Safcor Panalpina gains top security accreditation

JOY ORLEK
HAVING ENTRENCHED its status as a major player in the high value logistics sector, Safcor Panalpina has taken its service delivery to a new level.
The company has just been granted the internationally recognised TAPA FSR security accreditation, a development that elevates it into an elite global club whose members all conform to stringent security and safety measures.
The Technology Asset Protection Association (TAPA) comprises security professionals and their related business partners from hi-tech companies who have joined forces to address security threats common to the technology industry.
“As a result of 9/11, US companies are insistent that service providers, particularly in the freight and logistics fields, can guarantee the security of the cargo in their care. TAPA accreditation is the highest global security order that can be achieved,” says Anthonie Verploegh, who heads up the Safcor Panalpina security initiative.
TAPA was established several years ago to ensure the safe and secure in-transit storage and warehousing of any TAPA members’ assets worldwide. It specifies the minimum acceptable standards for security throughout the supply chain and the methods to be used in maintaining those standards.
“It doesn’t however look only at the physical aspects of security - access control, surveillance technology and the like - but encompasses all the administrative processes that sit behind that,” says Verploegh. “This complements our ISO9001-2000 procedures.”
The local operation is the first in the international Panalpina stable to achieve TAPA accreditation, undertaken by certification company SGS.
The development coincides with an exceptionally buoyant period for Safcor Panalpina which has seen airfreight volumes increase by 25% in the first quarter of 2004, according to airfreight director Maria du Preez.
“The TAPA accreditation effectively closes the loop for our high value logistics customers,” says sales and marketing director Bruce Thoresson.