Complete a COVID-19 risk assessment, including consideration of the reasonable adjustments needed for staff and customers with disabilities. Share it with all your staff. Find out how to do a risk assessment.

Clean more often. Increase how often you clean surfaces, especially those that are being touched a lot. Ask your staff and your customers to use hand sanitiser and wash their hands frequently.

Remind your customers to wear face coverings where required to do so by law. That is especially important if your visitors are likely to be around people they do not normally meet. Some exemptions apply. Check when to wear one, exemptions, and how to make your own.

Make sure everyone is social distancing. Social distancing applies both inside and outside of vehicles. Make it easy for everyone to do so by putting up signs or introducing a one-way system that your staff and visitors can follow.

Provide adequate ventilation. This means supplying fresh air to enclosed space where people are present. This can be natural ventilation through windows, doors and vents, mechanical ventilation using fans and ducts, or a combination of both. Read advice on air conditioning and ventilation from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Take part in NHS Test and Trace by keeping a record of all staff and contractors for 21 days. Check ‘Maintaining records of staff, customers and visitors to support NHS Test and Trace’ for details.

Turn people with coronavirus symptoms away. If a staff member (or someone in their household) or a customer has a persistent cough, a high temperature or has lost their sense of taste or smell, they should be isolating. Employers must not require someone who is being required to self-isolate to come to work. Any employer asking a worker to break self-isolation to work is committing an offence.

Consider the mental health and wellbeing aspects of COVID-19 for yourself and others. The government has published guidance on the mental health and wellbeing aspects of coronavirus (COVID-19).

Make sure people work in the same team every day. Use fixed teams or shift patterns to reduce the number of people each person comes into contact with.

Arrange work spaces to keep staff apart. Consider using barriers to separate people and introduce back-to-back or side-to-side working.

Reduce face-to-face meetings. Encourage calls or video conferences to avoid in-person meetings with external contacts, or colleagues outside someone’s immediate team, wherever possible.

Limit handling of goods. Consider having one worker at a time to load and unload vehicles. Introduce electronic paperwork where possible.

Communicate and train. Make sure all staff and customers are kept up to date with how safety measures are being used and updated.

Finding digital or remote alternatives to physical, in-home work where possible such as video or phone consultations.

Discussing working environment and practices with householders and clients in advance to confirm how the work will be carried out, if a physical visit is needed.

Employers and agencies should keep in touch with workers, who they might usually meet with face-to-face, on their working arrangements including their welfare, mental and physical health and personal security.

Providing support for workers around mental health and wellbeing. This could include advice or telephone support.

Enabling workers to work from home while self-isolating if appropriate. By law, from 28 September employers must not knowingly require or encourage someone who is being required to self-isolate to come to work.

See current guidance for employees and employers relating to statutory sick pay due to COVID-19.

Ensuring any workers who have symptoms of COVID-19 - a high temperature, new and persistent cough or anosmia - however mild, should self-isolate for at least 10 days from when the symptoms started. Workers who have tested positive for COVID-19 should self-isolate for at least 10 days starting from the day the test was taken. Where a worker has tested positive whilst not experiencing symptoms but develops symptoms during the isolation period, they should restart the 10-day isolation period from the day the symptoms developed. This only applies to those who begin their isolation on or after 30 July 2020.

Ensuring any workers who are contacts of individuals who test positive for COVID-19 self-isolate for a period of 10 days. Contacts will need to self-isolate for 10 days from the day after contact with the individual who tested positive has taken place.

See the guidance for people who have symptoms and those who live with others who have symptoms.

Ensuring any workers who have been contacted by NHS Test and Trace follows the requirement to self-isolate. See the guidance for those who have been in contact with, but do not live with, a person who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Understanding and taking into account the particular circumstances of those with different protected characteristics.

Involving and communicating appropriately with workers whose protected characteristics might either expose them to a different degree of risk, or might make any steps you are thinking about inappropriate or challenging for them.

Considering whether you need to put in place any particular measures or adjustments to take account of your duties under the equalities legislation.

Making reasonable adjustments to avoid disabled workers being put at a disadvantage, and assessing the health and safety risks for new or expectant mothers.

