Delivery services, QSR chains step up hygiene guidelines

Contactless delivery is the way forward to reduce the risk of Covid-19 exposure

By  S BIRRUNTHA / Pic By BERNAMA

THOUGH it is business as usual for online delivery companies following the implementation of Movement Control Order (MCO), these companies along with QSR chains are not taking safety and hygiene lightly.

Now that consumers are increasingly turning towards home deliveries due to the MCO and Covid-19 cases increasing by the day, many delivery players and QSR chains have announced that they will be practising contactless delivery.

Ninja Van Malaysia country head Adzim Halim said as of now, mandatory temperature checks and hand sanitisers are already in place for its employees.

“Starting from now, we are implementing contactless delivery to add peace of mind to both our parcel recipients and deliverymen. Our customers can request for their parcels to be placed at their doorstep.

“In place of digital signature as an acknowledgement of receipt, our delivery men will practise social distancing by taking a photo of the recipient using our driver’s in-app photo-taking function,” he told The Malaysian Reserve (TMR) yesterday.

Adzim added that for cash-on-delivery parcels, Ninja Van is offering the option of online transfer in order to avoid physical handling of cash.

The delivery company also high-lighted that a portion of Ninja Points (parcel pick-up drop-off points) will cease operations during the MCO.

It will update on the exact figures and locations of Ninja Points which will continue to operate as usual.

“Ninja Van will not be able to deliver to premises that are expected to close. This developing list includes, but is not limited to, non-essential offices, schools and higher learning institutions.

“To better support customers’ needs, Ninja Van will also be offering the option of changing delivery

address with no extra cost incurred,” it said in a statement yesterday.

Meanwhile, Tesco Malaysia has instructed its delivery team to wear face masks throughout the day and sanitise their hands between each delivery.

“They will also wipe and sanitise the delivery trays before and after each delivery. The trays will then be thoroughly clean with disinfectant once they are returned to the originating store.

“In the case of deliveries to houses with people in quarantine, our delivery team will place the items in plastic bags so as to not having any contact with the delivery trays,” Tesco’s spokesman told TMR yesterday.

Payments at the door will be collected after the delivery men have sanitised their own hands.

Meanwhile, Pos Malaysia Bhd, has stamped safety tips on all letters delivered nationwide.

Items delivered will not require the recipients’ signatures for the time being but instead a verbalisation of their identification card number would be sufficient thus, reducing their employees’ close contact with customers.

Grab Malaysia, on the other hand, has ensured that all of customers’ orders are carefully sealed and handled through contactless delivery.

“We are subsidising masks, to be made available to our delivery partners on GrabBenefits, on a first-come first-service basis.

“We urge all delivery partners to wear masks, use hand sanitisers provided by merchants and comply with health and safety mea-sures at merchants’ premises,” it said in a statement yesterday.

Separately, QSR Brands like KFC and Pizza Hut have also enabled contactless delivery, where it will allow customers to transact in an entirely contact-free manner, reducing the risk of virus spreading.

QSR Brands (M) Holdings Bhd MD Nehchal Khanna said Malaysians can still continue to enjoy its meals through the takeaway and drive-thru options.

“We have enhanced our stringent food safety and hygiene standards through measures like increased cleaning and sanitation frequency, disinfecting high touch-point surfaces, provision of hand sanitisers, health checks and training of new procedures for all our team members,” Nehchal said in a statement yesterday.

For contactless delivery, the delivery men for both KFC and Pizza Hut will contact customers to ask for the location to place the food.

QSR Brands also added that all payments should be made online and the order will be recorded as complete once the food is safely retrieved by the customers.