Membership fees a sticking point in Tapa membership drive

There is still no clear-cut consensus in the freight and trade industries as to whether the Transported Asset Protection Association (Tapa) can justify its fees with the products it offers. The cost of membership seems to be a sticking point for a number of freight executives FTW has talked to about the subject – with forwarders particularly loathe to fork out for security precautions that many feel are more the forte of the shipper or importer. In a finger-snap survey FTW discovered two divergent points of view. Terence Botha, who is Kuehne + Nagel’s warehouse manager in South Africa, immediately made the point that Tapa’s security systems were good. “But they’re also expensive,” he added. This, Botha told FTW, had been the result of the company’s last global costing of Tapa’s fees, and the benefits that could transpire. “It was felt that the costbenefit ratio was just not right – indicating that the fees were too high,” he said. But Botha was quick to point out that this was no condemnation of the standards of Tapa’s systems. Quite the opposite. Botha repeated that the systems were good, and that looking at K+N’s warehousing facilities, his team tried to maintain the same levels of security standards that Tapa advocated. Ron Kerbus, MD of Expeditors, has no doubts about the issue. “We are Tapa members globally,” he said. “The fee structure hasn’t come up as a stumbling block, so I must presume the service rendered justifies the fees.” The SA chapter of Tapa is completely aware of this fees issue. According to Safcor Panalpina supply chain director, Anthonie Verploegh, who was formerly vice-chairman of Tapa and is still occasional adviser, it is distinctly on the agenda. It’s something that chairman John Nelson of TNT has raised with Tapa Europe/ Middle East/Africa (EMEA) – with the volatile rand and the foreign exchange pressure being imposed on developing countries in the current financial uncertainty being subjects very much to the fore of the meetings. Verploegh also agreed with the rather fringe status of service providers in the association. “In Europe, it’s mainly manufacturing industry who make up most of the membership,” he said. But Tapa is busy trying to overcome this problem. Security in the supply chain can’t just be the problem of certain links in the chain. According to Verploegh, it affects everybody across the board. How to widen the appeal, he added, “is something we need to address”.