In this blog series we’ve covered a lot of topics and challenges that will help banks and credit unions through the COVID-19 pandemic as it relates to their cash supply chain. This week, we want to discuss one of the critical suppliers to the cash supply chain, the armored car carrier. Every day, we are witnessing the many ongoing challenges banks and credit unions are facing, but what about your armored car carrier? How is their involvement in the cash supply chain impacting financial institutions? Is your financial institution prepared if the armored car carrier makes changes to the delivery schedule?
You might have heard the term “force majeure” being thrown around, but according to Loomis, they are operating in a “business as usual” status. However, McKay Barnes, Executive Vice President of Loomis, is the first to admit that “business as usual” is not so usual.
“We're dealing with a lot of customer changes and in the retail side and the financial side,” said McKay Barnes, Executive Vice President of Loomis. “From the retail side, you have food services, like restaurants and quick service that have been heavily affected by this [pandemic], and so schedules have been changed quite dramatically in order to help offset costs during a time where they're seeing quite a reduction in their revenues, but at the same time we see the pickup in the areas where you might go to buy toilet paper. Their schedules have been increased significantly because people have been overstocking [toilet paper] to a large extent.”
On the financial side, both logicpath and Loomis have seen a lot of banks and credit unions adjust their cash ordering and servicing process for lobby and drive-thru ATMs/ITMs. Prior to the COVID -19 pandemic, we found it most common that branches would service their own lobby and drive-thru ATMs, however, many of these same institutions have closed their branch doors and have turned to their armored car carrier to service those devices so customers still have access to funds.
“We're [Loomis] dealing with getting key access, alarm access, training the technicians on machines that are different than what they're used to, then there's the changes in schedules as well as the increase of cash being put into the machines,” said Barnes.
In addition to all the changes an armored car carrier makes on their end when a bank or credit union adjusts the servicing process for the machines, there are also ordering changes that must follow if the institution was ordering cash through a de-centralized process. We recommend that banks and credit unions also move to a centralized ordering process, meaning one person or team can order cash remotely for the entire institution. This ensures that the right amount of cash is being ordered for devices such as ATMs and ITMS that may still be customer serving, even if the physical branch doors are closed.
Though customer changes have greatly impacted the armored car carrier’s day-to-day operations, Loomis is also having to modify their own schedules for their branches in their local markets as well. Much like nearly any business right now, there is always a chance that an employee could get sick or come into contact with COVID-19. If that happens, Loomis is adjusting routes and schedules to deal with the potential disruption in operations while the branch is being decontaminated.
Whether your armored car carrier vendor is Loomis, Garda, Brinks or another carrier, they are here to help their customers adjust during these unprecedented times and are doing a lot of work on their ends to operate in a “business as usual” status.
To learn more, register for our on-demand webinar “Crisis Management and CASH: COVID-19 & Future Pandemic Planning” by clicking on the button below. This webinar is in partnership with Loomis and we will be providing a more in-depth look into pandemic planning guidelines, new regulatory changes and review effective ways to address the current cash management challenges to keep your financial institution's cash operations running efficiently.
