GMP+ for Feed Transport and Forwarding — a Complete Guide for Hauliers

Transport is one of the most sensitive links in the feed supply chain — a transport unit that, only a day earlier, carried a load incompatible with feed can become a source of contamination for an entire batch if it is not properly washed, or if it should not have been admitted to feed haulage at all. That is why GMP+ devotes a separate, detailed set of requirements to the transport scope, complementing the general quality-system rules described on the What is GMP+ page.

Who this certification scope applies to

The GMP+ transport scope covers haulage companies with their own fleet of vehicles used to carry feed — tankers, box trailers, containers or bulk vehicles — as well as forwarding companies that do not operate a fleet themselves but organise and commission haulage on a client's behalf, coordinating the work of one or several carriers. Certification also applies to production or trading companies with their own transport fleet used to carry their own feed loads, if they want to bring this area under formal certification rather than relying solely on internal procedures.

In practice, companies certifying in this scope range from large hauliers specialising in bulk and liquid transport for the feed and food industries, to smaller transport companies, including sole traders operating a single vehicle. Fleet size does not rule a company out of certification — only the scale and manner of record-keeping changes, adapted to the actual number of vehicles and routes.

A separate category is transport subcontractors — companies that carry out haulage on behalf of another carrier or forwarder. If a subcontractor physically hauls feed, it should meet the same requirements as the contracting carrier — we discuss this topic more fully later in this article, since it is one of the more frequent sources of misunderstanding when building a GMP+-compliant supply chain.

It is also worth distinguishing certification of the transport scope from a situation where a production or trading company uses only external, certified carriers and does not operate its own fleet. In that case the contracting company does not need to certify the transport scope itself — its responsibility instead is the proper selection and verification of carriers, covered later in this article under subcontractor management.

Load history — the foundation of feed transport safety

Load history is a documented record of what a given transport unit — a tanker, trailer, container or vehicle load compartment — carried in its successive prior hauls, before it was loaded with feed. This concept is the starting point for practically every decision made before loading: whether the transport unit can be loaded with feed straight away, whether it requires standard washing, whether certified washing is necessary, or whether a given vehicle or tanker should not be admitted to feed haulage at all because of the nature of the previous load.

Without reliably maintained load history it is simply not possible to assess the risk associated with a given haul — and it is precisely this risk assessment, not an ad hoc decision made by a driver or loader, that should determine whether a given transport unit is ready to receive feed. For this reason, maintaining load history is one of the first things an auditor checks when certifying a transport company, and one of the areas most frequently flagged for improvement in companies starting implementation.

In practice, load history is kept separately for each loading unit — not for the fleet as a whole, but for a specific tanker, trailer or container, because it is that specific load surface that comes into contact with the goods carried. For tractor units pulling several different trailers over the course of a week (as in combined transport), the log must follow the trailer, not the tractor unit, because it is the trailer — not the towing vehicle — that comes into contact with the load.

Lists of previous loads — the logic of risk classification

The GMP+ system is built on classifying previous loads according to the level of risk they pose to the next feed haul. Broadly, three situations can be distinguished. First, a previous load may be considered fully compatible with feed — in that case the transport unit can be loaded with feed almost immediately, with no further action beyond a routine visual cleanliness check. Second, a previous load may call for washing — depending on the degree of risk, standard washing carried out in-house is sufficient, or certified washing, confirmed by a document from an authorised washing facility, is required. Third, some substances are entirely incompatible with any further use of the transport unit for feed haulage — after carrying them, the loading unit is permanently excluded from that use, regardless of any washing applied.

This three-tier logic is designed to guard against two extremes — on one side, excessive, costly and time-consuming washing after every haul regardless of the real risk, and on the other, underestimating a hazard and loading feed into a unit that carried a substance posing a genuine risk of chemical, microbiological or odour contamination. A transport company should have a clear, internal procedure assigning the typical loads carried by its fleet to one of these three categories, so that a driver or dispatcher does not have to make that decision alone, based solely on their own judgement of the situation.

Risk classification is not a one-off exercise — it should be periodically reviewed, especially when a fleet begins handling new types of loads outside its established practice. A company expanding its operations to include, for example, new chemical substances or industrial by-products should assess each time how such a load fits into the existing classification before allowing it to count as a "previous load" ahead of the next feed haul.

