Post deliveries in France at 80%
Post deliveries are continuing - although reduced to around 80% at present - and online shopping platforms like Amazon have detailed measures they are taking to try and maintain their service.
La Poste warns that some deliveries might take longer than usual.
A spokesman told Connexion that the aim is for 1,600 post offices to remain open across the country, ensuring that there is at least one open in every large town.
People using them will be expected to queue with at least a metre between them, and staff will go back to using counters and screens where possible. Cleaning regimes and regular disinfectant wipes of surfaces will take place.
Counters and screen were often removed in the last major refurbishing of post offices in favour of open plan designs and stamp machines.
Deliveries too will continue, with 80% of postmen and women at work on Wednesday, March 18, the second day of the lockdown, the same level as on Tuesday.
The spokesman said the intention was to keep this level of activity if possible, but added that if postmen and women start showing signs that they might have caught the virus, they will be told to self-isolate, which might lead to a slowdown in deliveries.
“The post office is seen as an essential state service and we will work hard to do our duty,” the spokesman said.
At Amazon the company is enforcing strict disinfectant rules and adapting work practises in the face of the Coronavirus, but intends to carry on working.
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“The health of our staff and customers is our absolute priority,” a spokeswoman told Connexion.
“We are following strictly the recommendations and directives of the government and local health authorities to assure that we put into practise the best measures in all our French sites.”
Measures detailed by Amazon include having surfaces like banisters, doorknobs, lift buttons and cash tills wiped down regularly, having staff clean their own work stations at the start and end of their shifts, doing away with meetings, moving furniture in staff restrooms and restaurants so that staff keep a distance of at least a metre between them, changing rest periods so staff can keep their distances, and encouraging staff to wash their hands with soap and water regularly, or use alcohol gel if they cannot do so.
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Other companies like the web-based wine-merchant, Wineandco, are also adapting. It has stopped clients from picking up their orders from the company’s base in Bordeaux or having wine delivered to points relais.
Deliveries to individual properties by contrast will continue, and the company has reduced the amount customers pay for delivery to €5, except for primeur wines.
Hardware store Bricomarché is also keeping web ordered deliveries going, while shutting its physical stores.
