'Forwarding industry needs a watchdog'

A NUMBER of new freight companies have started to operate lately and I wonder if, from time to time, service providers and clients bother to check the backgrounds of some of the people who are in charge of these companies. I know of one incident where a person pretty well known in the freight industry headed up a clearing and forwarding company that was subsequently liquidated. Various service providers were never paid in the process and this same person started another clearing and forwarding company a few months later. This time however the company was registered in someone else's name. The freight industry needs to monitor this type of behaviour and not allow such people to operate in the industry once found guilty of misconduct. I believe that Customs accreditation is a step in the right direction as, from what I understand, Customs will look into the background of company directors and key staff before giving them this accreditation. The clearing and forwarding industry however also needs to introduce a 'watch-dog' system as in the long term the reputation of our industry is at stake. John Roodt, Intersped, Kempton Park