Sustainable development at Bidvest Freight

Bidvest Freight is committed to continual improvement in sustainability management and reporting.  Our ongoing sustainability initiatives are part of our operating culture and we aim to embed the discipline of regular reporting on these issues. 

In a hazardous operating environment, Bidvest Freight works hard to improve safety standards to world-class levels, while leading the industry in some areas in the management of environmental impact.  HIV/Aids has a significant impact on society and on our operations and we are increasing our efforts to respond to this threat.

All business units are responsible for rolling out their own sustainability strategies and aligning these with their business strategies.

Material sustainable development issues

• The safety of our employees in potentially hazardous working environments.
• Impact of our operations on the environment.
• Health and wellness of our staff, especially HIV/Aids management.
• Skills development and skills transfer.
• Sustainability of profits and the business.

Governance of sustainability at Bidvest Freight

Sustainability is an agenda item on all Risk Committee meetings and it is receiving more attention and focus in the businesses. We acknowledge that there is always room for improvement.

The Divisional Risk Committee meetings are held every quarter and are attended by a senior representative of the executive committee from each business. The risk committee meetings at business levels also meet regularly.

• Island View Storage has a number of management systems in place to ensure compliance with regulations.  The company was successfully recertified as ISO 9001 and 14001 compliant.  IVS is now a 5 star NOSA rated facility.
• Rennies Distribution Services has a Business Quality Management System that is based on the requirements of ISO9001:2008 and their Excellence Charter.
• Bidfreight Port Operations has several safety officers at the various operations and nearly all operations have a NOSA rating of either 4 or 5 stars.  Most of the operations also have ISO quality ratings.

Economic Performance

Transformation

Bidvest Freight is fully committed to transformation and our target is to have all the businesses (regardless of size) rated at a minimum Level 4 Contributor status on the dti BEE scorecard.  All businesses are rated by an Accredited Rating Agency and we have made significant progress in complying with the Codes of Good Practice as demonstrated by the overall improvement in the divisional scorecard.

Although a divisional rating is not conducted, progress and improvements per business are tracked on a quarterly basis. Our businesses are encouraged to obtain their individual ratings and have plans in place to achieve sustainable transformation at all levels.

Several businesses showed a marked improvement in ratings and only two of our operations did not achieve Level 4 Contributor status – Manica Africa and Ensimbini Terminals.  The focus in the coming year will be to improve their status to achieve this target.