Executive Summary – G-SQAS Questionnaire Revision

The latest G-SQAS Questionnaire revision involved a comprehensive review of the existing framework to strengthen alignment with the 2025 EU SQAS framework and GCC transportation regulations, streamline the assessment process, and enhance usability, consistency, and future benchmarking capabilities.

1. Scope of Review and Key Outcomes

• Comprehensive questionnaire review: Individually reviewed 1,899 questions across all five modules: Core, Transport, Warehouse, Tank Cleaning, and Container Depot.
• Question retirement: Retired 174 questions (approximately 9% of the original question set), while preserving the corresponding numbering to maintain consistency with Cefic/EU SQAS and support future benchmarking.
• Legacy item management: Relocated or deactivated 415 legacy items as part of the revision and consolidation process.
• Renumbering and guideline refinement: Renumbered more than 500 items and revised over 300 guidelines, incorporating 58 Gulf-specific requirements while maintaining alignment with EU SQAS numbering to facilitate future performance benchmarking.
• Document consolidation: Replaced seven separate Excel files with a unified workbook integrating all five questionnaires, the Pre-Assessment Document (PAD), scoring sheets, an LSP action-plan column, 87 mandatory Operation Clean Sweep (OCS) requirements, 45 Responsible Care flags, definitions, and reference registers.
• Final questionnaire structure: Consolidated the revised framework into 1,310 active questions across the five modules.

2. Key Enhancements in the 2026 Version

• New Container Depot PAD: Introduced a dedicated Pre-Assessment Document for Container Depot operations.
• Interactive homepage dashboard: Developed a central dashboard featuring live progress bars, detailed completion metrics, integrated OCS and Responsible Care scoring, and an interactive theme matrix with dynamic keyword search.
• Automated dynamic search: Introduced a dedicated search function that enables users to locate and filter questions across the workbook using keywords or specific themes.
• Integrated annexes and definitions: Consolidated standard terminology and annex definitions into a dedicated worksheet for easier reference and consistent interpretation.
• Centralized reference register: Brought standard references together in a single register, with clearly organized hyperlinks allowing each reference to be accessed independently.