UMW Toyota Motor president Ravindran K said the company welcomed the easing of the two-month restriction which have posed an increasing challenge to its business over the past two months.
“Resuming our business activities, especially at Toyota and Lexus retail outlets, will enable a return to some form of normalcy so we can move forward and do our part to help in the economic recovery of the country,” he said.
Among these activities are the long-awaited removal of restrictions on operations of sales and service in the automobile industry, as well as resumption of manufacturing operations such as assembly of motor vehicles and related parts and systems.
Meanwhile, UMW Toyota Motor deputy chairman Akio Takeyama said the company now has more certainty as the restrictions had been lifted.
“For example, we have been preparing for the local assembly of Toyota Hybrid Electric Vehicles and while the past two months have disrupted planning, we will now proceed as quickly as possible to make up for the time lost,” he said.
Ravindran said the company understood the seriousness of preventing the spread of Covid-19 and would follow all the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), conditions and guidelines provided by the Health Ministry and the National Security Council.
“These will be implemented throughout the company and be strictly followed to ensure the safety of the public as well as its employees.
“In fact, after the MCO last year, we already implemented many of the SOPs at our showrooms and service centres, and these have been maintained even until now.
“These include temperature scanning of everyone, registration with MySejahtera, use of hand sanitisers and facemasks, and regular sanitisation of premises,” he said.
Vehicle owners visiting service centres are also requested to make appointments in advance.
As far as possible, contactless payments are encouraged and social distancing is to be observed at all times.
“We assure our customers that we have made sure that our premises have a safe environment for them to visit,” Ravindran said.
On the resumption of manufacturing activities, Ravindran said that this would enable the company to start to fulfil the backlog of orders that have built up.
The two assembly plants and related factories in the UMW Toyota Motor group would be able to operate at specified capacities depending on the percentage of workers who are already vaccinated, with full capacity permitted if more than 80% are vaccinated.
“The company has been carrying out a vaccination programme and all our employees have already been vaccinated or will be vaccinated very soon,” Ravindran said.
He said that despite the less encouraging sales numbers for the months of June and July, the company still have a strong order bank of bookings for the various models and would move forward swiftly to respond accordingly to minimise any impact to its business and customers.
