“Being an essential service means we are busy. We take our status as an essential service very seriously.
“It’s a privilege and a responsibility that we don’t take lightly and we have strict precautions in place to ensure our employees, their families and communities are kept safe during this time,” Phipps said.
“Right now the most important thing we can all do is follow the safety measures that have been put in place to keep us protected and work with the rest of the country to break the chain of covid-19.”
Phipps said tanker drivers and shareholders are owning the situation.
Shareholders live partly in isolation all year round so not a massive change there.
And tanker drivers are well known to take things in their stride and continue to keep the wheels turning.
There’s even a welcome positive for drivers.
“I’m hearing a lot from our tanker drivers around how life is a lot easier not having to worry about traffic jams and roadworks so that’s a positive.”
New ways of operating mean all drivers over 70 and those who are immune compromised have been stood down with all shift meetings and other group meetings cancelled to reduce person-to-person risk. That also applies to eating and smoking areas.
“For those tanker drivers who are working we have staggered starts to minimise the number of people at the depot and have switched from meetings being held face to face to written communication with whiteboards and paper copies.”
Drivers are all carrying sanitiser to use while out on collection with sanitiser provided at all touchable points onsite and both onsite and on-farm the two-metre distancing is being strictly adhered.
Phipps said farmers’ co-operation is great.
“Our shareholders have been great. We arrive at a lot of farms and they have set up cleaning-sanitising stations for us and are fully aware of social distancing.
“We have received great notes from a lot of farmers who are really appreciative of what we are all doing during these trying times.”
For the collection team the big focus is about actions, checking what they can do to make sure they are safe.
“And starting to think now is not the time to rely on others to make sure my work area, for example my cab, is clean when I hop in it, I own it.
“We all know we have an important part to play in breaking the chain and living our safety values at work and at home because that’s what is going to get us through this.
“I couldn’t be involved with a better bunch to knock this thing over,” Phipps said.
