretary General, of the WCO, said the ISSA Quality Standard 2010 “clearly demonstrates ISSA Members’ commitment to comply with all statutory requirements and to play a leading role in both facilitating the needs of the maritime industry while meeting the international and domestic requirements associated with vessel, port and supply chain security.â€
This endorsement by the WCO follows similar support forwarded by InterManager in July of this year. In a similar letter to the ISSA President, past InterManager President Roberto Giorgi welcomed the upgraded ISSA Quality Standard and said it was very encouraging “to see that ISSA is determined to continuously improve standards of service providedâ€.
