Essential Delivery Service During COVID-19 Pandemic

Essential_Delivery_Service_During_COVID-19_Pandemic.pdf

March 23, 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to accelerate our team at Gardewine have been working hard to maintain service levels as close to “normal” as possible. Our Senior Management team has taken action to protect our people, and our customers during this challenging time. We thank everyone for their part in helping to ensure things are operating as effectively and safely as they can during this situation.

As a result of the spread of this disease, many businesses are closing or reducing operating hours. Our business is a part of the “Essential Services” that will continue to operate during the crisis to ensure our citizens have access to the essentials of life. However, the spread of COVID-19 is making delivery of some shipments difficult, if not impossible.

As a result of this, we are now asking shippers to confirm that a receiver will be available at the delivery site and to note the consignee operating hours on the Bill of Lading prior to tendering your freight to Gardewine. Taking these steps at the beginning of the process will assist us all in ensuring freight is delivered as efficiently as possible.

As you can appreciate, we have limited available space in our cross-dock facilities so we will have no choice but to return undeliverable shipments to the shipper. Should it not be possible to return the freight to the original shipper we will have to charge daily storage, as described in GWN RULES TARIFF 100, Rule 755 (available on our website), for undeliverable freight. In either case, any applicable additional charges will be at the expense of the bill-to party on the original Bill of Lading. We remind everyone that at this crucial time, social distancing (also know as physical distancing) of 2 metres (6 feet) must be maintained to protect our colleagues. In addition, we request that you allow reasonable driver access to sanitary restroom facilities when required, if at all possible. As we are all aware, personal hygiene is extremely important to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Some other recent initiatives we have taken to protect our people and customers include:

• We are no longer requiring the receiver’s signature on our delivery documents
• We have secured a significant supply of sanitation product for our people (wipes, sanitation gel, etc.) and are taking extra steps to wipe down all shared technology hardware, and other shared equipment

Please be assured that we are doing everything possible to keep our network of 34 terminals running as effectively as possible during this time. Your assistance and understanding is truly appreciated.

Should you have any further questions, please contact your local Gardewine representative or Sales Professional for further clarification.

Yours, truly

Darin Downey
President and COO