Automotive News Canada - November 2020 - 23

* N O V E M B E R 2 020

Giving a lift by giving a lift
From shuttles to loaners,
the industry transported
customers, vulnerable
members of their
communities, and food
By STEPHANIE WALLCRAFT
AUTOMOTIVE NEWS CANADA

WHEN GOVERNMENT
emergency orders banned dealerships from offering shared shuttle services, some customers were left with
no transportation
while their vehicles were being
repaired.
Ricardo
Rodriguez, service manager at Roadsport
Chrysler in
Scarborough,
Ont., near
Toronto, didn't want to leave people
stranded. But he also didn't want to
ask his staff to shoulder any risk of
exposure to COVID-19.
Instead, Rodriguez decided to
shuttle service customers while
donning a mask and disinfecting
the shuttle vehicle after each use.
Customers would sit in the back row

Rather than have other staff
members risk exposure to COVID-19,
Service Manager Ricardo Rodriguez
of Roadsport Chrysler put on a mask
and drove the dealership's shuttle
van, cleaning it after each use.
PHOTO VIA RICARDO RODRIGUEZ

of the van, and a temporary barrier
was installed and disposed of after
each trip to protect Rodriguez and
the passenger as much as possible.
" I took it upon myself, " Rodriguez
told Automotive News Canada. " Less
contact points and less people getting
involved is just better for everybody. "

LEND A HAND, LEND A CAR
Roadsport Chrysler is one of many
businesses in the auto industry that
have provided transportation for vulnerable populations during the pandemic.

Toyota Canada operated a national program called Cars for
Clarington Toyota lent a RAV4 to the Bowmanville
Good through June and
Older Adults Association, which helps shuttle
July, offering subsidies
seniors to appointments. P H O T O : T O Y O TA
to dealerships that lent
A similar initiative was undervehicles to community organizations
taken by Jim Gardhouse Chrysler
needing mobility assistance, said Pat
in Owen Sound, Ont. Dealer princiBarnes, dealer principal at Goderich
pal Craig Beck and his team donated
Toyota in Goderich, Ont., 230 kilometwo Dodge Grand Caravan minivans
tres west of Toronto on the shore of
to the local Foodland grocery store
Lake Huron.
so that supplies could be delivered to
Clarington Toyota, located east of
elderly residents and other individuToronto, loaned a RAV4 crossover
als in self-isolation. The vans allowed
to the Bowmanville Older Adults
the store to increase its capacity from
Association, which helps shuttle
about 25 deliveries daily to more than
seniors to appointments. Ste-Foy
80.
Toyota in Quebec City lent a Mirai
Roadsport Chrysler's Rodriguez
hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle to a
recalled shuttling an elderly woman
pharmacy to help deliver prescription
whose vehicle was going to spend four
medications, and Goderich Toyota
to five hours in the service departlent vehicles to the local hospital and
ment. She was concerned about the
retirement homes.
safety of taking an Uber ride and had
no one to drive her home. Keeping the
shuttle operating on a case-by-case
basis for such individuals provides
them peace of mind, Rodriguez said.
" Even though we have enough space
[for people to wait at the dealership],
it's just the comfort level. If we can get
Ste-Foy Toyota in Quebec City lent
[customers] out to where they're not
a Mirai hydrogen fuel cell electric
exposed and [having] that feeling of
vehicle to a pharmacy to help deliver
being trapped with nowhere to go, it
prescription medications.
just makes their day that much better. "
P H O T O : T O Y O TA
- ANC

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Automotive News Canada - November 2020

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