During these unprecedented times, due to the global Coronavirus pandemic, we assure you that the safety of our customers, our staff and the general public are absolutely paramount.

Within our operating site, we have Charlie Young, our COVID-19 Manager, who is responsible for overseeing the wellbeing of our employees, as well as ensuring that they all work safely.

This is done by several steps within our site:

• Upon entry to the site, we have a sign that covers all aspects of how to maintain a safe working environment while on our property.
• Our main reception area (for all visitors and delivery drivers) is attached to our main office, and upon entry, there is a hands-free, infrared hand sanitisation dispenser on the wall that is refilled throughout the working day.  This unit is also plugged into the wall, eliminating the need to change batteries.
• We also have an infrared forehead thermometer at the reception entrance, and all visitors must have their temperature taken.  If their temperature is too high, then they are politely asked to vacate the site and to follow government guidelines.
• Any employee of SP Location Rental must travel into work by themselves, and if this is not possible, they must travel into work with another member of their household. 
• Once an SP employee is on-site, they clock in at the main office, via a fob (each employee has their own unique fob).  Once they have signed in, their temperature is taken by a trained member of staff within the office, and their temperature is then recorded.
• All members of staff are provided with an adequate supply of masks, nitrile gloves, face shields, hand sanitiser, and viricidal cleaner.
• If any employee leaves the site and later returns, then they must have their temperature checked once again, to ensure that there has been no change since leaving the site.
• Our on-site toilets have been equipped with a hands-free anti-bacterial soap dispenser.
• We have large foot-operated bins located around the site, to ensure that any used PPE is disposed of in an effective and, where possible, environmentally friendly way.
• We have invested in signage for how to effectively wash your hands (with anti-bacterial soap or alcohol hand sanitiser), as well as putting on and removing PPE.
• All work surfaces are cleaned at the end of each working day, using viricidal cleaner.
• We have also stopped supplying tubs/bags of tea, coffee, sugar, and bottles of milk.  Instead, we are now supplying individually wrapped tea bags, spoons, coffee, sugar sachets and small pots of UHT milk.  Our employees are required to bring in their own personal mug/cup from home and must only use this, reducing the risk of cross-contamination, as well as being more environmentally friendly.

At SP, we have always prided ourselves on our clean equipment and have always taken every care to ensure that all of our equipment is thoroughly cleaned once returned back to our site.  However, since the outbreak of COVID-19, we have implemented several new protocols to further our cleaning process.

• All large and non-electrical equipment is cleaned with a hot high-pressure jet wash.  We have our water heated to between 90° – 110° Celsius.
• All equipment that is jet washed is first covered in traffic film remover, to remove any dirt or germs from the item.
• Once loaded onto a vehicle for delivery, the larger items are then wiped down with viricidal cleaner as a further precaution.
• All smaller equipment or electrical equipment is cleaned using a viricidal cleaner, to eliminate any germs that could be present on the item.
• Where possible, once the equipment has been cleaned with viricidal cleaner, it is bagged up and sealed.  This ensures that none of our staff will come into contact with the equipment before our client’s first use.
• After cleaning an item that is too large to be bagged and sealed (e.g. a fridge), it is then wrapped with shrink wrap, to reduce as much contamination as possible.
• All of our company vehicles are cleaned inside with viricidal cleaner after each use, including when the vehicle is moved around our site.

Another aspect of our business we have changed to ensure a safe working environment for all of our clients is the suspension of physical delivery notes. Our drivers will still be issued copies (that they must remove from the printer themselves) so that they can make any amendments on-site with the client/production they are delivering to. Once the driver has returned, an emailed copy of the delivery note will be sent to the person from the production that ordered the equipment.  This way, we can ensure that our client is made aware of the equipment that they have received even if they are not present, while also removing as much risk of cross-contamination as possible.

All our members of staff are to wear nitrile gloves while on-site and carry their company-issued bottle of alcohol hand sanitiser with them at all times. Employees must wear an isolation gown, and face mask or face shield, if working less than two metres away from another person is unavoidable. 

Furthermore, all of our vehicles have been stocked with masks, gloves, viricidal cleaner and blue roll, so that they can be cleaned while off-site.  All of our employees must be wearing gloves and masks before exiting the vehicle when delivering or collecting equipment from a client or a supplier.

As a company, we offer our employees as much training in as many different sectors of our business as possible. Before returning to work, all of our employees will have taken the Safe Sets International COVID-19 (Level A) for the Film and Video Production Industry Course. Any employee who is found to not be following the correct safety protocols will be reprimanded in-line with our disciplinary procedures.

We as a company take our employee’s Health and Safety very seriously; our Health and Safety Advisor is (Jake Edmonds, MSL  0203 427 7687).  We have always strived to ensure all members of staff have access to as much support as possible. If any employee of SP Location Rental believes that they may have COVID-19 symptoms, they must tell their manager or a company director straight away, vacate site, and self-isolate for 14 Days. Once made aware their manager or the company director must inform our COVID-19 manager immediately, who will then check where our employee has been within the last 72 hours. Once the employee’s route has been determined, any clients that they have come into contact with will be informed. If that employee was in a vehicle in the past 24 hours, then the load space and cab of that vehicle will be cleaned and disinfected by an employee wearing the appropriate PPE.

SP Location Rental’s offices shut down on the 23rd March, and since then, we have had two members of staff working from home to ensure that we have a large supply of various types of PPE and cleaning equipment.  We have enough stock of PPE in our warehouses so that when our employees do all return to work, they can be issued any PPE required. Once the PPE is used or a replenishment is required, then we can do so.

Fortunately, none of our employees are currently vulnerable to COVID-19. If any of them do become so, then we will follow the government guidelines and also continue to support them in any way that they should need.

If you have any other questions relating to anything in our Action Statement above, then please contact one of the following:

Charlie Young – Covid-19 Manager
07983 469029 – accounts@splocationrental.com

Steve Harvey – Managing Director
07956 560198 – steve@splocationrental.com