Tata Motors restarts operations at selected plants and dealerships

Resumes production at Pantnagar and Sanand plants, Lucknow, Dharwad, Jamshedpur and Pune plants in final stages of pre-operational preparation. Dedicated teams ensuring a safe work environment at each location. Selects dealerships for commercial and passenger vehicles open outlets.

Tata Motors today announced a calibrated restart of manufacturing operations for both Commercial and Passenger Vehicles from its plants located at Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) beginning last week and from Sanand (Gujarat). Tata Motors plants in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), Dharwad (Karnataka), Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) and Pune (only for Ambulance Vehicle manufacturing) are in the final stage of readiness and expect to begin production over the next few days. This commencement of operations follows receipt of all necessary approvals from relevant Government authorities.

Safety First 

There are dedicated ‘Restart’ teams at each location that have curated detailed guidelines and conducted intensive training for maintaining social distancing at all workplaces, shop floors and canteen facilities. Enhanced sanitization measures are being implemented and only limited, operationally required staff is being asked to come to work in personal vehicles or company transport.

Every employee re-joining the workplace is required to download and use the mandatory Aarogya Setu app. Employees are also required to periodically check-in and declare the status of their own, as well as their family’s health on the Tata Motors in-house health track portal. In addition, all employees and visitors entering and exiting the plant premises are also being screened for temperature checks.

Speaking on the company’s reopening initiatives, Guenter Butschek, CEO & MD, Tata Motors said, “Our utmost priority is the safety and well being of our employees, customers and ecosystem partners. Therefore, we restart operations with limited, essential staff in each plant, adhering to all mandated safety norms while efficiently meeting operational requirements. The support and cooperation extended by local authorities, state and central Government, our Union partners and our dedicated workforce have been instrumental for a smooth restart. We will scale operations in a graded manner as the entire enabling ecosystem of suppliers, vendors, dealers and customers come up to speed. We are cautiously optimistic and staying agile to cater to evolving demand.” 

Reskilling and upskilling  

Tata Motors has used the lockdown time to design new ways of working, respecting the mandatory safety norms and aggressively adopting digital via rigorous sessions conducted virtually, employees, dealers and supplier partners were oriented to this and trained on the feature-rich BSVI offerings for effectively selling and engaging with customers.

Nearly 200 dealerships and 300 workshops for passenger vehicles and over 400 sales outlets and 885 workshops for commercial vehicles have begun operations with a new set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) defining minimal interactions and maintaining prudent social distance while engaging with customers. Over the last few days, customers have initiated new bookings, deliveries of passenger vehicles have commenced and workshops are seeing an increasing inflow of vehicles for servicing.

“The lockdown was our opportunity to accelerate our digital journey and evolve new ways of working while servicing and supporting our customers. We are well-positioned to redefine mobility with our new product portfolio, customized offerings and enhanced customer experience”, added Butschek.

 The customer’s interactions are being done virtually using digital tools and any meetings, if necessary, are being conducted with prior appointments and post verification of all requirements. Documents for vehicle insurance and registration are being collected via mail or specially installed drop boxes and vehicle deliveries are being done only after all formalities are completed. Customer vehicles arriving at workshops for repairs and servicing too are completely sanitized before being handed over post service.

Test drives are being offered on request and with prior appointment at the customer’s preferred location. Only one person drives the vehicle with a dealer staff member sitting in the rear seat to avoid any physical contact. Following every test drive, the vehicle is fully sanitized including replacing protective covers shielding the interiors of the vehicle that come in contact while driving.

Awareness for CV customers

For its commercial vehicle customers, Tata Motors extended all possible technical support to keep vehicles running during the lockdown. Additionally, timelines of vehicle warranty, free services and Tata Suraksha AMC have also been extended.

To support local communities, Tata Motors is actively providing essentials to sections of society most impacted during the lockdown. Supplies of food, masks, and sanitizers along with information kits on precautions to be taken for health and hygiene, have been arranged for thousands of frontline hero truck drivers, transporting goods and services in multiple locations across the country. Further, via several channels, the company is also providing educational material in regional languages to raise awareness amongst the lowest strata of the society regarding precautions to be taken to combat COVID-19.

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