Some highlights:
- Certifications are essential to ensure compliance with industry standards.
- Operating permits must be obtained to legally operate in different jurisdictions.
- A desktop audit should be conducted to verify that all requirements have been met.
- Logistics providers must also have the proper handling permits.
- Loss can occur during transportation due to security breaches, theft, or accidents.
Todd’s assessment:
Todd Zegers,
President & CEO
Circular Integrity
[email protected]
(949)346-1683
So I would say #1 is the obvious right certifications. You must know what the industry’s most relevant certifications you have, whether it’s eStewards, R2.v3, if it’s in Europe, maybe the ADISA certification, the right certifications that are industry specific that are in those regions that you would consider best in class or at least acceptable because you know all the nuts and bolts behind that, I would say wherever you’re operating, whether it’s in the US or abroad, what are the relevant operating permits that these companies need to have inside these countries? Whether it be waste operations permits or air quality checks based on the country you’re in. And that goes back to a good ITAD partner who will tell you what those relevant licenses are to operate in those countries.
And “hey, Mr. customer, we have a facility in Singapore. Here’s our permits and operating licenses. We feel we check the box. Here’s our partner in Turkey. Here’s the Turkish requirements to operate in this country. We have a partner there and by the way, in a fully transparent mode, we will share those with you upon request. Obviously, we’ll get our partners authorization to do that.”
But think a lot of large companies, most large companies, don’t do their proper due diligence and digging down to that level, they see that they’re certified and they move on, they don’t dive deeper. The biggest thing you got to make sure is that if these people don’t have these right types of licenses, what happens if they get shut down? The government comes in and shuts them down because they’re not doing the right thing, and now your devices are held captive are held captive for god knows how long until they get back those devices. What If the requirement to operate in Turkey, I’m just making up an example here, is that you have to have certain types of fire suppression systems because of where you operate may be on a fault line of an earthquake zone and there’s other considerations you have to have to be ready for that and they don’t have that in place and an earthquake happens, the building catches on fire and you got stuff sitting in there. And now they find a charred asset with your asset tag. I think doing that should be a very bare minimum to get. And I think you can accomplish that by just doing what we call a desktop audit. Whether we go physically see their site or a partner who has engaged them as their subcontractor verify as they do that, but I would want to at least see a desktop audit of every operation out there where my devices are going.
So, certification, licenses and operating permits that relate to the industry in those countries of those regions. And then some kind of desktop audit to show that all the boxes are checked, I get a level of confidence that whether it’s my direct partner or their subcontractor are doing all the right things.
And I would tell you that also of their logistics providers. Most ITAD companies will have some trucks of their own, but they’re not going be doing all the pickups with their own trucks, their own people, with probably a few exceptions, making sure that those transportation providers have all their relative handling permits and licenses they need to move products around. The biggest risk of loss or just anything in my opinion in the ITAD business it’s from the time that stuff leaves your dock to the time it gets to your processor. Because they can meet their buddy on the side of the road, drop off a few laptops. Maybe the truck gets rolled over and stuff gets spilled out and you miss a hard drive or a thumb drive sitting on the side of the road. Maybe you stop to have a bathroom break, or you get something to eat and your truck isn’t locked and someone breaks in and steal stuff. Those are the horror stories I’ve seen in my 20-year career in ITAD that 90% of your issues that come up are from a bad pickup or somewhere in the transportation process.
