Valet Living Clients

Safety

As your wellbeing is of the utmost importance to us, we wanted to outline the current standard-setting measures we have taken to keep our residents healthy and reduce cross-contamination.

  • Our Senior Director, Environmental, Health and Safety, Joe Malato, has been leading our business continuity task force since February, 2020. This task force has already implemented new procedures surrounding trash collection and resident interaction while safely complying with social distancing regulations.
  • We have tripled our financial investment for Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to ensure the safety of your residents as well as our Service Valets.
  • We have created new standard operating procedures for visiting your community.

View Our Standard Operating Procedures

Pre-Visit Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s)

  • Valet Living will only enter a community with verbal or written approval from the community team
  • Visits will be by appointment only – No “drop in” visits
  • Pre-meeting agenda will be discussed to reduce the number of visits to the property
    • Review of items to discuss
    • Determine what can be done virtually
    • Determine who are necessary to attend the meeting
  • Valet Living associates will answer the following questions prior to any onsite client interaction:
    • Immediately before coming to work did you take your temperature and have a fever above 99.9F?
    • Do you have symptoms that include cough, muscle/joint pain, loss of smell or taste?
    • Have you been in close contact (less than 6 ft away for more than 15 minutes) with any persons that have a fever above 99.9 or symptoms of cough, muscle/joint pain, loss of smell or taste, or a person diagnosed with an active case of COVID-19?
  • Review with the client any additional requirements of the community or company to be visited
    • If requirements are less then our SOP, we will still adhere to our guidelines

Client Visit Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s)

  • If more than one Valet Living associate is attending (i.e. RSE & DM) – separate vehicles will be used and there will be no use of public transportation
  • Social distancing – 6 feet will be maintained at all times
    • No handshakes or hugs
    • Limited contact with stationary surfaces – if sitting is not required, do not sit
  • Mask/facial coverings
    • Follow state and local recommendations or
    • Requirement of the community/company we are meeting
    • Preference of the associate or community/company we are meeting
  • Hand sanitizer must be carried onsite by each associate
    • Visible use before meeting and after
  • Business cards or collateral sharing will be done digitally before or after the meeting
  • Utilize outside areas for meeting location
  • Agenda will be created prior to the meeting to provide most efficient use of time onsite
  • No food/snacks/drinks will be brought to the community by the Valet Living team
    • Food should only be delivered in advance (with approval from the community) and in individual packaged containers for each attendee

Operations

Trash volume has increased by 20-30% since the pandemic first broke out, and we take pride in the fact that our performance has remained steady at your community. As Valet Living is deemed an essential service, and as one of the only amenities that residents can continue to use at your community during this time, we wanted to provide you with insights you could share with your internal stakeholders.

  • Due to the increased trash volumes, we have hired around 1,500 Service Valets since we started preparing for COVID-19.  As a tenured company, our Service Valets were able to be vetted, trained and start service without any interruptions to any of our communities.
  • No trash collection days were missed as a result of COVID-19, and we have a 100% completion rate
  • For your added protection, our Regional Crisis Management teams, in conjunction with our General Counsel, have reviewed all shelter-in-place ordinances to ensure we comply with all municipalities’ orders.

Industry Trends and Questions

We have received quite a few clarifying questions about the doorstep trash and recycling landscape during COVID-19, so we wanted to share some helpful reminders with you.

  • Due to increased volumes of trash and recycling, please keep an eye on your dumpster and compactor levels. We will assist with this by communicating what we see in our daily observations in iValet.
  • Some waste haulers are waiving overage fees during this pandemic, so reach out to your hauler to see if you can save money.
  • Please remind your residents to tie their bags. We have provided a one-sheet for you to distribute to your community.
  • Your District Manager and Regional Sales Executives are always here to help you.  Please reach out to them directly with any questions or concerns.

We are thankful to your residents for the praise that they have shown our Service Valets, who are deemed essential workers, in the form of notes ,verbal accolades and even small gifts, as they carry on with the nightly doorstep collection.

March 21: Client Update

Hello Valet Living Clients,

First and foremost, I hope this message finds you and your family healthy and well. Valet Living’s core values emphasize ensuring the well-being of our people and the community, and never has that been more important than during this time of great uncertainty regarding COVID-19.

To help keep your residents and our associates safe, and to ensure Valet Living can continue to provide its public health services as an essential business function of sanitation, we have implemented some changes to our standard operating procedures that we wanted to share with you.

First, we wanted to remind you that your District Manager is the primary communication channel with your community leadership for any operational issues and concerns.  Please alert your District Manager if there is a case of COVID-19 at your community.

To add increased measures of safety, our associates are asked to maintain social distancing whenever possible if interacting with residents and to limit the use of their cell phones to avoid the additional spread of germs and viruses. As a result of limited cell phone use, the number of photos and violations will be reduced significantly. Our associates are being asked to be more stringent with following our rules for violations and not to collect trash if they do not feel safe doing so. To help streamline our safety measures, please remind your residents to tie all bags tightly. We pride ourselves in our quality and attention to detail, going above and beyond by breaking down boxes and cleaning up loose articles in the breezeway; however, during this time, we will need to suspend those additional services to reduce the amount of time our associates spend outside of their homes. Please assist by ensuring compactor areas are clean, free from debris, and in working order.

