The services offered by the Quality Team (EQ) were contracted by the Barcelona Port Authority by public tender. They are currently provided by a joint venture set up by SGS. The tasks conducted by the EQ are supervised and coordinated by the Barcelona Port Authority's Quality System Department. The EQ team area of activity covers Terminal Contenidors de Barcelona (TCB), Terminal Catalunya (TerCat), Estibadora de Ponent and the border checkpoint (PIF in Spanish).

The EQ performs three main activities:

  • In the event of damaged and/or missing goods or customs seals, it conducts a recount and/or reconditions the merchandise and fills out the relevant incident form (PI in Spanish).
  • It offers support to the inspection services at the port during physical inspections of goods and is officially recognised by Barcelona Customs and other official inspection bodies (Foreign Health, Plant Health, Animal Health and SOIVRE).
  • It labels goods and/or containers with information on its interventions in the event of damage or losses and during the inspection process in order to keep recipients apprised.
  • In addition to the above, it enters the foregoing information into the information system in its capacity as the information agent responsible for feeding data into the Incident Channel. Incidents are thus reported to the Quality System Department, triggering performance of the Process Control.

To sum up, the EQ’s work enhances the transparency of port operations by providing information on the processes with which it is tasked. It is worth noting that the incident reports drawn up by the EQ may be required and admitted as evidence by courts in legal proceedings.