Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread across the world. In a fast changing situation, the pandemic’s impacts on the daily life of people, businesses and governments grow by the hour.
The most immediate concern for the road transport sector is to maintain supply chains, especially for essentials such as food and medical items, in the safest way possible for transport workers and citizens and respecting the latest relevant government guidelines.
The industry is doing its best to cope in a difficult situation, with rules and restrictions changing rapidly and often in a haphazard or uncoordinated way. Yet the industry takes seriously its social responsibility to keep operating as best it can in the crisis.
Short term action to keep road networks safe and open:
- Operating companies should implement higher health and safety standards for the loading/unloading of goods.
- Documents demonstrating compliance with health and safety rules must be carried
- Traceability records for driver and worker movements must be maintained.
- Clear communication for enforcement procedures for vehicles, drivers, cargo, passengers from governments and authorities.
- Governments and authorities closely co-ordinate and publish measures to mitigate restrictions adopted on supply chains and related movements of goods and people.