Aramex awarded ISO 9001 status across its Dutch offices

Aramex's branch offices at Schiphol Rijk, Aalsmeer, Rotterdam, Eindhoven and Groningen embarked on the process for ISO certification in January 2009 with the aim of successfully completing it by the end of July.

In achieving the ISO 9001 quality certification, each branch's processes had to be documented and then aligned to ISO standards, while continuing to be embedded into the Aramex global procedures. Formal training sessions were organised to acquaint the staff with the new procedures and guidelines, alongside a Total Quality Management System (TQMS) awareness training programme. TQMS is one of the quality control programmes recommended and approved by the ISO 9001 auditing body.

'Quality is the most important component of our overall service offering at Aramex and it guides each aspect of our product development and service,'

said Marco Klassen, Country Manager, Aramex Netherlands.

'This achievement of a globally-accepted quality benchmark demonstrates to our stakeholders Aramex's ongoing commitment to accomplish a full suite of internationally recognised standards. This certification exemplifies the constant quality improvement that we endeavour towards across all our operations and highlights the value of our service to our customers.'

BSI, the auditor for the process commented that the company showed a high level of competency and had professional records management and archiving processes.

'Aramex's customer focus is well developed and the staffs are very familiar with the content of contracts and the specific requirements and needs of their customers,' BSI said in its remarks.

As a result of the ISO 9001 status, Aramex in the Netherlands has now turned its attention to achieving ISO 14001 status, TAPA certification and AEO status, all by the end of 2009.

'We successfully completed step one within our target timeline,' said Klaassen.

'We have emerged much more knowledgeable having gone through the accreditation process for ISO 9001 and I am confident that the strength of our TQMS will enable us to meet the three new quality accreditation targets we have set for ourselves for the remainder of the year.'