Making sure that the steps you take do not have an unjustifiable negative impact on some groups compared to others, for example, those with caring responsibilities or those with religious commitments.

Staggering arrival and departure times at work to reduce crowding into and out of the workplace, taking account of the impact on those with protected characteristics.

Providing additional parking or facilities such as bike-racks to help people walk, run or cycle to work where possible.

Limiting passengers in corporate vehicles, for example, work minibuses. This could include leaving seats empty.

Assigning fixed groups of workers to the same transportation routes where sole travel is not possible.

See government guidance on travelling to and from work.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-safer-travel-guidance-for-passengers

Reducing the number of workers at base depots or distribution centres at a given time based on minimum operational safety requirements.

Scheduling times for the collection of goods to avoid over- crowding.

Picking goods ahead of collection and loading onto vehicles without interacting with the driver.

Reducing job and location rotation.

Finding alternative solutions to two-person delivery. This could include delaying delivery of large items or using an alternative method, for example, mechanical / material handling equipment. Where these are not possible maintain fixed pairing for two-person deliveries and minimise physical contact.

Keeping the number of people in the vehicle to a minimum and as distanced within the vehicle space as possible.

– clear signage to outline social distancing measures in place

– single person or contactless refuelling where possible

– using physical screening, provided this does not compromise safety, for example, through reducing visibility

– sitting side-by-side not face-to-face and increasing ventilation where possible

– providing adequate ventilation by switching on systems that draw in fresh air or opening windows (partially if it’s cold). For more information on ventilation in vehicles read HSE guidance on ventilation and air conditioning.

Using a fixed pairing system if workers have to be in close proximity, for example in a vehicle.

Ensure regular cleaning of vehicles, in particular, between different users.

Scheduling to limit exposure to large crowds and rush hours where appropriate.

Revising pick-up and drop-off collection points and procedures with signage and marking.

Where possible and safe having single workers load or unload vehicles.

Minimising unnecessary contact at gatehouse security, yard and warehouse. For example, non- contact deliveries where the nature of the product allows for use of electronic pre-booking.

Maximising use of electronic paperwork where possible, and reviewing procedures to enable safe exchange of paper copies where needed, for example, required transport documents.

Enabling drivers to access welfare facilities when required and consistent with other guidance.

Encouraging drivers to stay in their vehicles where this does not compromise their safety and existing safe working practice.

Reviewing your incident and emergency procedures to ensure they reflect the social distancing principles as far as possible.

Considering the security implications of any changes you intend to make to your operations and practices in response to COVID-19, as any revisions may present new or altered security risks which may need mitigations.

Determining if schedules can be revised to reduce interaction and overlap between people. For example, when drivers arrive at depots, collection and delivery times and break times.

Ensuring delivery and receipt confirmation can be made contactless and avoiding physical contact when handing goods over to the customer.

Preparing for goods to be dropped off to a previously agreed area to avoid transmission, for example, taking advantage of click and collect type arrangements.

Keeping the number of people in the vehicle to a minimum and as distanced within the vehicle space as possible, and using other safety measures such as ensuring good ventilation.

Maintaining a record of all visitors, if this is practical.

Providing guidance and explanation on social distancing and hygiene to passengers when they enter the vehicle. Consider the particular needs of those with protected characteristics, such as those who are hearing or visually impaired.

Understanding the protocol for collecting and distributing goods across different locations and agreeing these in advance.

Regularly briefing drivers and temporary staff, communicating to customers and providing in-vehicle guides and reminders for passengers and staff.

Informing passengers that they should be prepared to remove face coverings if asked to do so by police officers and staff for the purposes of identification

Frequent cleaning of work areas and equipment between uses, using your usual cleaning products.

Frequent cleaning of objects and surfaces that are touched regularly, including door handles, fuel pumps and vehicle keys, and making sure there are adequate disposal arrangements for cleaning products.

Encouraging workers to wash hands before boarding vehicles.

Retaining sufficient quantities of hand sanitiser / wipes within vehicles to enable workers to clean hands after each delivery / drop-off.

Clearing workspaces and removing waste and belongings from the vehicle at the end of a shift.

