It’s been over a year since the launch of Timber Trade Federation‘s Conduct Assurance Scheme and since then not one single complaint has been lodged with the federation for an independent investigation.
Does this mean that all TTF members are adhering strictly to the rules laid out in our scheme? It would seem unless we receive a complaint then we could safely conclude that this is indeed the case. Maybe this should come as no great surprise given that the widespread view was that the trouble lay outside the ranks of federation membership anyway and that one of the primary reasons for adopting the scheme in the first place was to differentiate federation members from others.
A recent survey has shown that more than 70% of respondents said that they would prefer to use a company that displayed a trade logo. It would seem that there is a fairly widespread assumption that trade association membership brings with it an adherence to strict professional standards. Even if subsequent investigation demonstrated that the logo in practice meant very little, customers still preferred to do business with the assurance of a logo. The key then to exploiting this perception is to make the most of the scheme through marketing it with your products and services.
Also, in the 18 months’ preparation prior to its launch it wasn’t realistic to expect that every last detail would be right on the day and, indeed, the softwood code itself was subsequently altered. As a result of this the federation has decided that, more than 12 months later, the whole scheme needs to be reviewed. We need to see if it’s actually helping members achieve what they wanted from it in the first place. Any comments and observations regarding the Conduct
