At Lube-Tech and Reliable Plus, we are committed to working safely, every day. This means we put the safety of our team, families and customers above all else. We are committed to taking care of our customers and know they rely on us to keep their businesses running.
We’ve been closely monitoring the status of the COVID-19 virus since March and taking the appropriate steps to make sure our teammates remain safe while allowing us to continue to operate at 100% capacity and provide our customers with the products and services they need.
Though both Lube-Tech and Reliable Plus were deemed an essential business by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and allowed to continue normal operations, the last few months have been some of the most challenging months Lube-Tech has faced in a long time. The impact COVID-19 has had on our Lube-Tech families, customers and communities is like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
As the states we operate in began to implement shelter-in-place orders, economies were swiftly impacted, and we experienced demand decline between 30-40%. Due to the financial implications of this decline in demand, we made some difficult but prudent decisions to proactively adjust our business, service our customers, help our teammates support their families and get through this crisis as a stronger company.
We removed significant discretionary costs from our business but unfortunately, that was not enough, and we also needed to make some permanent staffing reductions and temporarily reduce wages and hours. Fortunately, we applied for and received funding from the paycheck protection program. This funding made it economically viable to continue all operations through the crisis, allowing us to fully restore hours and wages for all for all 500+ teammates impacted, provide our customers with the service they expect, and prevent the need for additional staffing reductions.
Here are some additional highlights on what we’ve done to keep our teammates and customers safe as we operate:
- We are requiring our drivers to wear safety glasses and gloves when making customer deliveries
- We are minimizing person-to-person contact for inbound and outbound deliveries and eliminating signature capture where applicable
- We are keeping team members that worked on a service project together on subsequent projects and staggering supply runs to our warehouse to minimize contact with others
- We increased our cleaning protocols at all locations to keep our facilities and trucks clean
- We are requiring any teammate who feels sick to stay home and are offering flexible leave options should one of our teammates come down with the virus
- We reviewed and updated business continuity plans at all locations to ensure we could continue to provide consistent service to our customers
- We educated our team mates on safe hygiene practices
- We are actively limiting large meetings and air travel
- We are encouraging all employees who can, to work remotely in order to further reduce the risk to those required to remain in our facilities
- We are encouraging all employees to use SKYPE/Zoom Meetings in place of face-to-face interactions
We are fortunate to have a strong team that has been around for almost 100 years and long-lasting relationships with our customers and suppliers who have supported us during this crisis. We are a stable and strong company and we play a critical role in helping our customers keep their businesses running and providing our Lube-Tech teammates with the employment they need to support their families. We are confident that the actions we’ve taken position us well for the future and help us continue to deliver on our purpose to make tomorrow a little bit better than today.
Sincerely,
Chris Bame, CEO
Eric Jackson, President and COO
