By Jennifer Smith
Warehouse operators across the U.S. are sanitizing workplaces,
providing protective gear to workers and separating staff as they
try to keep supply chains running while much of the country's
economy shuts down amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Some businesses, such as TJX Cos., the parent of discount
retailer T.J. Maxx, have suspended distribution and fulfillment
operations in pre-emptive actions aimed at containing the pandemic.
E-commerce behemoth Amazon.com Inc. temporarily shut two U.S. sites
after workers there tested positive for Covid-19. The company said
one has reopened and the other is scheduled to open April 1.
The efforts are part of increasingly aggressive actions
logistics companies are taking to ensure goods continue to move
through distribution networks, both to anxious consumers who have
been stockpiling food and household supplies and, more critically,
to hospitals and health-care providers under strain as coronavirus
cases mount across the U.S.
"It's a scary situation for all of us, but we know how important
it is for our truck drivers to be here, for our warehouse people to
be here," said Richie Laecca, a 60-year-old warehouse dock foreman
at Imperial Dade, a food-service and janitorial products
distributor based in Jersey City, N.J.
"The priorities right now are all the supplies that would be
needed for hospitals, nursing homes, and all of those things," Mr.
Laecca said. "It's load after load after load coming."
Grocery chains have sought to assure consumers that supply
chains for critical goods are still operating without interruption.
But workers at warehouses and trucking companies are facing the
same concerns as other Americans over the spreading coronavirus,
and companies are trying to keep them on the job even as stresses
on operations grow.
Imperial Dade has an on-site nurse to check workers'
temperatures and is handing out protective gear such as gloves and
filling spray bottles with sanitizer for delivery drivers,
President Jason Tillis said.
The company isn't allowing drivers of inbound trucks on the
premises, and its own drivers aren't helping customers break up
freight shipments. At its warehouses, the company spread out lunch
shifts and is limiting the number of employees in the break room at
any one time.
"There's not really a playbook for this," Mr. Tillis said.
Some logistics hiring has caught fire in an economy that has
seen historic job losses this month as many businesses close their
doors or sharply scale back.
Demand for warehouse workers is "off the charts" in industries
such as medical supplies and food and grocery, said Brian Devine,
senior vice president of logistics-staffing firm ProLogistix, which
works with companies including Walmart Inc. and Target Corp.
Amazon and Walmart have said they are looking to hire tens of
thousands workers for their distribution operations. That means
some measure of job safety for distribution and fulfillment
workers, but also extra risk, as front-line employees balance
economic and health concerns.
Mr. Devine said about 27% of workers who responded to a
ProLogistix survey the week of March 16 said their workplace hadn't
taken extra precautions against the spread of the virus.
E-commerce fulfillment provider ShipBob said it set up
coronavirus safety measures at its seven fulfillment centers in
early March. That includes handing out masks and gloves to staffers
and requiring all visitors, including vendors and drivers, to put
on personal protective gear to enter its facilities.
Faced with a flood of orders for consumer goods, the company
also has reconfigured its warehouse management system to have
products like hand sanitizer ship out ahead of items deemed less
essential. "We've had more volume go out in the last week than any
other" outside of the holiday shopping surge between Black Friday
and Cyber Monday, said Chief Marketing Officer Casey Armstrong.
The company also extended paid sick days for employees and
raised pay by $2 an hour, Mr. Armstrong said, a step Amazon and
some other companies have taken.
E-commerce logistics company Radial has adjusted meetings and
shifted break schedules at its fulfillment centers. The company is
placing its pack stations further apart and changing the way
outbound orders are handled to minimize contact between those who
pick goods and those who pack them into boxes, Chief Commercial
Officer Tim Hinckley said.
XPO Logistics Inc., one of the country's largest logistics
providers, said it is practicing social distancing in its
warehouses and has stepped up cleaning regimens of its sites around
the U.S. XPO also has instituted paid pandemic sick leave and an
employee assistance program that includes coverage for Covid-19
testing and treatment, the Greenwich, Conn.-based company said.
Still, high demand for protective gear like gloves and masks is
complicating companies' efforts to secure supplies for their
workers.
Kenco Group, a third-party logistics company based in
Chattanooga, Tenn., is "working aggressively to keep supplies
flowing to all our sites," said Chief Operating Officer David
Caines. The company's roughly 100 facilities remain open, although
some have been briefly closed for deep cleaning. Equipment gets
wiped down at the beginning and ending of each shift.
Kenco has enhanced its sick leave policy and relaxed its
attendance demands. "But our folks continue to show up and work
hard," Mr. Caines said. "A lot of our employees are the only
breadwinners left in their family unit."
Write to Jennifer Smith at jennifer.smith@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 29, 2020 08:14 ET (12:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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