Health and Safety is Our Priority
Taking measures to ensure your safety at all times
Information about the corona virus
Which measures STILL uses to secure its business operations and what our customers need to know now.
The fast spread of the Covid-19 pandemic presents a major challenge to all of us. At this point we would like to inform you about the actions we have taken to safeguard our business activities and protect the health of our customers, employees and business partners.
Does STILL continue to attend customer appointments?
We will continue to give our customers and partners the best possible support and be available for them whenever they need us. We will prefer to handle our consultations via digital communication channels in order to reduce direct physical contact (in line with the recommendations of the renowned health organisations) as far as possible. Personal meetings of employees, customers and partners who are or have been in one of the declared risk areas are avoided.
Will service and scheduled appointments for maintenance and repair be held?
Our service technicians are at your side as reliable partners even in these challenging times. As our customers, you can rely on our service contract obligations being met. The supply chains for spare parts are intact. Our technicians are equipped to carry out maintenance and repairs as usual and at best on the first visit. Our service technicians have been asked to inform themselves about any special safety measures that may be required by their customers prior to any visit and to act accordingly. In the interest of our employees and our customers, we will try to bundle service concerns in order to avoid several visits to a single customer in a short time.
What internal measures have been taken to protect the workforce and maintain the business?
STILL has reacted quickly, decisively and comprehensively to the spread of Covid-19. Starting with a broad communication of hygiene measures and rules for personal contact with colleagues (based on recommendations from prominent health organisations such as the WHO), by establishing central and local crisis management teams, as well as avoiding all non-essential business trips and face-to-face meetings, we are doing everything in our power to protect our employees, customers and business partners and to safeguard our business. With a dedicated information portal and continuous, proactive email communication, we ensure that everybody is kept as well informed as possible and that all our employees can therefore be available for our customers in the best possible way.
Defying the crisis together
Quick solutions with heart and soul
Experience and a well-established team of experts are important now more than ever. Susanne Reduth and her team provide support to rental customers from their home offices, with competent advice and fast and flexible solutions.
Until recently, the morning commute to the STILL branch was still a matter of course. However, instead of sitting in the office with colleagues, Susanne Reduth, head of the leased- and used-vehicle business at the STILL headquarters at Dortmund/Krefeld, and her team are currently working from home.
Like so many others. In doing so, they have managed the feat of staying contactable for all customers at all times. "We knew that the move to working from home had to take place quickly and during the usual course of business," says Reduth. "Critical sectors like food retail and logistics are relying on our rental solutions right now and need the additional vehicles immediately".
Her team is fully operational and in tune with current customer requirements. Reduth: "We have access to over 33,000 rental vehicles in Europe and are focused entirely on the individual needs of customers. And in some cases these needs are huge. The largest demand at the moment is coming from logistics experts, beverage suppliers, supermarket chains and service companies. Current peaks in demand can be covered using our rental trucks. Even customers who do not want to or are not able to commit themselves at the present time rent trucks from us. We know that, in the current circumstances, it is all the more important to meet customer needs. We are there for our customers!"
For Susanne Reduth, one thing is also clear: her rental and used equipment experts are her heroes. They continue to put their heart and soul into working during these unusual times, day in day out, and give their all for their customers!
Intralogistics for blossoming blooms
The Dutch STILL service technicians Pascal Lefeber and Masud Salim are making sure that flowers can continue to be sent around the world.
The Dutch company Dillewijn Zwapak has been producing packaging for flowers and plants for 80 years. The headquarters are in the municipality of Amstelveen in North Holland. It is from here that Dillewijn supplies growers, exporters, wholesalers and retail chains throughout the world.
Two automated STILL MX-X Very Narrow Aisle Trucks help take care of seamless logical processes...as do Pascal Lefeber and Masud Salim. Both STILL service technicians are standing by Dillewijn’s side and making sure that the Very Narrow Aisle Trucks remain ready for use and that they glide safely through the warehouse.
As with all their customers, both service technicians bundle upcoming tasks so that they can carry out as many of the pending services as possible in one visit. Before they visit a customer, they get in touch by phone and find out about the current safety requirements. This allows Pascal Lefeber and Masud Salim to carry out their work in a way that is safe for all those involved – and means people around the world can continue to look forward to safely packed, blossoming flowers. In the end, it comes down to the small pleasures above all at the moment.
Digital face-to-face consultations
Customer advice and support without in-person visits? Robert Zbrzeźniak and Grzegorz Gnitecki, STILL sales advisors from Poland, give an insight into their new daily work routine.
A firm welcoming handshake, a supportive pat on the shoulder, giving customers the chance to touch and feel a potential new truck – there are so many things that the sales teams at STILL used to be able to do as standard that they are currently having to do without in their contact with their customers. Needs analysis and sales advice from the home office – does it work?
“It is challenging,” says Robert Zbrzeźniak, STILL Sales Advisor from Poland, “but it is doable and a question of attitude. We have to accept the current situation as it is and ask ourselves how we can best be there for our customers at the moment, in spite of it.”
This is a question that his Polish sales colleague Grzegorz Gnitecki has also asked himself. One of the answers that he has found is the following: “I now frequently use video calling in order to maintain the personal contact with my customers. I had never actually done that before.” Not a day goes by today in which Gnitecki doesn’t look at least one customer in the eye digitally in order to gauge their requirements, discuss details or prepare quotations. “It works much better than expected,” sums up the experienced salesman. “I advise the customer face to face, then I take care of preparing the quotation and usually talk through the contract one more time with my contact by video link.” Companies value still having the STILL expert available for you in person whenever they are needed. “It is an exceptional situation for our customers too. What is important is that we now get through this challenging period as best as possible together. I am convinced that business partnerships can even grow stronger from it.”
For Grzegorz Gnitecki and Robert Zbrzeźniak, it is clear in any event that they will keep on advising and looking after their customers to the best of their ability – now more so than ever!
Rental trucks for Hungary's national ambulance service
Together through the crisis: STILL Hungary is supporting the national ambulance service by making rental trucks available free of charge.
Throughout the world, people from the health sector are fighting on the front line against the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. This is also the case in Hungary, where more than 8,000 employees of the Hungarian National Ambulance Service (OMSZ) are giving their all to care for sick people and stem the spread of the virus.
Scarcity of resources is one of the greatest challenges. Working materials are in short supply and have to be distributed as quickly as possible amongst the ambulances and nearly 270 OMSZ outpatient aid stations. The ambulance service has already been relying on STILL forklift trucks for some time.
In order to support our partner in the fight against the pandemic, and as a sign of our profound gratitude, STILL Hungary is now providing the OMSZ with five additional trucks from the regional rental pool free of charge. For as long as is needed to get the coronavirus crisis under control. Amongst these are RX 20 electric forklift trucks, EXV high lift pallet trucks and CiTi One low lift pallet trucks, specially conceived for inner city goods delivery. The OMSZ was pleased to accepted this offer. Within just two days of establishing contact, the trucks were already in place where they are needed. “The dedicated employees of the OMSZ are doing unbelievable work at the moment in the fight against the coronavirus. We are very grateful for their work and are very happy to be able to make at least a small contribution to their huge task with the rental trucks,” notes Attila Süle-Szigeti, Marketing & HR Manager STILL Hungary.