Fleets are now seen as a viable way for staff to minimise potential exposure to COVID-19, while safely getting from A to B. But while private transportation does help to minimise exposure, it also opens the door to other vectors of infection. It is even more imperative now that organisations have a pool booking solution that can effectively trace vehicle use (and time/date), to protect your drivers and fleet if staff do become sick. With an effective traceability solution your organisation can act to identify other potentially impacted/transmitted drivers to quickly to inform those individuals and reduce further spread.
One of the concerning aspects of COVID-19 is that those that are infected don’t start displaying symptoms for up to 14 days. Furthermore, a large portion of those infected don’t display symptoms at all. Such individuals will be unaware that they are spreading the virus to other people. This issue is further compounded by the fact that currently, the only people who are being tested for the virus are those that display symptoms.
Combine this with the fact that the virus has been observed to survive on surfaces for extended periods of time, and there is a very real possibility that fleets can play a role in spreading the virus. A pool booking system can help you mitigate any fallout.
By managing your fleet with a pool booking system, you have accurate information about who has used all your fleet vehicles. If you are notified that a staff member has contracted COVID-19, you can easily retrieve the details on which vehicles they have driven (or been a passenger in) over the past 14 days. This gives you the ability to action the following:
At this point you can inform these people that they may have come in contact with COVID-19, and that they should seek medical advice.
The next step you can take once you have notified staff is to remove the vehicle(s) from active use. If you’re managing your fleet manually, this might involve an email to the whole organisation, placing printed notices on the car that it’s not to be driven, and removing the keys from circulation. This is an inefficient process that has the potential to spread the virus (such as handling keys) and could potentially mean recipients don’t get the message in time.
With a pool booking solution, an administrator can simply log in and remove the vehicle from active use. This gives fleet managers the breathing space to ensure they can clean and thoroughly disinfect the vehicle. Staff can then be assured that vehicles are being disinfected to minimise the potential spread of the virus
During this period of uncertainty surrounding COVID-19, you need to be completely sure that your fleet won’t play a part in spreading the virus. A pool booking solution like Smartrak’s PoolCar is easy to use and simple to set up. Don’t let your fleet be the weak link in the chain.
Contact us now to learn how you can get started today.
