EARLIER this year more than 2,000 forecourts across Europe, North America, the Middle East and Australia, signed up to Hatherleigh-based GripHero’s offer of free hand-protection dispensers on the fuel pump — keeping members of the public and staff protected against the avoidable transmission of Covid-19.

The award-winning patented hand-protection dispenser, designed by inventor and MD of GripHero Oli Yeo, is the only dispenser in the world permitted to sit on fuel pump handles.

The use of ATEX-Certified anti-static hand-protection material removes all chance of ignition caused by static, uniquely enabling the dispensers to be fitted in the refueling zone. So, when the UK Government announced nationwide restrictions as a result of Covid-19, Oli Yeo decided that offering dispensers free-of-charge until the end of April was the right thing to do.

By ensuring that hand-protection is available at the precise point where it is needed — on the fuel pump handle—GripHero helps to ensure that motorists refuelling their vehicles do not come into contact with plastic and metal surfaces where Covid-19 could easily be passed from one driver to another.

In addition to cutting waste — by dispensing just one item of hand-protection at a time — and preventing transmission of Covid-19 from driver to driver via the fuel pump handle, installing GripHero on each and every fuel pump handle ends the common occurrence of hand-protection shortages.

Independent research commissioned by GripHero, shows that over 80% of drivers regularly fill up without using hand-protection because they can’t find gloves, or because standard dispensers are empty. Fitting GripHero hand-protection at every refuelling bay, and in particular on each fuel pump nozzle, helps put a stop to this problem.

Since the global spread of Covid-19 has focused the minds of both drivers and operators into protection and safety at the pumps, GripHero has seen exceptionally high demand, resulting in the business doubling production and capacity.

Oli commented: ‘There has been a clear realisation that customer health and well-being is the number one priority, especially as forecourts are high touchpoint locations where Covid-19 can too easily be passed from driver to driver via the fuel pump handle.

‘The simple truth is that drivers don’t wash their hands before picking up a fuel pump and very few do so having filled up.

‘Often, this is because forecourts don’t have washrooms. In other cases, drivers are in too much of a hurry to think about properly washing their hands having refuelled.’