AutoNation Inc.'s headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., reopened May 4 with a new normal during the coronavirus pandemic: daily temperature checks by nurses before building entry, social distancing markers in elevators, and many common areas off-limits. Employees received hand sanitizer and face masks.
Capacity, normally 700 people, started at 25 percent, with the aim to increase that to 35 to 40 percent by July 1.
"The challenge for every industry and business in America is there's now a bar that you have to get over with your employees and your customers that you have provided them a safe environment to conduct business," AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson told Automotive News.
The retailer's dealerships — around 230 — are cleaned and sanitized multiple times daily.
AutoNation, the country's largest dealership group, procured more than 300,000 pairs of gloves; more than 1 million masks; more than 350,000 1-ounce bottles and 20,000 larger bottles of hand sanitizer; and more than 1.4 million individually wrapped disposable pens for employees and customers.
Heightened safety and cleaning measures, coupled with enhanced digital capabilities for customers, are the new cost of doing business, Jackson said.
"We've put in place lengthy protocols ... everything from we give employees a new face mask every day down to giving customers, when they have to sign a document, a wrapped, sterilized pen, which is one and done," Jackson said.
"We've gone through every protocol that you could imagine."
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