Introduction
The purpose of this policy is to provide a practical framework to enable us to operate safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We have been considering the risks our workers and visitors face and working out how to minimise them, recognising that we cannot completely eliminate the risk of COVID-19. We have assessed this by discussing and monitoring the day to day activities of the business and have taken on board the views of our staff and visitors.
The risks to consider are as follows:
Direct transmission of the virus between people – staff, contractors, customers, visitors, and the general public.
Surface transmission of the virus – caused by a person who has the virus (who could be asymptomatic) coughing, sneezing or touching surfaces with droplets on their hands, then another person coming into contact with that surface and touching their mouth, nose or eyes.
The key activities to manage this risk are:
Increasing the frequency of handwashing and surface cleaning.
Making every reasonable effort to comply with the social distancing guidelines set out by the government (keeping people 2m apart wherever possible).
Taking all the mitigating actions possible to reduce the risk of transmission between staff.
Using screens or barriers to separate people from each other.
Assessing whether the people doing the work are especially vulnerable to COVID-19.
Customer PODs
To protect our staff and the people they come into contact with as much as possible, we are no longer asking our staff to obtain a physical POD or handle customer paperwork.
Our drivers will record the following information on our delivery note:
The first name and surname of the person accepting the delivery.
Their job title.
The delivery date and time.
If you would like copies of your paperwork to be given to the delivery point, please attach these to the load. If you would like us to copy POD details onto your paperwork, please ensure this paperwork is emailed to our office in advance so we can print it and give it to the driver.
Our drivers always do their best to check the loads carefully for damage or discrepancies and will clause the paperwork accordingly, but if your delivery point notices something please ask them to ensure the driver records it on our delivery note. We will also take pictures of loads if there is any damage or discrepancies.
Visitors to Site
In line with the government’s Covid-19 Secure Workplace guidance, we must maintain a record of all visitors.
Obviously using a physical signing in book is not practical at present, so in order to comply with this and manage both our workforce and social distancing effectively we are instating a new booking in procedure from Tuesday 26th May 2020.
We require the following information for any person* who intends to access our site:
The company name
The driver/employee/engineer name
The vehicle registration
The date of their visit
The estimated time of their visit
*excluding small parcel/courier delivery drivers – we have set up a contactless delivery area for their use.
Please endeavour to email this information with the visit date as the subject line 24 hours before arrival. Please note that if we do not receive this information in advance, access will be refused. We will of course do all we can to cooperate with late notice requests and amendments.
Please note that the information gathered will only be retained for the purposes of contact tracing should any infection occur or be reported. Information will be securely stored in a password secured email inbox only accessible by relevant, trained staff. Information will only be shared with public authorities and legal bodies where there is a statutory requirement to do so. Information will be permanently deleted after no more than one year.
Drivers/employees/engineers must not attend site if they have had contact with somebody with Coronavirus in the last 14 days, and/or if they have a cough, fever, or shortness of breath.
View instructions for incoming vehicles
All persons must follow this procedure on arrival:
Stop at the gate and walk to the front of the office.
Use the antibacterial hand gel located at the front door.
Wait at the window to the left of the door for attention (clearly marked).
Inbound paperwork must be left in the plastic box under the window.
Completed paperwork can be collected from the box once loaded/offloaded.
We are open for collections and deliveries from 8.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday and from 8.00am to 12.00pm on Saturdays by prior arrangement only. Should you have any queries, please contact us. Please share this information with any relevant contacts.