How to Keep Your Heavy Equipment COVID-19-Free - Our Guide

The Coronavirus’ effect on the global economy forces many business owners to make adjustments in their workplace practices, primarily focusing on hygiene and sanitization. Physical distancing and cleanliness are two of the most crucial components of keeping a company functioning today. Unfortunately, this can be a massive requirement to ask companies that use heavy machinery.
 
Improving your business’s sanitation policies

Your cab’s internal components, such as screens, switches, and upholstery, are the closest to your employees. Because of this, you must ensure that they receive a disinfection treatment to minimize the risk of your operators contracting COVID-19 through these items or your operators transfering droplets on these surfaces. It’s the primary area you should focus on when redesigning your business’s sanitation policies.

If you’re resuming operations amidst the global pandemic, here is a four-step guide for sanitation you should follow:

Step#1: Purchase the right cleaning agents

Although you can purchase consumer products, these are usually less powerful compared to industry-grade cleaning agents. Use only EPA-approved disinfectants that are powerful enough to eradicate the disease on surfaces. You should check the disinfectant’s manufacturer guidelines to see if it has any specific instructions for use. Also, you should buy alcohol-based wipes and sprays that have at least 70% alcohol.

Step#2: Wear the right gear

Before they disinfect your cab, your cleaning teams should wear the right gear to perform their tasks. By wearing gloves, face masks, and face shields, they will protect themselves from contracting the disease. It’s essential to wear the right equipment to ensure that they can’t re-infect areas if ever they are asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19.

Step#3: Sanitize high-touch areas on interiors and exteriors

Once your staff is ready to start cleaning, you should first ask them to wipe down surfaces that contain dirt and dust with soap and water. This initial cleaning shouldn’t include yet your application of disinfecting products. Next, spray your sanitizing products on high-touch areas such as knobs, windows, touchpads, steering wheels, and other regions.

Tell your team to avoid using the same cloths for wiping these areas, since you can bring contaminants from one place to another. Remind them always to wash their cloths or use a new one when working on different parts of the machine.

For your machine’s exterior, apply disinfectant on handles, gas caps, grab bars, and latches. Some parts of your equipment, such as digital and display consoles, shouldn’t receive direct contact with liquids. It’s best to use a spray solution with a microfiber cloth to wipe their surfaces. This ensures that your cleaning treatment won’t promote damage to its electronics.

Step#4: Pack up and clean up your cleaning materials

After going around your machines’ different areas, you should remind your cleaning team to let it settle before use. Letting your cab’s interior to ventilate for a few minutes after cleaning is a precaution to avoid any interaction with the lingering contaminants on the surfaces and in the air particles.

Your team should adequately wash their hands and disinfect or dispose of their safety gear accordingly after cleaning. You can follow the CDC’s guidelines in their “Cleaning and Disinfection for Non-Emergency Transport Vehicles” as a guide.

Conclusion

As a business owner, adapting to changes in the social climate is just as important as improving your equipment. It would help to arm yourself with the right knowledge and tools to help you maintain a safe and productive work environment for your customers’ and your staff’s benefit.

If you’re looking for a supplier of heavy equipment parts in Miami, we can provide you with a wide selection of products to meet your needs. Order from us today, and we’ll accommodate you throughout the buying process, from payment to shipping.