We know there’s a lot of discussion right now about how we keep our employees and associates safe and comfortable during summer heatwaves, so we want to share some of the measures we have in place at our sites across India.
First of all, we want to be clear that the safety and wellbeing of our employees and associates is our top priority. We’re confident the infrastructure and facilities are industry leading, designed to ensure a safe and comfortable working environment for all our employees, associates and delivery partners.
We have a dedicated team of 280 safety professionals in India who work every day to implement our comprehensive policies and procedures related to heat and weather mitigation across all our operations. As temperatures rise, preparedness and prevention are paramount and our goal is to ensure to safety under our roofs, on the road, and on our flight ramps.
Keeping our buildings cool
A core focus for us during heatwaves is to maintain comfortable temperatures in our buildings, and we ensure our heat mitigation practices go above and beyond industry standards. We have invested in prevention procedures and training to ensure employees and associates stay safe while working in our facilities.
We have invested in prevention procedures and installed a variety of cooling measures, including climate control systems and state-of-the-art Building Management Systems, which proactively alert employees and associates when climate conditions change. The building management system constantly measures the temperature and heat index (a combination of temperature and humidity) to get an accurate reading of the weather conditions.
If we do find increasing heat or humidity inside our buildings, our teams take action to provide comfortable working conditions, including temporarily suspending work. We train all of our employees, associates and partners on the signs and symptoms of heat-related illness, environmental and personal risk factors, hydration guidance, and other tips from public health and medical professionals. For instance, Cold water dispensers and electrolytes are available at multiple locations within our buildings, including driver rest rooms. Most importantly, everyone is encouraged to take a preventive cool-down rest break anytime they need, and employees, associates and safety teams are empowered to speak up to address any temperature-related issues.
All employees and associates including security guards and yard marshals are also provided access to shelters with air coolers and fans.
Keeping cool outdoors and on the road
On the roads, we are continuously evaluating new ways to support our drivers during fluctuating weather conditions, especially this year given the extreme weather conditions in parts of the country. For example, in Gurugram, which was experiencing extreme heatwaves, we had restricted delivery operations in the peak heat hours of 1pm-4pm and asked our drivers to rest when temperatures were at the highest in the day. During the first eight days of this month, we reduced delivery routes by 60 minutes for extra comfort breaks and deployed additional workforce in the morning hours to avoid peak heat exposure. Given similar heatwaves expected with fluctuating weather conditions for the next three weeks, we plan to extend this support to an additional 23 cities across the country. For these cities, we will systemically reduce delivery routes by 60 minutes in the morning delivery cycle and closely monitor team members’ comfort and well-being.
Prioritizing safety during weather events
We keep a close pulse on our operations network across the country to ensure things are running smoothly and weather-related disruptions don’t impact our employees, associates, partners, or customers. We leverage an Amazon-developed forecasting tool to provide alerts when increasing levels of heat or severe weather events are expected. Once a severe weather alert is flagged, we prepare activities and a timeline to act.
We are proud of the investments we are making to support the health, safety, and wellbeing of our employees, associates and partners. Safety is woven into the fabric of our culture, and we will continue to innovate and obsess over it so that we are providing the safest possible experience for employees, associates and partners across our operations network.
