Update from Castle Parcels on COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
12 March 2020
The wellbeing of our people, customers and community is of paramount importance to us.
Castle Parcels has disaster preparedness and business continuity plans in place, for events such as natural disasters and pandemics like COVID-19 – these are designed to reduce impact and disruption to our day-to-day operations (thus minimising the impact on our customers and receivers).
The plans set out the responsibilities and immediate actions required by Castle Parcels to minimise key business operational risks:
- Health risk to employees and contractors
- The risk of premises becoming a node of transmission
- Ensure plans are in place should employees or contractors be quarantined or infected
- Alternative arrangements so that business operations can continue
Our plans and procedures will ensure that our services are well managed and that critical business functions will be prioritised. However, these plans cannot always guarantee complete 'business as usual' function.
Our suppliers each have their own plans in place to ensure their own business continuity. Castle Parcels' business continuity plans endeavour to identify alternative suppliers should the necessity arise. Additionally, we have communication plans to ensure our customers are kept up to date with relevant information should we need to advise of changes or restrictions in services.
We have processes and protocols in place to ensure that any staff member or Courier Contractor who has travelled overseas to a location that is listed by the Ministry of Health in Category 1a or 1b (or any other category that might be instigated) for countries or areas of concern, will have been required to self-isolate for the required 14 day period and will not be at work or providing services until their health is assured.
We will ensure that all staff and courier contractors will abide by any future Ministry of Health requirements or guidelines. As a business, we are closely monitoring the situation and will implement changes to standard operations where necessary (we are basing our actions on guidance from public health experts).