COVID Safety Plan

What are we doing?

Here at The Wilson’s Group, we will continue to shape our COVID‐19 response strategies based on best practices seen worldwide along with the evolving progress seen within BC. We are dedicated to ensuring our services comply with Provincial Health guidelines to protect our customers and our employees and will continue to educate customers around best practice in continuing to use our services safely and considerately.  To ensure you can travel and work with confidence, we are introducing a new program committed to end‐to‐end health and safety protocols. Using new hospital grade cleaning standards and enhancing preventive measures, we are elevating the steps we’re taking to keep you safe throughout travel and employment with us, because we believe in putting safety first!

Driver and Bus Safety

The safety of our employees, their families and our communities is of the utmost importance to us. Please be rest assured, we have adopted stringent safety measures to limit exposure, including maintaining distance between workers and ensuring adequate hygiene processes. We are continuing to engage in inspection, consultation, and education activities within the transportation sector to ensure we in compliance with our obligations to ensure passenger and
employee safety. For the safety of our drivers and passengers, we will continue to enforce the following conditions:

Exposure Control Measures for Drivers/Staff

  • Encourage physical distancing between employees and passengers (minimum of 2 metres) and discourage physical contact, including during loading and unloading. As per Transport Canada’s guidance, it is strongly encouraged for drivers and passengers to wear non‐medical masks/face coverings when physical distancing is not possible.
  • Maintain distance between the driver and the seats immediately behind the driver using a barrier, or closing those seats off to passengers, or by other means.
  • Increase regularly scheduled cleaning with a disinfecting agent particularly high traffic and high contact areas inside each coach/bus and shared office spaces. For coaches/buses, this includes cleaning the steering wheel, dashboard, radio/telematics devices, armrests and washrooms, etc.
  • Drivers will have access to disposable wipes, or disinfecting agents to sanitize any frequently touched hard surfaces, and gloves if cleaning high touch surfaces. Drivers will also be equipped with their own personal sized hand santizer to use as needed.
  • Encourage passengers to remove their own garbage at the end of a trip or use the provided garbage disposal unit within the bus.
  • Drivers will be required to thoroughly wash their hands or use an alcohol‐based hand sanitizer immediately after fueling or visiting a public establishment.
  • If applicable, drivers/staff should use disposable gloves while loading luggage and use a fresh pair for each new trip, unless a pair of gloves has been designated for this purpose.
  • Drivers/staff should wash their hands or use hand sanitizer once loading of luggage is complete.
  • Drivers/staff should not report to work if they feel ill.
  • Drivers/staff who exhibit symptoms of COVID‐19 (e.g., fever, dry cough, etc.) should be required to inform their employer and contact a health care practitioner, 8‐1‐1, or use the BC COVID‐19 Symptom Self‐Assessment Tool (https://covid19.thrive.health/), if they have come in contact with anyone who has COVID‐19, or if they exhibit symptoms of COVID‐19, and act on the instructions of the tool/health practitioner. Anyone with symptoms should self‐isolate (for at least 10 days or 24 hours after symptoms resolve, 14 days if they have been outside of Canada) pending test results, unless otherwise instructed by a health practitioner.

Exposure Control Measures for Passengers

  • Screen passengers for symptoms of COVID‐19 using a series of questions (see below for an example). Passengers will be denied boarding if they answer yes or refuse to answer any screening questions. Passengers who display symptoms will be refused transportation and referred to the provincial government self‐assessment tool, consistent with Transport Canada COVID‐19 travel restrictions.
    1. Do you have a fever and a cough?
    2. Do you have a fever and breathing difficulty?
    3. Have you been refused boarding in the past 14 days due to a medical reason related to COVID‐19?
  • Are you the subject of a provincial/territorial or local public health order?
  • For transportation of passengers in which all passengers are equipped with and asked to wear a non‐medical mask/face covering, no adjustments for seating will be made.
  • For the transportation of passengers who are unable to wear non‐medical masks/face coverings, adjustments will be made to motor coach seating to maintain safe physical distancing between these riders and other passengers if they are from different households by maintaining empty seats.
  • Encourage customers to maintain a passenger manifest of those traveling for charter services and elsewhere where feasible, for later use by the Provincial Health Office (PHO) for contact tracing, should a passenger test positive for COVID‐19 within 14 days of the trip.
  • Hand sanitizer is available for passengers at easy access points on the bus.
  • We will be moving to online, electronic, or touchless payment options ONLY.
  • Onboard washrooms will be locked and out of service
  • Encourage customers to travel with essential items only – no food or drink will be permitted onboard the bus.
  • For Passengers that will be traveling onboard BC Ferries, you will be asked if you are in possession of a face covering for your mouth and nose and if you agree to wear it if you cannot maintain 2m/6ft of physical separation from other passengers. Passengers who fail to comply will be denied boarding.

To help reduce your risk of infection

  • Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Using soap and water is the single most effective way of reducing the spread of infection.
  • Do not touch your face, eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands.
  • Cover your mouth and nose with a disposable tissue or the crease of your elbow when you sneeze or cough.
  • Regularly clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces.
  • Do not share food, drinks, utensils, etc.
  • Stay home when you are sick to avoid spreading germs to others
  • Avoid close contact with people who are sick, maintain physical distancing
  • Be prepared and informed. Refer to credited sources for information such as BC Ministry of Health, Health Canada and World Health Organization.

Remember that we are “All in this together” so let’s ensure we do our part to make the workplace and travels as safe as possible for everyone.