‘Agents and Customs to blame for dire skills shortage’

I've read with interest some of the articles and comments made in various FTW issues (October 10, 17 & 24) re skills development and training and I wish to comment, if I may, on this subject. The logistics industry is in an absolute mess because we allowed it to deteriorate. Since the term and all the functions attached to the term "logistics" came about, we as C&F agents immediately realised one thing – the benefit of financial gain since the certificates/degrees/ diplomas on offer in logistics covered very little as far as "shipping" was concerned. Instead of taking the opportunity to assist our clients through training programmes, we thought it best to keep them in the dark as we were the experts and had to sell ourselves as such, but at a price. However, the C&F industry did not realise that equity would force them into the same situation. The agents were totally unprepared for what was coming and were hoping or relying on their supervisors or managers to take on the task of doing on-the-job training. Huge pressure was put onto these poor people and many of them buckled under sheer pressure. For the past 10 years new staff have been taught parrotfashion, which means that the mistake or incorrect way of doing things 10 years ago was passed on from one to the next. JIT also contributed to this and suddenly supervisors or managers found themselves bogged down with all the logistical pitfalls coming with JIT and no longer had the time to attend to training. The evil of computerisation cannot go unmentioned. Suddenly we found that people were becoming "data capturers" and the thinking versus the knowledge processes became secondary. Okay, so agents are to blame, but who else? Customs! Yip, they are in exactly the same situation as the agents, but can take full responsibility for the poor quality or lack of skills. In the past an entry clerk had to undergo stringent training programmes and was not allowed to put his signature on a "prime" bill of entry (DA500) unless he/ she was qualified. There were degrees of qualification and therefore entry clerks, if not fully qualified, could only do or sign secondary entries, i.e. RIBs or Ex-Bonds. Right now, the whole logistics industry is in an uproar and Saaff with the assistance of Fiata is trying to rectify the situation – but chaps, what about Customs. In addition though, we have the problem of a very conservative industry combined with financial issues, which quite frankly are making the situation even bleaker. 99% of the time the agent or trader says he did not budget for any training, or "we simply don't have the money right now". The root of the problem lies with enforcement or even legislation on the part of Customs in conjunction with Saaff. Rialgo Barnard, IQ Logix.