Maintaining good ventilation in the work environment, for example keeping windows or doors open.

Using signs and posters to build awareness of good handwashing technique, the need to increase handwashing frequency, avoid touching your face and to cough or sneeze into a tissue which is binned safely, or into your arm if a tissue is not available.

Ensuring drivers have access to appropriate toilet facilities during their journeys and at their destinations and are helped to meet any requirements to allow them to do this, for example, prior booking-in, provision of hand sanitiser.

Providing sufficient hand sanitiser where handwashing is not possible.

Providing more waste facilities and more frequent rubbish collection.

If you are cleaning after a known or suspected case of COVID-19 then you should refer to the specific guidance.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-decontamination-in-non-healthcare-settings/covid-19-decontamination-in-non-healthcare-settings

Where shower and changing facilities are required, setting clear use and cleaning guidance for showers, lockers and changing rooms to ensure they are kept clean and clear of personal items and that social distancing is achieved as much as possible.

Introducing enhanced cleaning of all facilities regularly during the day and at the end of the day.

As far as possible, where people are split into teams or shift groups, fixing these teams or shift groups so that where contact is unavoidable, this happens between the same people.

People who work together in one vehicle should be in a fixed pairing as far as possible.

Identifying areas where people have to directly pass things to each other (such as job information, spare parts, samples, raw materials) and find ways to remove direct contact, for example, by using drop-off points or transfer zones.

You should assist the test and trace service by keeping a temporary record of your staff shift patterns for 21 days and assist NHS Test and Trace with requests for that data if needed. This could help contain clusters or outbreaks. Check what data you need to collect and how it should be managed (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/maintaining-records-of-staff-customers-and-visitors-to-support-nhs-test-and-trace).

As part of your risk assessment, you should ensure you have an up to date plan in case there is a COVID-19 outbreak. This plan should nominate a single point of contact (SPOC) where possible who should lead on contacting local Public Health teams.

If there are more than 5 cases of COVID-19 associated with your workplace in 14 days, you should contact your local PHE health protection team to report the suspected outbreak. Find your local PHE health protection team.

If the local PHE health protection team declares an outbreak, you will be asked to record details of symptomatic staff and assist with identifying contacts. You should therefore ensure all employment records are up to date. You will be provided with information about the outbreak management process, which will help you to implement control measures, assist with communications to staff, and reinforce prevention messages.

Walking or cycling where possible. Where not possible, you can use public transport or drive. You must wear a face covering when using public transport.

Where workers are required to stay away from their home, centrally logging the stay and making sure any overnight accommodation meets social distancing guidelines.

Putting in place procedures to minimise person-to-person contact during deliveries to other sites.

Minimising contact during payments and exchange of documentation, for example, by using electronic payment methods and electronically signed and exchanged documents.

Providing clear, consistent and regular communication to improve understanding and consistency of ways of working.

Engaging with workers and worker representatives through existing communication routes to explain and agree any changes in working arrangements.

Developing communication and training materials for workers prior to returning to site, especially around new procedures for arrival at work.

Ongoing engagement with workers (including through trade unions or employee representative groups) to monitor and understand any unforeseen impacts of changes to working environments.

Awareness and focus on the importance of mental health at times of uncertainty. The government has published guidance on the mental health and wellbeing aspects of coronavirus (COVID-19).

Using simple, clear messaging to explain guidelines using images and clear language, with consideration of groups for which English may not be their first language and those with protected characteristics such as visual impairments.

Using visual communications, such as whiteboards or signage, to explain changes to schedules without the need for face-to-face communications.

Communicating approaches and operational procedures to suppliers, customers or trade bodies to help their adoption and to share experience.

Revising pick-up and drop-off collection points, procedures, signage and markings.

Minimising unnecessary contact at gatehouse security, yard and warehouse for example, non-contact deliveries where the nature of the product allows for use of electronic pre- booking.

Where possible and safe, having single workers load or unload vehicles.

Where possible, using the same pairs of people for loads where more than one is needed.

Enabling drivers to access welfare facilities when required, consistent with other guidance.

Encouraging drivers to stay in their vehicles where this does not compromise their safety and existing safe working practice, such as preventing drive-aways.