Valet Living and its associates are deeply committed to the work we are doing to contribute to flattening the curve and stopping the spread of cases of COVID-19 in America. We will continue to monitor this developing situation closely, and we are working with your community management teams to allow as little disruption to your Valet Living amenity services as possible, with our primary focus on keeping our clients, your valued residents, and our associates safe. For the latest updates around our COVID-19 control and prevention efforts, and to listen to a personal message from me, please visit us at ValetLiving.com/Safety.

Thank you,

Shawn Handrahan
President & Chief Executive Officer

March 17: Client Update

Hello Valet Living Family,

We would like to assure you that your health and safety are our top priorities. Valet Living and the amenity services we provide are public health services and an essential business function of sanitation. As such, we will continue to do our part to support our clients, residents and our associates during this time.

As we learn more about COVID-19, social distancing is a top prevention method.  Our National Safety Team has been working around the clock to prepare and activate business continuity plans to keep operations running with social distancing top of mind. As residents spend more time at home, we’ve seen an increased volume of doorstep trash and recycling as well as additional bulk waste removal requests.  We’re here to help as your partner, and any restrictions on the number of bags allowed per resident each night have been eliminated to meet higher trash volumes at no additional cost to ensure that your residents have a comfortable time at home without adding any stress to your community management teams.

At this time, we will be suspending office visits for prevention measures as recommended by the CDC; however, our lines of communication will always remain open with your District Managers and sales support teams.  You will be able to reach your District Manager via phone or email, and if any supplies are needed, we will ensure they are dropped off in a timely manner.  Our District Managers will also be personally reaching out to your on-site teams to ensure your community is fully supported. Additionally, we recommend that residents disinfect the lids and rims of their containers each time they bring them inside.

We are fortunate that unlike other industries, our almost 7,000 associates nationally continue to work diligently and play a major role in addressing the essential needs of over 1.4 million residents.  The demand for our doorstep trash and recycling collection continues to be great. If your team or residents know of anyone temporarily out of work, please have them visit www.valetliving.com/careers to apply for a position with us.

To protect our associates so they can continue serving your residents, we’ve taken the following steps:

  1. Increased safety communication and training from our National Safety Team
  2. Provided additional Personal Protection Equipment, such as rubber gloves, in addition to our Service Valets’ cut-proof gloves, reflective vests, and added safety procedures in place to reduce cross-contamination
  3. Increased staffing as trash volumes grow and must be removed from apartment homes, hallways and breezeways and transported safely to compactors and/or dumpsters
  4. Conducted outreach to all communities, with offers of assistance wherever Valet Living can help, and to inform you that trash volumes will be up and that you should notify your haulers of additional pull if needed

We appreciate your cooperation throughout this crisis, and you have our commitment that we will do everything we can to help take care of your communities. We ask that you keep lines of communication open with your District Manager, and please alert us if there is a case of COVID-19 at your community. In the meantime, for the latest updates around our COVID-19 control and prevention efforts, please visit us at ValetLiving.com/Safety.

Thank you,

Shawn Handrahan
President & Chief Executive Officer

March 11: Client Update

Hello Valet Living Clients,

The health and safety of our clients, your residents and our associates are our number one priority. As a result, Valet Living’s Safety and Human Resources departments have been monitoring the cases of COVID-19 in the United States through guidance issued by the CDC (Center for Disease Control & Prevention). Valet Living has a dedicated professional safety organization, led by our National Director of Safety. This team, with years of experience in Occupational Health & Safety, is monitoring the situation daily through contacts at the national, state and local health departments.

As of today, your amenity services will continue as normal. If it becomes necessary to suspend service to ensure the safety of your residents, apartment communities and our Service Valets, please rest assured that we will communicate this to you quickly and confidently. Our lines of communication to your leaders through our District Managers will remain open throughout this time.

Our Business Continuity Team has been activated to mitigate the impact to our clients and the amenity services we provide. This team is comprised of cross-functional leaders who make decisions swiftly to put the care of our clients, residents and associates first. In the past, we have activated this team for the California wildfires, snowstorms, hurricanes and more.

Our doorstep collection on-time and complete goals are still a priority for our team, but due to medical absences, you may experience longer times than usual. We ask for your understanding should our team need more time to ensure that we conduct our tasks with the safety of our teams and your residents in mind.

Should you have any questions, comments or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact our National Director of Safety, Joe Malato, at [email protected] or Valet Living Support at 877-574-2587 at your convenience.

We appreciate your diligence in this matter and your partnership with Valet Living. If there is any assistance that we can provide for you, your teams or your residents, please let us know.

Thank you,

Shawn Handrahan
President & Chief Executive Officer

“During this time of uncertainty, especially in the multifamily industry, where we’ve been seeing a majority of our residents staying at home, public amenities shutting down, and balancing the safety needs of our residents and staff, we have seen a vast increase in the amount of trash from our residents. Valet Living has been an exceptional partner and remained constant for our residents and our staff. The doorstep trash and recycling collection has not missed a beat, and we believe that this is an amenity service that helps them feel safer not having to leave their homes, reducing the spread of cross-contamination, all while helping to flatten the curve and do our part to stop the spread of COVID-19.”

Joanna Z.President & CEO of BH Management Services

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