Where QR scanning really matters
When avid QR code scanner Reimer Freitag saw a courier driver deliver a package to a Wellington library and leave again, without scanning in, it made him wonder if companies are doing enough to protect their staff from the risk of spreading Covid-19.
Roughly half a million QR code scans are being recorded on the NZ Covid Tracer app, down from a high of 2.5 million a day in early September.
Freitag said he felt like he was part of the small portion of New Zealanders who still diligently scanned into places they visited using the Covid Tracer app.
Seeing the courier driver walk in and out of Te Awe Library without scanning got him thinking courier drivers could potentially be super-spreaders if they caught Covid-19 and continued working, because they visited a lot of, sometimes crowded, places.
‘‘If that was a person who unknowingly was carrying the virus, they would certainly have an opportunity to spread it very, very quickly, very, very widely.’’
Freitag said New Zealanders had become ‘‘blase´’’ about the coronavirus pandemic despite how bad the situation was overseas.
‘‘It really takes being on guard, it takes awareness, and it takes a little bit of discipline.’’
Having seen Stuff’s Stop! Scanner time campaign, Freitag contacted the newsroom and asked whether it was worth investigating what policies courier companies had in place around QR code scanning.
Two of the country’s largest courier companies have provided explanations of what they expect of their drivers.
A spokeswoman for NZ Post, which owns CourierPost, said it encouraged and supported all staff, including contractors, to take personal responsibility for following all relevant Covid-19 guidelines, including using their personal devices to scan QR codes. Staff delivering or receiving parcels from businesses electronically scanned each item on pickup or delivery, creating a digital footprint of their movements that NZ Post could use to identify any exposure risks in the event that community transmission had occurred, the spokeswoman said.
Devon Buckingham, general manager at New Zealand Couriers, which is owned by Freightways, said in October the Covid Tracer app was loaded onto all New Zealand Couriers android scanners.
This let contractors use the app more easily and made the process much more efficient, he said. Contractors asked the company to look into the ability to house the Covid Tracer app on scanners so they didn’t have to use two devices (phone and scanner) when completing deliveries, he said.
New Zealand Couriers was encouraging all independent contractors to use the app, he said.
‘‘By making it available on our scanners it has become part of the process at each delivery. We recognise that by not utilising the app, it would be much more difficult to trace and contain another outbreak of Covid-19.’’
It was also using a contactless pickup and delivery process to reduce risk to contractors, he said.
University of Auckland professor Shaun Hendy said it was possible that a courier driver could become a super-spreader, because they worked in a high-contact profession. ‘‘However, most of their daily contacts would be casual contacts, as the interactions are very short and not often in a confined space, reducing the risk.’’
But they should be scanning in, he said. There were other high-contact jobs that posed greater risk such as teachers, university lecturers and hospitality workers, he said.
Workers’ interactions in these jobs often involved close or repeated contact, he said. In the case of courier drivers, it could be argued it was just as much the customer’s responsibility as it was the worker’s to ensure scanning took place.
Epidemiologist Michael Baker said it was clear the Government’s approach of encouraging the ‘‘team of 5 million’’ to scan in everywhere they went was not working.
Instead, Baker believes it should be compulsory for people to scan in when they visited high-risk workplaces, such as nightclubs, events and convention centres, gyms and places of worship.
These were the kinds of settings where it may be difficult to contact trace rapidly if there was an outbreak, he said. They were also indoors where people were talking, exercising and singing in close proximity for extended periods, he said. Rather than encouraging the whole nation to scan ‘‘like their lives depend on it’’, the Government should be strategic about where it focused its efforts, he said.
‘‘We recognise that by not utilising the app, it would be much more difficult to trace and contain another outbreak of Covid-19.’’ Devon Buckingham, general manager NZ Couriers