To all staff and anyone else whom it may concern. 6th April 2020

The NDIA expects us to formalise our Business continuity Plan as an Approved NDIS Supplier for several reasons, as follows:

1. Tramanco Pty Ltd have been the Australasian distributors for BRAUN wheelchair loaders and Q’Straint WTORS since the early 1980’s and still are.
2. We have always been very much aware of continuity of supply for these products and the service of same together with off-the-shelf availability of the spare parts for them.
3. We supply to a very dependant customer base which includes Maxi-Taxis, Ambulances, Drive yourself rear and side entry vehicles and mobile Breast Screening clinics, just to name a few who depend on spare parts and service on both a regular and an as-required basis.

This is why we carry up to 250 wheelchair loaders in stock at any one time and over $1.0m worth of spare parts in Brisbane.

This enables us to give these clients who are intimately involved with access for the disabled, this instant back-up which they need.

We will continue to do this daily as once a disabled person in a wheelchair is in a vehicle, they need to be able to get out, or get into one as well.

Just as importantly by law, the correct Q’Straint restraint systems must be installed and maintained and just this week a bus operator in Bathurst urgently needed a lap/sash belt as he cannot transport a disabled person without a certified lap/sash seat belt. We supplied the item to him ex-stock, same day.

We will continue to operate this essential service until a government authority says to do otherwise.

Why, you may well ask?

Well, quite simply persons who are wheelchair bound and use BRAUN and Q’Straint products on a daily or weekly basis can’t go anywhere without a Maxi-Taxi or a modified vehicle fit for such purposes.

1. In accordance with government directives we have implemented social distancing, regular hand washing routines, and cancelled all non-essential visitors – suppliers or otherwise.
2. We have also cancelled all training courses and regular maintenance calls by limiting service callouts to break-downs only as, once a wheelchair seated passenger is in a vehicle they cannot get out of a vehicle or into one either if the loader does not work.

Our buildings were purpose-built in 1981 to have full flow cross-ventilation louvres and full width skylights in the warehouse, the store, and the workshops so that all our products and the spare parts for same are bathed in sunlight every day.

Consequently, so is everyone here as well as any transport operators delivering or collecting freight and customers when they visit us.

1. Our premises run East/West and have enclosed offices separated from each other in the front office.
2. The electronics design office and the spare parts offices are also separated rooms.
3. The customer waiting room is a separate room of its own.
4. All of them will have doors fitted with automatic door closers in due course. Some already have them, and now you know why this must be so.
5. The combined front store/workshop are at separate ends to each other ~ 30.0m apart.
6. The main workshop to the rear runs North/South and is similarly constructed.
7. The lunchroom and offices in the rear workshop are separate with separate doors.
8. The normal separation distance between staff members in the workshops is 2.0 to 3.0m or more in most instances and must be maintained on your own recognisance. Obviously, we need to communicate and if we keep implementing the social distancing, we should, or hopefully will, all be fine.
9. Staff and customer interaction are predominantly via our internal and external telephone system, mobile phone and/or via email and any person to person discussions are conducted at the 1.5 to 2.0m distance.
10. I should also like to point out that over 90.0% of our BRAUN and Q’Straint products come by sea freight in containers which usually take 6-8 weeks to reach us.
11. During the Brown Marmot Beetle season all containers are fumigated over a 48-hour period, or more.
12. All airfreight usually takes 10-14 days or more. It depends on flights and customs clearance.
13. The virus only lasts for a short term without a host, according to the doctors involved.
14. All our products are stored inside and either covered with large plastic bags or, are packaged in cardboard boxes which in turn are covered with shrink-wrap.
15. Shelf life averages 4-6 months (or longer in some cases) after we receive them.

Thus, we are catering to our own safety, our suppliers, and customers in a simple but effective manner as we have always operated under similar workplace rules.

However, no plan is complete without an EMERGENCY PLAN which, in our case will be a simple alternate day to day rotation of staff where 50.0% will work 3 days a week with a plan which will be implemented by Andrew Fannin and Michael Wolf.

Judith and I will then continue to work from either of our home offices or the office at Rocklea, time and commitments dictating same.

This plan will be implemented if necessary, which is not the case now.

So, please continue with the above procedures and I trust that this answers your questions.

However, please feel free to ask about anything, the above included, and at any time if you have any other ones which we have not answered.

Yours faithfully,
Roger and Judith Sack
Signed electronically: Roger P. and Judith J. Sack.
Managing and Financial Directors of Tramanco Pty Ltd
NDIS approved supplier: # 4050013158 Dated: 21st February 2017.

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