Shipping Standards

I work for a small company that still uses FedEx/UPS to ship small quantities of product to local businesses.  Is this 100% bad practice?  My concern is obviously with vehicle inspections because we cannot determine what else might be in the trucks.

Furthermore, we do local deliveries of a frozen product using coolers (like, picnic coolers--supposedly rated to keep ice frozen for up to 5 days  ).  Is there a risk analysis way out of this (the temperature of the product is checked at the point of delivery and is still well below 0 degrees) or is this another "never"?

We are only working towards AIB right now but I would hope that the company would start working to GFSI standard after that so I would like to put practices into place now that will satisfy BRC/SQF/etc., if at all possible.  Thanks again for answering my newbie questions!  

Dear AJ,

No personal experience with AIB unfortunately but the typical initial approach to yr query for most FS standards is to (a) get a copy of the relevant standard, (b) do a Gap Analysis (GA) for yr particular operation.

If you lack the in-house technical capability to carry out a GA yourself it is likely you are going to need some professional help, eg training session(s) or a consultant.

AFAIK, most AIB, FS, programs are based on a HACCP plan / associated hazard analysis. Do you have tech. personnnel familiar with this methodology ? (apologies if the answers to above are already evident from other threads and I missed it).

Which particular AIB standard are you implementing (from memory all options are freely downloadable on their website) ?

Based on other threads on this forum, I think AIB is more focussed on operational FS than MS but I may be wrong. The system you describe seems rather ad hoc but that is not neccesarily unacceptable, possibly also depending on the product / packaging /  "small" quantities. The risk assessment will depend on your scope but will likely relate to potential hazards/control in the product storage / distribution chain. A typical haccp plan for such a flowchart exists on this forum, eg -

http://www.ifsqn.com...indpost&p=82639

There are a few AIB users, past/present on this forum so maybe some direct advice will be forthcoming.

Rgds / Charles.C

PS - ADDED -  It appears that much of the above  queries  was already answered  in yr earlier, related thread(s), eg  - 

http://www.ifsqn.com...ion/#entry80996

http://www.ifsqn.com...ion/#entry83882

http://www.ifsqn.com...ses/#entry81118