I am reaching out as I believe that it’s important to have an open path of communication as the COVID-19 virus is significantly impacting our industry. Many of you have already reached out to us over the last week to ask about our preventative measures as well as our business continuity plans.
I want to first assure you that all of our facilities are open, including our Fremont, California facilities, and are fully functional. In regards to today’s March 16th ‘Shelter-in-Place’ order for Alameda County, DCL is on the exempt list and we will continue to operate and ship out of those facilities on behalf of our Fremont customers.
I also wanted to share the actions we are taking to help protect your business and our employees, as well as keep our operations running smoothly.
Hygiene Measures:
- All employees, temporary personnel or any person entering the buildings are required to either wash their hands with soap and water or use hand sanitizer.
- We have enhanced our cleaning throughout our offices and facilities. We have increased the frequency of regular cleaning in all areas, including sanitizing door knobs and all common surfaces (chairs, tables, bathroom sinks, toilet handles, countertops, copy machines, desks, workstations, railings, telephones).
- Placement of bottles of sanitizers and disinfectant wipes throughout the workplace.
- Providing and placing boxes of tissues throughout the facility.
- Emphasizing to all personnel the avoidance of touching their face
- Removing magazines and papers from waiting rooms and common areas such as employee lounges and kitchens.
- Prominent signage throughout the workplace stressing the importance of appropriate hygiene measures.
- Encourage social distancing, minimum 6 feet apart.
Exposure Measures:
We are not permitting visitors in the building unless it is mission critical to our business. As an alternative, we are recommending that meetings be handled via phone or video conferencing.
- Drivers for both courier and LTL, for both shipping and receiving, will not be permitted beyond the caged enclosure or marked off areas near the shipping and receiving docks.
- Outside maintenance workers will be allowed in our buildings but only if necessary and only if they have not traveled outside of the US or flown within the US within the last 21 days.
We have identified certain groups and individuals at each site, who are not responsible for the distribution operation, to work from home.
For employees who are feeling ill, we’ve asked them to not return to work until they have received medical clearance from their doctor.
For those working at each site, we are emphasizing they need to stay within their physical department area.
Staggered breaks for all employees to encourage social distancing. All common spaces, including break rooms and kitchens, are being thoroughly cleaned between breaks.
We have suspended all business related travel for our employees unless it is mission critical.
Employees or temporary personnel who have traveled internationally will not be permitted to work unless they have received clearance from a doctor.
We are working closely with our temporary agencies and limiting new agency personnel, with the goal to only permit the groups that we are currently utilizing to remain in our building.
Business Continuity:
Ensuring that we are still able to ship for our clients remains the number one priority and we have developed two main plans as an emergency contingency in case an employee has tested positive for COVID-19.
- Plan 1: We have identified key leadership as well as other skilled operational employees, who will work from home. In case of mass exposure, they will come in and run the operation along with temporary personnel.
- Plan 2: We have two facilities in each of our California regions, Fremont and Ontario. We are re-balancing key personnel across the entire organization between the two buildings in case of exposure in one of the other buildings.
In both these plans, all employees and personnel will be tested for COVID-19 when the tests become readily available and they are qualified to be tested. Those who test positive will be sent home indefinitely and not be allowed to return until they pass a second test. We will temporarily pause operations and undergo a facility deep clean before resuming the operation.
We will continue to assess our inventory levels for packaging materials and supplies on a weekly basis. I have asked our team to keep a minimum of 60 days inventory on hand for high volume items.
We deal with all major couriers and multiple carriers and we do not anticipate a major disruption at this time. However, we will continue to work with our transportation partners to understand their situations and will pass along any updates. Importantly, the WHO and the CDC have stated that the likelihood of the COVID-19 virus contaminating cardboard or other shipping containers is low.
Effective immediately, the leadership team will be meeting daily to update and share any new information and revise our COVID-19 Action Plan. It is my commitment to you, that should anything change, we will quickly communicate any information that has an impact on your business.
Best Regards,
Dave Tu