Washing procedures: standard and certified

Standard washing is routine cleaning of the transport unit that a company can carry out in-house — for example using water, compressed air or simple cleaning agents — and is sufficient after hauls of low-risk loads. Certified washing (also called documented washing), by contrast, is a process carried out by a specialised, authorised washing facility, following a documented procedure, confirmed by a formal washing document — containing, among other things, the date, identification of the loading unit, the type of previous load, the washing procedure applied, and confirmation of its effectiveness, such as the result of a visual inspection or, where warranted, laboratory testing of the rinse water.

It is essential that the certified-washing document travels with the loading unit and is available for inspection at the next loading — it is this document that proves the required cleaning was carried out in line with the procedure before feed was accepted. A company using an external washing facility should verify that the facility actually operates within a recognised certified-washing system, rather than merely claiming to perform "thorough washing" without the appropriate documentation and procedure.

In practice, it is worthwhile for a transport company to keep a simple register in which it records, for each loading unit, not only that washing was carried out but also what type of washing — so that at the next loading a dispatcher or driver can immediately check whether a given tanker or trailer is ready for feed haulage or still requires washing before being positioned for loading. Without such a register, staff are forced to rely on memory or telephone arrangements with the previous driver, which in practice proves unreliable and difficult to reconstruct during an audit.

Vehicle and tanker inspection before loading

Before feed is loaded onto a transport unit, a pre-loading check should be carried out and recorded — verifying the cleanliness of the load compartment, the absence of foreign odours, moisture, residue from the previous load, or damage that could lead to physical contamination (for example flaking of a tanker's internal coating, damaged seals or leaking valves). The check is usually carried out by the driver or the loading operative, based on a simple checklist covering the key points to verify.

The pre-loading check record does not need to be elaborate — in many companies a short card or electronic form ticked off at every loading is enough, confirming that the condition of the loading unit was checked and found suitable for feed haulage. What matters is that such a record is actually created at every haul, not just occasionally — auditors regularly ask to see specific, historical check records for randomly selected hauls, not merely a description of the procedure itself.

The pre-loading check also covers the vehicle's general technical condition to the extent that it affects the safety of the load carried — the tightness of the tarpaulin or cover on open vehicles, the proper functioning of a closure system that prevents access by unauthorised persons during transport, and, for tankers, the condition of the valves, hoses and connections used for loading and unloading. Even minor lapses in this area can become a source of contamination during transport itself, not only at the loading stage.

Haulage documentation and traceability in transport

The general GMP+ traceability requirements — the ability to unambiguously link a specific delivery to its origin, the course of its transport and its destination — apply in full to transport and forwarding companies; we describe them in detail on the GMP+ standard requirements page. In transport practice, traceability rests on haulage documentation: the consignment note, documents accompanying the load (such as quality certificates or supplier specifications) and, for international transport, the CMR document, confirming acceptance of the goods for carriage and their route.

Well-kept haulage documentation should make it possible to unambiguously reconstruct: what load, in what quantity, in which loading unit and on what route was carried, who the driver was, and — particularly relevant in a GMP+ context — what the condition and load history of that transport unit were immediately before the haul. Linking this information together, rather than keeping it in scattered, disconnected registers, is in practice what most helps a quick reconstruction of a haul's course in the event of a complaint or suspected contamination.

Companies using electronic forwarding systems have a clear advantage here — a well-configured system can link the haulage order, vehicle data, load history and washing document in one place, considerably shortening the time needed to reconstruct information during an audit or a crisis situation. Companies keeping paper documentation should at least ensure consistent numbering and storage that allows records for a specific vehicle and date to be found quickly.

Managing transport subcontractors

Many forwarding companies and carriers with a limited own fleet subcontract part of their haulage. In a GMP+ context, it is essential that such a subcontractor — if it physically carries feed — itself meets the requirements of the system, rather than merely being formally bound by a contract with the contracting company. In practice this means the subcontractor should hold its own GMP+ certification covering the transport scope, or operate within a mechanism recognised by GMP+ that provides an equivalent level of control over load history, washing and pre-loading checks.

A company contracting haulage to a subcontractor should carry out documented qualification and ongoing oversight of such partners — checking the validity of their certificates, clearly setting out contractual requirements for load history and washing, and having a defined course of action should a subcontractor stop meeting the requirements during the course of the cooperation. A lack of such oversight is one of the more common reasons a non-conformity at a subcontractor becomes a problem for the contracting company, even though it was not the one that physically carried out the haulage.

In practice, a well-organised forwarding company keeps a simple register of approved subcontractors, recording the status of their certification, the certificate's expiry date and the date of the last verification. Before an order goes to a new subcontractor, it is worth checking that its certificate is current — rather than relying solely on a declaration made at first commercial contact, which may lose its currency over time without the contracting company's knowledge.

