Dangerous goods added to Fiata training schedule

South African freight forwarders and operators have a high level of awareness of dangerous goods but there are still some operators in the supply chain who jeopardise safety through their unprofessional attitude. This was the observation of Mark Goodger, managing director of Global Maritime Learning Solutions (GMLS), a firm which aims to secure the international logistics supply chain by providing skills and knowledge transfer to southern African countries. “Some elements of the chain have an attitude of ‘this is Africa – anything goes’. They need to put this aside and bring their professionalism to the level of first world countries around the globe,” Goodger said. “It needs everyone in the supply chain to make it work safely." Goodger, who has facilitated the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Association (Fiata) diploma for the past three years, said a module on dangerous goods had recently been added to the course. “Previously Dangerous Goods was considered a specialised subject only but it has now been added to the training schedule, which confirms its elevation as an integral part of everyday freight forwarding and logistics,” Goodger said. The transportation of dangerous goods is regulated by a raft of national and international regulations. “We offer various courses on the packing, marking, handling, storage and transport of dangerous goods. These include faceto- face training and an online platform,” he said. “GMLS is presently on a huge customs compliance roll-out training plan as well as the training of supply chain security and protection in terms of the Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) and the preferred trader programmes. It is vital that companies bring themselves up to date with these new initiatives,” he said. “GMLS is committed to increasing the skills levels of all personnel involved in the handling and transport of dangerous goods by sea or air and we see this as vital to the industry right now– and not only when and if government decides it to be so,” he said. INSERT & CAPTION Some elements of the chain have an attitude of ‘this is Africa – anything goes’. – Mark Goodger