Accreditation, qualifications, testimonials and reviews are a fact of life and can be a means to attracting or winning new business. They are a way to evaluate, benchmark or demonstrate the quality of a product, service or even an individual. Whether it’s organic food, hotel facilities or take away shop hygiene – accreditation has become part of our daily lives. Whether it’s International Standards, Investment in People, Responsible Procurement or NCAP safety ratings – they provide a framework of quality.

As a reader of Focus magazine, you’ll likely understand my meaning. You’ll have gone through an independent third-party endorsement process to become a CILT member and to carry the post-nominal letters. You use this to demonstrate your knowledge, skills and experience, as well as an ongoing commitment to your own continuing professional development. It’s part of your personal marketing strategy.

All too often though, the operating benchmark for some is to default to what the law says – or ‘what is the minimum we can get away with?’. I guess it is ‘ok practice’ if all businesses were law abiding all of the time – enforcement resources could then be much better utilised. But ‘ok practice’ doesn’t leave much room for error, in fact it doesn’t leave any. The law is in place for two reasons – to eliminate harm and provide a fair economic playing field – and we don’t have to look too far in the news to find that that many struggle to achieve this bare minimum requirement.

Is the law enough though? The Government used to provide extra strength to EU directives when they were incorporated in the UK. This ‘gold plating’ practice ceased in 2013 with a policy to implement the absolute minimum regulation necessary. With an an enthusiastic lobby to continually relax domestic regulation, who knows what the reference point will be for future UK law.

The need for industry-led standards is ever more important – ‘ok practice’ is just that, but it’s down to the logistics and transport profession to demonstrate what is ‘good practice’ and what is ‘best practice’.

Meeting customer needs is as important to a successful sustainable business as complying with the law. After all, a business is nothing without its customers. Accreditation to industry recognised standards not only provides confidence in your operation – it demonstrates your operating benchmark, giving competitive edge as a preferred supplier and evolving your status as a ‘go to’ employer.

Some businesses need the law to tell them how to run their operation, but others set their own standards. Which are you?