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NEED TO KNOW
Page 52
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Identifying good consultants
Anybody can sel thernselves up as a consultant—so how can operators sort the wheat from the chaff? Karen Peckham, managing consultant at the Freight Transport Association, says: "Officially, you don't need qualifications to be a consultant. We consider professional consultants to have 20 to 30 years' experience managing fleets— they should have been at the sharp end of the supply chain."
Check consultants' CVs, Peckham advises, and ask for testmonials.
Many consultants specialise, so it's important to know what you are trying to achieve, enabling the consultancy to field the right people.
"There's a problem with the quality of some consultants," Derek Bell admits. "Check their website. It should have information on the background of the consultants, client lists and client references." He echoes Packham's advice: speak to a consultant's previous clients and check their record.
Failing to do so can be expensive. He cites one case in which an operator paid £1,000 a day for warehousing advice: "But the quality was so poor that the customer had to get its own warehouse manager to do the work. Poor work can tarnish the work of good consultants."