The Quality Working Group was set up at the beginning of 2007 as a platform of dialogue on quality issues between the manufacturers and the logistics service providers. The group has enjoyed growing success and attendance. In addition to LSPs and OEMs, professional survey companies and trailer manufacturers participate regularly to the meetings. The Group’s initial mandate was for discussion on the harmonisation potential on a European scale in fields like operations standards, auditing and damage handling.
The first achievement of the Group was the publication of an ECG Operations Quality Manual for cars and light commercial vehicles that has been endorsed at the time by 13 leading European car manufacturers. The manual is becoming an industry-wide standard and has already been included by some manufacturers in their tenders. It has been translated to many languages with the help of ECG members. In the wake of this success, in 2012 the Group decided to prepare an ECG Operations Quality Manual for Commercial Vehicles (updated in March 2022) and on High & Heavy cargo (updated in January 2020).
The second major achievement of the Group was the publication of a common damage coding standard developed together with the American Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG): the Global Vehicle Damage Codes Standard.
The Group also decided to create a sub-group to properly address operations standards and harmonisation issues regarding electric and alternative fuel vehicles. The result of the work was a chapter on Alternative Fuel Vehicles in the Operations Quality Manual which was reviewed and improved in version 9 of the OQM.
In recent years, the Quality Group was pulling together the various OEM requirements on a certain field in order to help the LSPs. Subsequently, the following overviews were published:
Good industry practices have also been published:
- Visual Inspection Guidelines
- Full Body Covers in the supply chain
- Labelling of Alternative Fuel Vehicles
The Quality Working Group usually meets in Brussels or via webinar every 3-4 months.
Current projects
Continuous review of the Operations Quality Manual for cars and LCVs, co-operation with AIAG, handling of electric vehicles, especially in a maritime environment, and standardisation of yard audits.
How to join
For more information or to join the WG please contact Szilvi Kiss.