Driver training under GMP+

The driver is, in practice, the person who most often makes the decisions affecting the safety of the load carried — assessing the cleanliness of the loading unit, filling in the pre-loading check record, and sometimes deciding whether a given transport unit is fit to receive feed at all. For this reason, training drivers in the GMP+ requirements specific to transport — load history, risk classification of previous loads, washing rules and the basics of transport hygiene — is one of the key elements of a successful implementation, not merely a formality to tick off in the documentation.

Training should be tailored to a driver's actual duties — less general theory about quality management systems, more practical guidance: how to recognise situations that call for refusing a load, how to correctly fill in the check record, and whom to notify if in doubt about the condition of a loading unit. Well-designed training, repeated periodically and updated whenever new procedures are introduced, significantly reduces the number of non-conformities found during transport audits. We describe our training offer tailored to the specifics of transport on the GMP+ training page.

International feed transport

Cross-border hauls add an extra layer of complexity — a transport unit may move between countries with different market practices regarding typical return loads, and a driver may have limited direct contact with the parent company while on route. Under these conditions, it becomes even more important to keep load history in a form that is accessible and understandable regardless of where the vehicle currently is — ideally in electronic form, with remote access available to the dispatcher.

In international transport it also matters that procedures for certified washing take into account the real availability of authorised washing facilities on the routes typically served by the fleet — if a compliant facility is available only in the home country while the route requires loading abroad, the company should plan in advance how to ensure compliance with washing requirements without unnecessary delays. It is also worth remembering that documentation accompanying the haul, including the washing document and the load-history record, should be understandable and verifiable for parties in the destination country as well, not only for the company dispatching the load.

The most common non-conformities in transport audits

Based on audit experience with transport and forwarding companies, the most frequently recurring findings concern: incomplete or outdated load history for part of the fleet (particularly with trailers swapped between different tractor units), missing documents confirming certified washing for hauls that required it, inconsistencies between the declared and the actually applied risk classification of previous loads, and a lack of formal verification of transport subcontractors' certificates before assigning them a haul.

Less frequently cited, but still regularly recurring, findings include: missing pre-loading check records for randomly selected, spot-checked hauls, insufficient training for drivers employed seasonally or occasionally, and an unclear division of responsibility between the forwarder and the executing carrier in situations where an order passes through several parties before reaching the actual haulier. Proactively putting these areas in order ahead of the certification audit significantly shortens the time needed to close the certification process and reduces the number of non-conformities requiring corrective action after the auditor's visit.

Where to start implementation at a transport company

A good starting point is a review of the whole fleet in terms of what loads are currently being carried and how — if at all — load history is currently documented for individual vehicles, trailers and tankers. On this basis, an internal list classifying the typical loads handled by the company by risk level can be built, along with a picture of where certified washing is actually available on the routes served. We describe the general course of implementation and certification, common to all scopes of activity, on the GMP+ certification process page.

In advisory practice, a good first step for a transport company is a one-day review together with dispatchers and a few drivers — a conversation about how the decision to admit a transport unit to feed haulage is actually made today, who makes it, and on what basis. Such a conversation often reveals that knowledge of load history exists within the company, but only in the memory of individual drivers or dispatchers, not in a form accessible to the whole organisation and presentable to an auditor. Companies active in both transport and feed trade at the same time are also worth directing to the GMP+ for trade and storage page, which describes a related certification scope.

Glossary

Load history

A documented record of the successive loads carried by a given loading unit (tanker, trailer, container) before a given feed haul, forming the basis for risk assessment and the decision on whether washing is required.

List of acceptable previous loads

An internal list classifying typical previous loads by risk level — acceptable without further action, requiring washing, or entirely excluding the transport unit from further feed haulage.

Certified (documented) washing

Washing of a transport unit carried out by an authorised washing facility following a documented procedure, confirmed by a formal washing document that accompanies the loading unit.

Transport subcontractor

A company carrying out haulage on behalf of another carrier or forwarder — if it physically carries feed, it should meet the same GMP+ requirements as the contracting carrier.

Pre-loading check

Verification of the cleanliness and technical condition of the load compartment immediately before feed is loaded, documented as a simple record or checklist.

CMR (international consignment note)

A document accompanying international road haulage of goods, confirming acceptance of the load for carriage and its route — a documentation element supporting haulage traceability.