Like most countries, Australia has a number of Covid-19 lockdown measures in place.
These measures vary from State to State and can affect businesses such as cafes/bars/restaurants/gyms/pools and most retail shops and sporting events. Other businesses that are deemed as an essential service such as supermarkets, pharmacies, petrol stations, banks, Freight and Logistics companies etc per State Govt regulations are operating on a restricted basis depending on their location.
Certain industries are able to operate as ” Essential Services”.
At this time we are able to advise it is a “qualified” BUSINESS AS USUAL for OSS as we are able to operate under the Freight and Logistics Exemption in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
OSS are able to perform all normal functions, but some may be modified.
EXPORTS
– Surveys in home (by video)
– Packing and uplift (See comments below)
– Delivery to residence (See comments below)
IMPORTS
– Collection from Port
– Customs and Quarantine Clearances
– Delivery to residence (See comments below)
Having said that, at OSS we have a number of measures in place to address the COVID-19 situation, which include:
- We are actively monitoring the daily health status of all employees through temperature checks, a series of health-related questions and providing sanitizer solutions for all staff. Our policy requires any employees showing any sign of sickness to stay home, undergo a COVID test and isolate until a negative result is received. Employees who have symptoms of cold or flu symptoms will be required to stay home until they are fever and symptom free for at least 24 hours and provide a medical certificate from their doctor before returning to the workplace.
- We have implemented a work from home program for many staff to ensure the social distancing within our offices for those remaining in the office
- We are practicing social distancing and avoiding unnecessary physical interaction with customers. This can include keeping physical contact to a minimum (avoid handshakes, etc) and requesting customers to maintain social distancing (minimum 1.5 metres) from the crews. Clients MUST wear masks at all times that our crews are performing their removal services.
- We also request customers limit the number of people in the residence at the time of uplift or delivery so only one customer is interacting with our crew and others remain outside the premises or in other parts of the residence not being entered by our crew.
With lockdowns in Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour, Victoria, South Australia at the moment and tight restrictions in South East Queensland (including Brisbane) we also may not be able to perform complete unpacking of cartons as interaction with customers and time spent at the residence must be kept to an absolute minimum. At all times please be mindful of these restrictions otherwise, we will be placed in a difficult position balancing client expectations and the welfare of our crews, with the latter being paramount. Customers should note that should they not be accepting of OSS requirements, it may be, that we will be unable to perform a pack & uplift or delivery, as our strict conditions to operate as an essential service may be at risk of being breached if we were to proceed without these customer requirements as outlined being met.
- We require all employees to adopt frequent hand-washing and other sanitizing measures. We have provided all staff with these means including hand sanitiser in all company vehicles.
- We are performing increased cleaning and disinfecting of all frequently touched surfaces in our offices, warehouses, and trucks.
- We are ensuring crews are equipped with masks and personal hand sanitiser as needed.
Generally speaking the effect of a general lockdown presents more challenges than usual and these are being dealt with as they arise, maintaining our Customer Service focus at all times. Shipping line freight services are less reliable than usual as the lines endeavour to deal with the changed pattern of commercial freight movements globally over the past six months. Airfreight services are particularly limited and restricted at this time.
All of the above measures are subject to change at any time as the Federal Government and the individual State Governments grapple with the unique circumstances prevailing in Australia (and the world) due to COVID-19, particularly the Delta variant.
To date our Federal Government has adopted a balanced approach to dealing with COVID-19, in an attempt to control the virus spread against the need to ensure the economy is not destroyed by those control measures and other measures in place in Australia and elsewhere.
This approach has proven relatively successful to date although things are still volatile and being reviewed daily by Federal and State Governments and their Agencies. The State of NSW (main city Sydney) has a greater outbreak of the Delta Variant of COVID-19 than other States/Cities and whilst we are able to operate in Sydney generally restrictions are tighter in NSW and our earlier comments regarding in home activities need to be carefully noted.
Thank you for your ongoing support and rest assured we will do all in our power to maintain services whilst complying with the Government directives and common-sense preventative measures.