By Sarita Patel
On Wednesday afternoon the province of British Columbia declared a provincial state of emergency in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many facilities, restaurants and stores have been closing their doors to flatten the curve.
But what about those who need assistance from ICBC?
For the time being, ICBC offices will remain open and they are taking additional steps to reduce risk, including replacing face-to-face meetings with Skype when possible, limiting lunch room access for employees, closing cafeterias and sanitization of the workspace. Security has also been increased at offices.
ICBC says changes to driver services like license renewals have not been finalized yet.
"Our business continuity response teams and are meeting daily to assess the situation and identify impacts to employees, customers and our business operations."
"As the situation evolves locally and the risk level changes, we will quickly act to implement additional protocols and provide those details," ICBC told Castanet.
New procedures are, however, being put in place on the insurance side of the organization that will allow brokers to conduct ICBC insurance business through phone and email.
Many brokers are still open for those who want to visit in person, or for transactions that cannot be done over the phone, such as vehicle registrations and new policies.
Services now being offered by phone and email include renewals, policy changes, cancellations and others.
Customers are also being asked give themselves ample time for renewals as the transaction may take longer than usual. More information can be found here.
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