OMNI is providing its members with financial vetting of shipping lines as part of its continuing compliance programme, providing additional confidence to corporate and Relocation Management Company (RMC) clients.
OMNI (Overseas Moving Network International) has become the first global network of mobility companies to provide financial vetting of the shipping lines its members use for transporting transferees’ household goods. The move comes in the wake of the demise of the South Korean Hanjin shipping line in August that left an estimated $14billion of cargo stranded and provides increased confidence to OMNI members’ corporate and relocation management clients that transferees’ private possessions will be safe.
OMNI represents over 120 moving and relocation companies worldwide that are all market leaders in their own regions and specialise in handling household goods movements for many large corporations. The crash of Hanjin highlighted the vulnerability of goods while they are in transit and OMNI has been quick to provide this vetting service, unique in the industry, to its member companies.
The information gathered by OMNI allows it to provide its members with a monthly ‘Freight Operators Financial Stress Review’ showing the comparative health of each shipping company’s finances. Each member can then choose to use only those lines that are considered to be financially safe or advise clients of any potential risks in their chosen routing.
Ian Waters, General Manager of OMNI, said that the need to provide this new service had become obvious in recent weeks. “The Hanjin crash rocked the industry and caused considerable anxiety for corporations that are relocating employees around the world,” he said. “We felt that it was important for us to react quickly to help protect customers and their transferees and demonstrate that we always have their best interests at heart.”
This new move forms part of OMNI’s growing suite of ‘Risk and Compliance Solutions’ that have taken centre stage within the organisation. OMNI recognised some years ago that providing corporations with absolute confidence of the integrity of its members – especially with regard to bribery, corruption and money laundering risks – was a key priority and has been working achieve this aim.
“Compliance and risk management are of primary importance to our members’ customers,” said Ian. “At OMNI it’s our job to make sure we provide the best possible commercial services to help members meet their customers’ needs.”
OMNI already vets its whole membership to identify potential compliance risks and is currently engaged in an ambitious project to allow all its members to demonstrate to their corporate clients that their whole supply chains are compliant and verified as such by a trusted third party.
The project is due for completion early in 2017 and a further announcement is expected in January.