Abu Dhabi resumes valet parking under strict guidelines

The Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (Added) on Monday said it recently issued a new circular allowing licenced facilities across Abu Dhabi to resume their valet parking services.

The department had ordered the temporary suspension of this service following anti-Covid measures issued by the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority (Ncema).

Many shopping malls, hotels, resorts, companies and government entities offer valet parking services to their visitors and customers.

According to the new circular, the owners and managers of these facilities should strictly abide by the prescribed preventive measures, including making hand sanitisers available in frequently visited areas, public spots and payment centres within their premises.

The valet parking employees are also mandated to wash and sanitise their hands after parking each car.

The guidelines instruct all facilities to urge its customers to use electronic payment methods, whenever possible. They should make sure that their employees and customers always maintain a distance of two meters from each other.

The facilities must also place signs in key areas reminding everyone about social distancing.

Other measures that they should comply with include conducting Covid-19 tests for all their valet workers; regular checking of their body temperature throughout the day; training them about proper application of the precautionary measures; ensuring that they wear masks and gloves; and covering the seats and steering wheels before parking the vehicles.

The circular also emphasised the necessity to monitor the visitors' temperatures before receiving the car. The facilities have the right not to offer the valet parking services in case the visitors or customers show any Covid-19 symptom.