Templates and records · SQAS2022
Improvement action plan after the SQAS assessment
The SQAS report is read by the chemical shippers who buy transport. The improvement plan is the company’s public answer to the zeros in that report.
In one sentence
The improvement action plan after the SQAS assessment lists every question scored zero or carrying a negative comment, together with the action to correct it, its owner, its deadline and its status, because the SQAS guidelines expect the assessed company to draw up an improvement action programme that it may update throughout the three-year validity of the report and that users with access to the report can see.
- Type of information
- Good practice Provided for in the SQAS guidelines after the assessment; management area of the Core questionnaire
- Who fills it in
- Management and the SQAS lead Together with the heads of each area concerned
- When
- Once the report arrives And updated as actions are closed, throughout the three years
- How long it is kept
- At least the assessment cycle SQAS sets no retention periods; the report is valid for three years and the assessor reviews the evidence for that period. Where a legal period applies, such as those in the ADR, that one prevails.
What the standard requires
What SQAS2022 demands and what it leaves to your judgement
After the assessment, the company has one month on its own to review the report and add comments; it is then released to participating chemical companies. The guidelines expect the assessed company to draw up an improvement action programme, which it may update at any time while the report is valid.
SQAS prescribes no format and does not oblige the company to act on every zero: prioritising is the company’s call. But shippers consult the report when choosing a haulier and often ask for an explanation of the zeros in the areas that concern them.
If the improvements affect particular chapters, the company may request an intermediate assessment of those chapters, which replaces the report without extending its validity.
Structure
Fields the template should include
- SQAS report reference, module and assessment date
- Question concerned, area and assessor’s comment
- Analysis of why it scored zero
- Action, owner and deadline
- Priority: Responsible Care questions, mandatory-comment questions or those raised by customers
- Status and closure evidence
- Whether an intermediate assessment of the chapter will be requested
- Date of the latest published update
Example
Example: plan following a Transport Service assessment
Company, people and figures are fictitious: the example only shows what a properly completed record looks like.
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Report | Transportes Zuriain (fictitious company) · Transport Service · assessed on 3 March 2026 |
| Question 1 | Management area: no management review with quantified safety objectives |
| Action 1 | Management review with objectives for incidents per million km and for behaviour observations · general manager · 30 May |
| Question 2 | Behaviour-based safety chapter: no on-route observations carried out |
| Action 2 | Behaviour observation programme, one per driver per quarter · transport manager · from April |
| Question 3 | Contracting of services: two subcontractors without periodic evaluation |
| Action 3 | Evaluate both subcontractors against the company’s criteria · transport office · 30 April |
| Status at 30 June | Three actions closed with evidence · plan updated in the SQAS database |
| Intermediate assessment | Planned for the behaviour-based safety chapter in October 2026 |
At the audit
Mistakes auditors commonly flag
- The plan is never published, or not updated for three years.
- Actions with no owner or deadline, which shippers read as a lack of commitment.
- The paperwork is fixed for the next assessment, but not the practice the assessor pointed out.
- The same zeros reappear at reassessment because nobody followed the plan.
- The company fails to use the comments it is entitled to add to the report.
In Kimobox
How this record is kept in Kimobox
- 1Each zero in the report is logged as an action with an owner and a date, with an alert if it slips.
- 2The self-assessment questionnaire comes with the evidence already linked to each question.
- 3Internal audits ahead of the assessment are planned and recorded on the same platform.
- 4The current SQAS report and its evidence are at hand to share with any customer from the portal.
Frequently asked questions
What people ask us before getting started
Is an improvement plan mandatory?
The SQAS guidelines expect the assessed company to prepare one, but there is no penalty for not doing so. The effect is commercial: chemical shippers see both the report and the plan, and a report with unanswered zeros weighs on the choice of haulier.
Can the score be improved without waiting three years?
Yes, through an intermediate assessment of the chapters you choose, carried out by the same assessor. The new report replaces the previous one, but validity still runs from the initial assessment.
Which questions should come first?
Those highlighted by sector programmes, such as the Responsible Care questions, those requiring a mandatory comment and those customers flag in their response to the report. The guidelines allow chemical companies to send that kind of feedback to the haulier.
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Sources
Where each figure comes from
References to the official text in force. If a standard is revised, this page is updated and the review date says so.
- SQAS/ESAD Guidelines Cefic · September 2024
- SQAS — Safety & Quality Assessment for Sustainability: Core and Transport Service questionnaires Cefic · Revised questionnaires in force since 1 January 2022
- Responsible Care Cefic · European chemical industry programme