When Governor Ron DeSantis approved FADA members as “essential” businesses he did so with a requisite that all:

“Essential service establishments not subject to closure shall take reasonable action to ensure that people adhere to the CDC’s social distancing guidelines.”

Our industry is privileged to be able to continue to serve the transportation needs of our Florida citizens and we take this role seriously and with the utmost respect for our customers and our employees.

FADA highly recommends the following practices in accordance with available products, supplies and resources:

For the care of all customers and our employees we will:

  • Clean all general sales and service areas and surfaces at the dealership throughout the day.  We have a member of our cleaning crew at the dealership to continuously wipe and disinfect touchpoints such as doors, bathrooms, stair rails, elevators, café surfaces and others throughout the day.

 In sales we will:

  • Post signs in our sales and service department areas for our customers to identify our internal safety practices.
    • Develop videos and printed materials/advertisements that promote online shopping and full E-commerce
    • We will advise all customers about our digital presence and inventory available online
  • Limit access to the Showroom floor in accordance with CDC guidelines
    • We will continuously scan for signs of any customers having a cough or flu-type symptoms
    • Scale-back our sales force, and some will have the ability to work remotely
    • To the extent possible, arrange for sales by appointment only
    • Conduct test drives where allowed by insurance in unsupervised rides
    • Cleanse all key fobs/interior cabins when assessing customer trade ins
    • Greet our customers wearing gloves or with sanitized towels, wiping down keyfobs, touchpoints on the vehicles, while offering hand sanitizer/wipes while they conduct business, all the while adhering to social distancing as much as possible.
    • Arrange where possible for end of lease paperwork processes online and provide vehicle pick up
    • Offer to do the paperwork for another lease or purchase via email and telephone as well as deliver their new vehicle to their home or office
    • We will encourage our customers to allow us to serve them via a concierge service platform.

 

In our service department we will:

  • Greet customers in gloves and offer sanitizers or towels to customers
  • Wipe off the car exteriors and interiors to protect our employees from incoming issues
  • Wipe off the key fobs provided by the customer
  • Allow customers to wait in areas outside or in compliance with
    CDC distancing inside the service area
  • Ensure that all parts departments and cashier areas and credit card machines/pens are wiped down after use
  • Offer where possible to provide pick up service from homes and businesses and return cars clean and sanitized to their home or business
  • Supply shuttle services on a reduced basis with one passenger at a time where possible

 

For the protection of our employees we will:

  • Have continuous meetings and share best practices provided by FADA, NADA and industry partners
  • Send out memos and continuously educate our associates on safety and hygiene
  • Ask associates who may have a cold or the flu to please stay home
  • Provide disinfecting wipes to all departments as well as pump hand sanitizers
  • Implement extra measures with our cleaning companies to clean multiple times a day and a complete disinfecting of all equipment and surfaces in the evening.
  • Where appropriate and possible, have our associates work remotely
  • Prohibit all unnecessary travel amongst associates and partners and cancel internal meetings unless social distancing can be observed
  • Close sales operations when it becomes necessary to close service departments