The events industry is licking its wounds right now but there’s an air of excitement as we finally spot the green shoots of our industry, thanks to the relaxation of lockdown and new guidance being introduced.
The summer of 2020 will certainly go down as one of the quietest summers in our 20+ year history, but summer 2021 is looking like a cracker so there’s some real hope and excitement building here and in the events world.
We’re allowed back, small weddings are now able to take place, and with more people looking at having two weddings, we have some sequel weddings bookings on the cards. It’s all exciting but we wanted to assure you that we’re still taking all this seriously.
We’ve remained upbeat throughout, but we’re also very serious about the way we do business. Here’s what it means to your hire:
Health and Safety at the Heart
We’ve always been about working safely and securely. As a SafeHire Certified company and a member of the Event Hire Association, we’re at the forefront of event hire safety and we’re very proud of that, too. We’ve blogged before about SafeHire and our commitment to it, and we’ve proudly announced that we were nominated for the Hire Awards of Excellence 2020, although that didn’t go ahead for obvious reasons.
Our commitment to safety is clear, and so is our approach to Covid-19.
Following the experts…
When we started Plato, way back in 1999, we wanted to do something different and we started with catering equipment hire you could trust; catering and wedding equipment hire that went above and beyond the accepted level at the time. We did this by looking at the best and the highest regulations and testing available and aimed to reach (and surpass) them.
Our approach to Covid-19 is no different. There are plenty of views on the virus and the lockdown, but when you need an industry standard for something like Covid-19, then you look no further than the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The WHO are advising the Governments of the globe and that’s who (pun not intended) we’re following, too.
We’ll be cleaning and delivering our catering equipment in line with the new Covid-safe guidelines set out by Public Health England (PHE).
This isn’t a challenge to us as we’re well-accustomed to running our business in this way.
If anything it’s just an adjustment in most areas to bring them in line with new regulations. We can’t say that will be the case for everyone in the event hire industry. It’s one of the reasons we’re so vocal about you choosing a SafeHire accredited company.
Automobile technology…
One rather cool feature of our arsenal against the virus is our electrostatic disinfectant spraying, which eliminates bacteria and viruses like Covid-19. The technique works much like a car sprayer in that it doesn’t rely on gravity to bring the spray to the items, it uses science! The spray is eclectrically charged so that it can envelope our chairs, tables and other kit – including our delivery vehicles, ensuring that your delivery is as clean and safe as possible.
We’re probably a little too excited by this brilliant geeky system, so we’ll move on to our team and other policies…
Working safe, together
We’ve missed our team. We’re so happy to be making plans to come back, but you can be assured that we’re not planning team hugs or high fives on return. Safety is paramount and we’ve put a lot in place during lockdown so that we can return as soon as we were allowed, in as safe a way as possible.
Handwashing, testing, self-isolation, and our no physical contact policy is in place for the foreseeable future. It’s a sad time, but we’re committed to following the high-level guidelines until they change, so that you can rely on us delivering your hire safely and on time by limiting any issues that might arise.
Kitted out for safety
All our ‘kit’ is washed, cleaned, stored, and then delivered with the highest standards. It always has been. We were well-prepared for these changes!
We wash all plates, glasses, and cutlery in temperatures of at least 60 degrees, and at least 60-70 degrees in the fresh water final rinse.
Our kitchen hire and furniture hire is equipment disinfected with our electrostatic sprayers with industry standard food safe disinfectants.
Our table linen hire is also treated with due care and attention with the standard being increased to an industrial washing temperature of 71. It’s all very scientific and approved, meaning we give you the safest hire we can.
Delivery and collection revised
One area that needed to change was the human contact as, for obvious reasons, this is a big area of concern and the reason for lockdowns. We’ve reviewed our delivery and collection processes to ensure safe social distancing and to reduce any safety compromises that could arise.
Deliveries and collections will follow social distancing and will follow our procedures laid out in our Covid-19 document, which is linked below.
Under constant review, as always
We’re hire geeks. We love the hire industry and we’ve always aimed to be at the forefront of the changes in the industry. The global pandemic has hit the events world like a truck but we’re well prepared and ready for the challenge. We’ve already served our customers since March lockdown and we’re proud to have done that safely, for us and for them.
We’ll be constantly reviewing our processes as we always do. You can be assured of that. We love processes, they’re one of the main reasons for our success so we’ll continue to regularly look at our Covid-19 approach, just as we do with other areas of the business.
You can find our full guidelines and procedures right here.
If you have any questions about your event hire, wedding equipment hire or anything raised in this blog, please do contact us.