Liviu Marcus
The Japanese automaker Toyota has stepped up in this time of need and provided special transport vehicles to hospitals across Japan. The company provided new vehicles to the Showa University Hospital to help transfer critical COVID-19 patients.
Toyota received special requests from medical facilities and they delivered by transforming their Hiace van and fitting it with specially requested equipment to facilitate the hospitals. The Toyota AutoBody Co. worked hard to customize Hiace’s body to the needs of the patients.
The vehicle has been designed with the social distancing feature in mind. As such, the front part of the vehicle is completely cordoned off from the back.
The driver and the front passenger seat are completely isolated from the rear part of the vehicle. The rear part of the vehicle has passenger seats with an exhaust fan to expunge all the air from inside the vehicle.
The company has worked hard to be socially responsible in this time of need. They have already delivered specialized vehicles for patients with mild symptoms and now a vehicle for seriously ill patients has been sent forward. To date, around 12 special vehicles have been sent to hospitals in Japan.
The JPN Taxi and the Toyota Sienta have also been used for this purpose. These vehicles have been distributed to different medical institutes throughout Japan. Toyota has done all this as part of its Kokoro Hakobu Project. They will work hard to provide relief for front-line workers, helping them in any way possible.
Toyota has been applying safety measures to their worksites based on the policies provided by the government of Japan.
One should note that Toyota is one of the largest car producers in the world and even with such high volumes of sales they are not to reach a million a year. With such a scenario in the current difficult moment, the company has shutdown several of its plants and also reduced the production process in other few plants to prevent possible contracting of the disease by its employees.
It is expected that the company will face heavy losses in this quarter and the quarter to come. If the world economic situation does not stabilize by the last quarter of this year, then big corporations like Toyota will have to cut costs and lay off many workers. Reports suggest that last month, hardly any new cars were sold in major markets around the world. India, being one of the biggest automobile markets reported zero new purchases in April, which is an alarming statistic.
