Space for new inspectors

Tuesday 29 October 2013
Stichting Incident Management Nederland has decided to create the possibility of allowing new operators in the field of certification of recovery companies and the inspection of recovery vehicles. The decision was taken in response to the bankruptcy of MKB Certification earlier this year. As a consequence, only one party has remained on the market for the certification of IM recovery companies. Stichting Incident Management Nederland has expressed a preference for a situation in which recovery companies can select from a number of service providers.

To achieve this situation, a change has been made to the text of the Quality Requirements 2013 - 2016. Requirement Quality Requirements has until now listed the names of organisations admitted by Stichting Incident Management Nederland to carry out the certification of IM recovery companies and the inspection of IM vehicles. This list of names will as from today be replaced by a new text in which no specific names are identified. Instead, readers will be referred to the accreditation which the approved companies must be able to demonstrate. The change will be effective immediately.

From now on, certifying bodies approved to carry out certification of IM recovery companies must be in possession of accreditation in accordance with the ISO/IEC 17021 standard for the implementation of quality system certification (ISO 9001) in work field 31 (transport, storage and communication). Inspectors of IM vehicles must be accredited according to the ISO/IEC 17020 standard before they are permitted to carry out inspections on recovery vehicles.

In addition, as from now, organisations must have been approved by Stichting Incident Management Nederland. Approval will be granted by Stichting Incident Management Nederland if the organisation fulfils two conditions:

• it has thorough knowledge of incident management and the recovery sector
• it participates on a regular basis in harmonisation discussions with other approved bodies.

The names of approved organisations will be published on the website of Stichting Incident Management Nederland.

The decision by Stichting Incident Management Nederland to make space for new inspectors will have no immediate consequences. At present, only one company is approved by Stichting Incident Management Nederland to issue IM certificates, namely ViaNorm based in Nieuwegein. For the inspection of IM vehicles, Stichting Incident Management Nederland has to date approved three companies: Aboma based in Ede, AIB-Vinçotte in Breda and Tüv Nederland QA established in Best. All of these companies have reached the required accreditation standards. No new companies have as yet registered with Stichting Incident Management Nederland but are invited to do so, as from today.