Register today for the NTLA Courier Certification Training Program

April 30 – May 1, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency DFW Airport in Dallas.


Click here to download the registration form.

The NTLA Courier Certification Program

COURIER STANDARDS FOR BANKING AND PHARMACEUTICALS

Over the years, the Courier Industry has evolved through an array of varying or inconsistent security and safety practices, particularly those dealing with the transportation of Pharmaceutical and Bank assets. As a result, couriers who sub-contract work, insurance underwriters, and shippers face a dilemma. They are challenged to adequately and consistently assess risk, and maintain quality and security in the absence of a common set of operating practices. This has forced the Pharmaceutical and Bank firms that contract with courier firms to perform ad-hoc audits of their operations and vendors in order to assess their exposure levels and minimize their risks. Clearly, a common set of standards, applied equally across the industry and enforced through a testing and certification process, creates a consistent and level playing field. Implementation of such would allow the Courier Industry to self-regulate and would provide the shipper with a consistent measurement/selection platform as well as a consistent evaluation of risk by insurers.

CERTIFICATION BENEFITS

By creating a common set of NTLA standards to assess compliance, the couriers will benefit from an agreed upon set of industry best practices to reduce costs, resulting in operational consistency and, ultimately, fewer losses. In addition, by obtaining certification, a courier may market their ‘certification’ as a noticeable RFP candidate to shippers, as well as a standout sub-contractor for other couriers, and enjoy a better experience in the insurance markets. Courier Insurers as well as Bank and Pharmaceutical customers will experience reduced levels of risk, greater asset protection, higher level of courier service, and lower rate of losses.

PROGRAM CERTIFICATION STRUCTURE

The courier certification process has been fashioned after that which has been established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), particularly ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management Systems – Requirements. ISO 9001 is intended for use in organizations that provide any form of service. Some of the requirements in ISO 9001 include:

  1. A set of procedures that cover all key processes in the business;
  1. Monitoring processes to ensure they are effective;
  1. Keeping adequate records;
  1. Checking output for defects, with appropriate corrective action where necessary;
  1. Regular review of individual processes and the quality system itself for effectiveness; and
  1. Facilitating continual improvement

A company or organization that has been independently audited and certified to be in conformance with ISO 9001 may publicly state that it is “ISO 9001 certified” or “ISO 9001 registered.” This is the approach that shall be taken in the NTLA Courier Certification Program—couriers that conform to the NTLA standards can publically state that they are “NTLA Certified.”

As with ISO 9001, the courier certification process will be based upon three primary steps:

  1. Self-Audits: Two types of auditing are required to become certified: auditing by internal staff trained to the courier standard, and auditing by an external certification body. The primary objective of a self-audit is to perform a Gap Analysis that identifies:

  2. • Processes that comply with the standard and are documented

  3. • Processes that comply with the standard and must be documented

  4. • Processes that do not comply with the standard and must be re-designed

  5. • Processes required by the standard that are not currently in place

  1. Documentation Review: Once the self-audit is completed (and the appropriate steps have been taken to re-design processes and controls that meet the standard), then an independent party performs a documentation review. You will be asked to submit your written procedures, forms, audit results, and other documentation for review and approval.

  1. On-Site Assessment: Following the approval of documentation, an On-Site Assessment (also known as the Registration Audit) is scheduled. This is the assessment to verify your conformance to the NTLA standard. The audit typically lasts from one to five days depending on the size of the company. The On-Site Assessment begins with an Opening Meeting, where your company meets the external auditors. The meeting is typically brief and covers the audit schedule, how the audit will be conducted, and what will be assessed. During the audit the Auditors collect evidence of conformance by interviewing people, looking at documents, and watching your processes in action.

At the end of the audit, there will be a Closing Meeting. Here, the Lead Assessor will present his or her findings and summarize whether your operation is in conformance or not. If not fully in conformance, he or she will work with your management to develop a time line of corrective actions. Following the audit, you will receive a written report of findings. If you have minor, or no non-conformities, you will be submitted for certification. An audit report goes to the NTLA office for approval and final authorization. If there are significant non-conformances (typically referred to as “majors”), your recommendation for certification will be deferred pending additional assessment or until you submit proof of acceptable corrective action. When your corrective actions are completed and accepted, you will be submitted for registration.

Once approved, you are issued a Certificate of Registration and a surveillance cycle begins. This involves regular surveillance visits by the external auditor to verify that the controls remain effective and compliant to the NTLA standard.

In addition to surveillance, you are required to perform internal quality audits on a regular basis.

At the end of the three-year cycle, a Re-Assessment is performed (also called a Renewal Audit) to confirm your continued compliance, and a new 3-year registration cycle will begin.

Certification Flow Chart

The steps towards NTLA Courier Certification are as follows:

Step 1:
Prepare for Certification. You’ll need to begin by getting a copy of the latest Certification Standards, assigning a Certification Manager, and performing a Self-Audit of your procedures. The NTLA offers a two-day course to train your self-audit team. It is very important that an internal audit has been performed and the results covered subsequently in a formal management review, with all pre-identified weaknesses in the operation effectively corrected.

Step 2:
After your company’s self-audit you apply to the NTLA for certification. The NTLA Certification Panel will review your application and—if accepted—you will receive a packet containing the certification process and the documentation that will need to be submitted for review. Submissions will include copies of your policies and control procedures as well as various operations documents and records attesting to the following of these policies and control procedures.

Step 3:
The documents shall then be reviewed by an independent certification testing firm, Lowers & Associates (L&A). Allow 2-4 weeks in advance for L&A to fully review all of the necessary documents.

Step 4:
Following this 2-4 week period, any significant omissions or weaknesses will be identified, and requests for modifications/amendments will need to be made before an on-site audit can commence.

Step 5:
An on-site audit will then begin, with physical inspection of control procedures in action. During this step, personnel are interviewed and objective evidence is gathered and evaluated. Initially, the on-site shall include your Headquarters and a statistical sample of your terminals and routes. If L&A assesses anything that doesn’t meet requirements (or nonconformities), L&A will issue findings. The length of this step will depend on the scope of the audit and the size your organization.

Step 6:
After all of the findings are put into an audit report (and any non-conformities are addressed,) your company will then be registered as Courier Standards conformant. You will receive a certificate and will be listed on the NTLA Courier Certification website. The company may, or course, use the certificate to publicize its registration and use in advertising.

Step 7:
To ensure that certification is maintained and that any changes don’t result in deficiencies, L&A performs regular unannounced surveillances of your routes. Over the two-year period of your certificate, auditors will perform one full and two partial checks of your operation.