Albert has spent over 40 years in agri inspections, on both sides of the table: as a service provider, and as the client commissioning the work. We asked him what actually makes a good inspection.

His answer had nothing to do with technology.

“A client wants to know that you are their eyes and their ears, there to protect their high-value interests. You are their senses sight, smell, hearing, taste, to the best of our abilities. That is what they are paying for.”

And that has consequences for how you report. Not prose, Albert says. Relevant information: fast, short and clear, understood at a glance.

“The person in the office who receives that report has to feel as if they are standing alongside the vessel. That is the craft: translating what you observe so precisely that they experience it too.”

There is a line we never cross. “We advise, and we carry out our mandate. We give them the information it is up to them to decide. We never sit in the client’s chair. The decisions are theirs.”

The result is what he calls “peace of mind”: the client can focus on their own business, because someone they trust is standing on the quay.