Case Studies

A major rail freight company who wanted to be both self-insured and hold a separate external certification came to Verus to see if they could combine the two audit programs.

For every safety licence or certification, there is usually a separate audit. However, this can mean multiple audits end up assessing the same thing, taking up internal resources as well as financial resources for the external auditor. It can also mean resources diverted from other safety efforts.

Our client wanted both self-insurance for commercial reasons and external certification to demonstrate its industry leadership and class-leading safety program – but wanted to reduce the duplication, time and effort normally required.

Project Goals

• Complete multiple audits that would take less time and resources than performing the two audit programs separately.
• Obtain third-party certification of the client’s safety management system.
• Maintain their self-insurer licence.

Our insight

Because Verus do both self-insurance and certification audits, we were able to map the requirements from one standard to another in a way that reduced duplication, time and effort.

The solution

We recommended various improvements to procurement & contractor systems to ensure:

• We developed an MOU with a certification body that allowed us to complete a single audit program and use the results separately to have both the certification issued and the self-insurance requirements satisfied.
• The combined audit program enabled the client to consider corrective actions that would satisfy both self-insurance and external certification.

The client was successful in attaining both their self-insurance licence and external standard certification, while saving money and improving their safety management system overall.