The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Competitiveness Bureau (CB) is encouraging truckers to adopt best global practices and standards in their operations as a way to help improve the Philippine logistics sector’s competitiveness.
Adopting best global practices also offers truckers “an advantage over other companies in providing world-class quality logistics services to our industries,” CB director Lilian Salonga said in a statement.
Last year the Philippines unveiled its first national standard on road freight transport, which provides guidelines and recommendations on reliable, safe, cost-efficient and environmentally sustainable road freight transport operations for the country’s land fleet operators and freight forwarders.
The Philippine National Standard on Road Freight Transport, developed by the Technical Committee on Logistics, was issued in December 2018 as PNS 2135:2018 by the Philippine Bureau of Standards (PBS). CB proposed its preparation in support of the National Logistics Masterplan Program, and in consultation with members of the private sector and the academe.
CB, together with PBS, has started conducting forums on standards and other concerns in the logistics sector this year with the aim of promoting the adoption of PNS 2135:2018.
Last October, CB held its first forum in Tagaytay City, and is scheduled to hold another one in Subic and in Cebu on November 18 and November 22, respectively.
“We organized this series of fora to educate the trucking sector about the benefits of implementing the PNS 2135:2018 [in] their respective companies,” Salonga said.
“We identified these locations (Region 3, Region 4A, Region 7) for our forum considering [their] strategic importance to logistics and industries. Being the home to regional gateways and fast growing in terms of economic performance, it is only necessary to advance the development of the logistics services sector in these areas,” Salonga added.
PNS 2135:2018 intends to support the trucking sector by spearheading the creation of standards that will define efficiency in the road freight sector and uphold green logistics across all individual players as an approach to improving overall efficiency.
The PNS on road freight transport is applicable to all types of fleet operators and freight forwarders regardless of size, type and activity.
It provides the fundamentals of an integrated logistics system, and the standards for organizational and personnel management.
It also provides standards for fleet management such as safe loading, load optimization, vehicle maintenance and inspection, security and safety measures, transportation planning, optimization and monitoring, route identification, and scheduling and tracking system, among others.
The PNS also lists indicators and targets for measuring the performance of road freight activities and initiatives to enhance road freight transport operations.
PNS 2135:2018 also lists laws and regulations covering road freight operations, such as the Anti-Overloading Law.
