• By DouglasL
• Courier Service, Logistics, Transport

The Covid-19 global pandemic has changed our lifestyles dramatically, accelerating public acceptance of online work and shopping resources and manifesting a stay-at-home culture that is as unprecedented in extent as it has been unexpected.

One result has been an escalation in demand for delivery and messenger services, and concierge at all levels, the courier and delivery sector has risen to meet this significantly increased demand.

But it would be remiss for any delivery enterprise whose activities necessitate significant human contact to ignore the measures that must be put in place to protect their stakeholders: their customers, their colleagues and the public at large.

So, the question one should ask oneself is “how responsible is my delivery service in keeping me and my people safe during the pandemic?

However, not so with some larger companies, for whom adapting to accentuated hygiene demands has been suddenly thrust upon them with little context to reference.

Here then, is a checklist delivery service users might want to refer to in gauging their service providers’ level of social responsibility:

Does your courier or delivery service provider:

• Ensure its staff’s adherence to all Regulations and Directions in respect of hygienic workplace conditions and the potential exposure of employees to COVID-19, including the Covid-19 Occupational Health and Safety Measures in Workplaces directions*?

(*issued by the Minister of Employment of Labour and published in Government Notice 479 on 29 April 2019, which for ease of reference has been set out in Annexure A)

• Provide places to wash hands, and alcohol-based hand sanitizers that contain at least 60 percent ethanol or 70% isopropanol?
  

• Ensure that delivery equipment is sanitized with wipes regularly, and that frequently-touched surfaces, including vehicle interiors, are regularly cleaned and disinfected?

• Provide and ensure all colleagues wear face coverings (i.e., cloth face coverings or surgical masks) that have at least two layers of tightly woven breathable fabric that covers the nose and mouth when delivering goods to customers or interacting with their colleagues or the general public? (face coverings should be provided at no cost to workers)

• Implement physical distancing practices where courier and delivery personnel maintain at least one-and-a-half metres’ distance from:
  • other courier or delivery personnel when collecting goods for delivery, and
  • customers, when delivering goods?

• Ensure that courier and delivery service personnel don’t enter homes of customers if they and any other residents in the immediate vicinity are not wearing face coverings that cover the nose and mouth?

• Leave deliveries at doorsteps, loading docks, or other locations that do not require person-to- person exposures?

• Encourage team members to use good hygiene practices, including frequent handwashing, not sharing face masks, equipment, stationery, utensils or similar?

• Ensure that team member breakrooms and meeting rooms are cleaned frequently, and restrooms are always stocked with lotion cleaner for hand washing, and there are hand sanitizing stations art workstations?

• Make sure that all courier and delivery personnel have their own hand sanitiser and disinfectant wipes, which must be refilled daily, as well as a supply of frequently-changed face masks

• Establish flexible work hours (e.g., staggered shifts),to accommodate the unusual demands made upon us by the pandemic?
• Train workers on COVID-19 policies and procedures in a language they understand, promote the sharing of resources on how to keep the workplace clean, maintain education and awareness programmes for frontline colleagues, and remain up-to-date with current information, reinforcing education and hygiene with regular workplace communications and reminders?

• Establish practices where each employee’s temperature is taken using appropriate equipment or instruments at the start of a shift and every four hours after a shift commences, ensuring that
  • Records of the temperatures of each employee are kept;
  • Employees whose temperature are 37,5 degrees or above are immediately be moved to an isolated observation room for a second measurement, and If second test measurements also exceed 37,5 degrees, employees are sent home for self-quarantine, provided with a surgical mask and not permitted in the business’s premises?

• Encourage team members to closely monitor their health and seek medical attention if they develop flu-like symptoms – any team member who reports or displays flu-like symptoms to stay home?

Obviously, Quick Safe Delivery’s courier and delivery services have formalized policies to embrace these safety measures and this will give comfort to its customers and staff, confirming that their health and safety is top of mind in the Company’s priorities – as safe as customers’ cargoes are whilst in the possession of QSD.