As a precautionary measure, the Deutsche Post DHL Group plans to test several thousand employees for coronavirus. The cost of this examination is well over €1 million.
Deutsche Post wants to give several thousand employees the opportunity to test for coronavirus.
We will offer more than 10,000 employees the opportunity to undergo a test on Covid-19 as a precautionary measure, especially in larger locations,” said Tobias Meyer, member of the board of directors of the local mail and letter group, in an interview with the local newspaper Rheinische Post.
Tests should be carried out systematically by company physicians in selected locations, including dispatch centres and mail distribution centres, according to the risk assessment.
According to Meyer, the Group’s employees have already been tested for the virus before. Over the last few weeks, 4,000 people employed at the Deutsche Post have been examined.
It was striking that we detected unexpectedly large numbers of infected people through extensive testing, but so far they have not had any symptoms of the disease,” Meyer told the daily newspaper.
Therefore, the Deutsche Post assumes that there are more coronavirus-infected people in the vicinity than previously suspected. Although the Group rejects the assumption that employees become infected in the workplace, management acknowledges that there is a greater risk of infection in operating companies. Hence Deutsche Post’s strategy of preventive testing, which will cost more than €1.3 million.
What about tests in other companies?
The DPDHL Group seems to be an exception in the logistics industry.
Preventive tests are not planned,” the spokesperson for DPD in Germany told the German press agency dpa. “Instead, employees should be tested when necessary, i.e. when they suspect an infection.”
UPS has a similar approach, it admitted that it contacts health authorities and cooperates with them in cases of suspected infection in employees.
Photo: DHL