By Sierra Lusero
Katie Lusero Christensen is a district manager at Hertz Rental Company. At Hertz, they provide cars for people who need one for a period of time.
Hertz provides 2 different major services, retail and replacement. The replacement service is there for when someone gets into an accident or when their car breaks down. The retail service is for business or leisure purposes.
Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the Hertz company has implemented a lot of new procedures to ensure the safety of not only the staff but the customers as well. The staff is wiping the counters down multiple times throughout the day and using gloves while checking in customers and cleaning cars.
When cleaning cars they are using bleach wipes to wipe down every surface and then letting the car sit for a minimum of 4 days before they rent it out again to ensure that any chance the car was contaminated with the virus is killed off. In any case that a customer feels like they have the symptoms before they have returned the car is instructed to call a customer roadside service. They then go out and clean the car, bring it back to the branch where it is then cleaned a second time.
Both aspects of the company were affected; however, the retail side had a larger impact. Spring break has always been one of the busiest times of the year and due to the fact that people aren't allowed to travel, the company lost a lot of business. Unfortunately, because of the drop in business, a lot of employees were laid off.
“While I understand the severity of the virus, and respect the actions that are taking place by the government I do believe that the people that are trying to take precautions aren't going about it the right way. Just because you're wearing gloves and masks, if you don't throw them away before you get into your car or house or even if you touch your phone and then throw the gloves away when you're done using them, if you pick your phone back up there's all the germs that you were just trying to avoid,” Lusero Christensen said.