HITCH n HIKE > INDUSTRIAL ROPE ACCESS > CERTIFICATES OF CONFORMITY

We will issue third party declarations of conformity if requested because we know some companies insist on them. However, declarations of conformity issued by any third party (i.e. not the manufacturer) only replicate in part, the conformity information detailed by the manufacturer within the official documentation that is provided with each individual item of equipment. The paperwork provided by the manufacturer is the official Certificate of Conformity. Technically organisations and employers should accept as proof of conformity, the original official certificate supplied by the manufacturer. After all, how can a piece of A4 paper that's come out of a suppliers printer at the point of sale have any standing with regard to the legitimacy of a stated conformity? How can we as a supplier possibly state that the conformity details provided by a manufacturer are correct other than by trusting in good faith the information provided by them? We do not have the ability to independently test equipment and neither does any other supplier. In our opinion the manufacturer is the only party able to legitimately issue such a certificate. In our opinion the issuing of third party declarations of conformity increases the risk of incorrect information being provided. Any certificate or declaration provided by a third party is based upon information being manually copied and manually updated on a suppliers database and there is always the risk of human error. This risk could be eradicated if organisations and companies would accept the official certificate of conformity to be correct.