What is CRVA Accreditation?

The Caravan, RV & Accommodation Industry of Australia’s industry specific accreditation program has been written by the industry for the industry.  Accreditation is about how you manage your business, and is designed to take you through all the jobs and work areas of your business, to ensure you are using the best business practices possible for your business.

The program is a series of questions, which are broken up into seven sections.  These sections cover your entire business.  The questions are included in the templates and the backup notes, but they are also in a single document – The Application Form.  This is the core of the program and is available in the members only section.

The seven sections for accreditation are:

Section one –
Regulatory Compliance

Do you have all the registration, licences and permits that you need to run your business?  Are they all displayed where you are legally required to display them?

Section two –
Situation Analysis

 How well do you really know your own business, how is it being run, what are its strengths and weaknesses, how many ‘products’ do you actually sell, and are you getting a reasonable return from them?  What services do you supply and are you covering your costs for these?  What external threats do you face?  What is your vision for the future of your business and for you?

Section three –
Occupational Health and Safety

Are you running your business in such a way that you comply with your states OH&S Act?  Are you keeping all the records you need to, completing all the checklists, making sure your employees know how to be safe?  Do you have all the policies and procedures in place to meet the requirements of the Act your workforce, no matter how small your staff number may be.  OH&S applies to everyone who has a business regardless of the size of the business or the number of people employed.  This is a big part of good management and cannot be taken lightly. 

Section four – Environmental Management

Are you using your natural resources in the best possible way for you and your business?  Can you reduce your water and power consumption, which helps the environment and your running costs?  Are there noise and pollution reduction practices in place and, are they working?

Section five –
Human Resources

Are you training your staff properly, do they know what they need to know to do their job properly?  Are you dealing with contractors properly, are you sure that they are licensed and have the right insurance?  Are you up to date with IR?

Section six –
Marketing

Are you making the best use of your marketing dollar?   Do you know who your customers are, where they come from, why they come to you and do they come back?

Section seven –
Customer Management

Are you providing the best service possible to your customers so that they will come back?  Have you trained your staff in good quality customer management and do they know how to deal with the customers that have a problem?

Photographs

There is also a list of basic photographs of your business that we need to see.  These help during the assessment process to explain the physical environment of your workplace, and it is this physical environment that can determine the way some systems have developed.  These photographs are kept in your confidential file.

Your application

We prefer to receive your application on CD, and to retain that CD in your confidential file.  We do not store the data on a computer.  If you do not agree to that then we will work on a paper copy, which we will return to you. 

Application Form can be downloaded here  [word] [pdf]

The initial assessment process

Time Lines for projects

We know that some of the plans that you have will have long time lines.  As an example, your application does not have to show that you have RCDs in place throughout your business now, but there should be a plan giving a time line to show that this will happen.  The assessment process is practical and realistic.

Desk Assessment

Once you have developed your application, we undertake a desk assessment.  We check that your systems meet the requirements of accreditation and that you have provided the evidence that you are doing what you say you are doing.  In most cases we will come back to you for some additional information. 

CRVA Code of Conduct
and Declaration

When every thing is in place, and the Declaration, Code of Conduct and compliance form have been signed, we put your application to the National Accreditation Committee for approval.

Confidentiality

It is the policy for ALTO Management Services that only Alison undertakes the assessments.  No-one else on the team accesses the information or individual confidential application files. 

On-site visit

Once every three years we arrange to do an on-site verification where we come to your workplace and look at the physical aspects of the workplace.  We aim to undertake the first on-site verification as part of the initial assessment process, but this is not always possible.  However we do undertake it as soon as we can.

Approval

Once the assessment has been completed and the standards have been met, or agreed timelines to meet the standards are in place the application is put up to the National Accreditation Committee for approval.  Once it has been approved you will get a certificate  and a formal copy of the code of conduct.

On-going accreditation

Annual renewal

The Accreditation certificate is valid for one year.  On the anniversary of the approval you are required to pay an annual renewal fee and confirm your compliance with the accreditation standards.  The invoice and compliance form are sent out by CRVA.  Once the invoice has been paid and compliance confirmed a new certificate will be issued.

Regular updates

Accreditation is a valuable asset for your business, but it is a living asset.  Every time you make a change to your systems your documentation needs to be brought into line with the new system

Regular on-site visits
to the park

We undertake an on-site verification of your park and documentation every three years.  This is a national requirement under all accreditation programs, and backs up the annual CRVA check to ensure that you are still keeping the standards of accreditation in place. 

Non compliance

If you are unable to confirm on-going compliance, or the on-site verification shows that you are not maintaining the standards, you are given 30 days to rectify the non-compliance issues.  Any non-compliance identified during an on-site visit will be identified in a formal report.

Loosing Accreditation

If you do not comply and cannot rectify the non-compliance issues within an agreed time frame, accreditation will be withdrawn from your business.