COVID-19 has caused quite a bit of trouble in every aspect of our way of living. Especially when it comes to dining out or casual recreation stuff, we just cannot do it the easy way anymore. For instance, many restaurants now require customers to check in so they can keep a record of who visited on what day and at what time. If this process is a hectic one for small businesses, imagine the scale of work border personnel need to pull off!
Millions of people travel every day from one province/state to another province/state for business, family visits, study, and other purposes. Under provincial/state quarantine laws, they need to quarantine/self-isolate themselves for at least 14 days to see if they have developed any symptoms. Border personnel also keep their personal, travel-related, and contact information to deal with any potential COVID-19 exposure.
Can you imagine how difficult it is to record each and every single traveler with a manual process or with a semi-manual process? There will be jetlagged people lining up, filling out paper forms, and submitting them. I don’t even want to think about the hassle to keep them organized and disciplined during the process.
What I am trying to say is that the manual cross-border travel registration process is too much work to be done with limited staff and resources. To do the job efficiently and ensure public safety, this process should be automated.
Not convinced yet? Okay! Here are our top five reasons to convince you of the necessity of using an automated cross-border travel registration process:
Easy to collect data
This one is pretty obvious, isn’t it? You simply cannot efficiently collect hundreds of thousands of people’s data within a limited period. Even if you manage to get the job done, there is a risk of missing details or worse, recording false information. People are impatient, and when it comes to paperwork, they just go crazy. So, what’s the best course of action? Let them fill out an online form. Simply put up signage at the entry point with the cross-border travel registration process. Let the traveler registration process start with scanning a QR code or typing in a short URL. They can fill out a hyper-secured form and submit it online. Super easy! Nobody has to line up to fill out boring paper forms anymore.
Central reporting
When travelers fill out the online form upon arriving to a state/province, the information goes straight into a central database or a master traveler registration list. That list is timestamped, which means every individuals’ arrival date and time is automatically recorded along with lots of other information. This central database is easy to navigate, filter, search, and export. Such flexibility makes it possible to view the whole cross-border traveler registration process from a holistic point of view. Also, a central reporting system makes it possible to automate the quarantine check-in process quite easily.
Sophisticated decision logic
Every action has its consequences. Particularly, in this time of rapid COVID-19 spread, while new strains are being discovered, any travel-related case needs to be investigated thoroughly and every decision should be backed by logic and evidence. The automated registration system provides the authority with sufficient data and reports to call an action that is backed up. For example, if you find that one of the travelers developed a COVID-19 symptom after his/her arrival, you can easily pull the data and find the people to whom he/she might have exposed COVID-19 as well. You can find the flight, check the seating layout, and narrow down the list of people who might have been exposed. Once this is done, alerting them is a pretty easy job. Without the data, it would have been nearly impossible to make a decision. Don’t forget, authorities are now making such decisions every now and then. So, having a large set of information at your fingertips really helps to back up your actions.
Freeing up time and resources
This benefit basically sums up everything good about an automated cross-border travel registration process. As said before, we only have so many personnel at the borders to efficiently and accurately record every traveler’s information. With an automated system, you are basically eliminating hundreds of repetitive steps – for instance, manually typing in every traveler’s data in the system manually. Given an average person’s typing speed with 100% accuracy, it will take multiple staff and countless hours to record all information. But with an automated system, nobody has to type anything in (except for a few cases). Similarly, the filtering, searching, and other tasks can be done with a few keystrokes. Why take extra pain if things can be done automatically?
Lightning-fast alerts
This is a bonus to an automated registration system. The sole purpose of having restrictions and cross-border travel regulations is to make sure that COVID-19 spread remains at a minimum level. This can be achieved by alerting everyone who might have come across a COVID-19 positive traveler. Using automation technology, it is possible to filter out and send alerts via automated voice calls. Using an automated alert system, you can reach out to them in minutes, ensuring they follow proper COVID-19 protocols and help stop the spread.
Sound interesting? It should. An automated cross-border travel registration process not only saves time and resource but also saves countless lives by ensuring proper communication.
Now, you might be wondering about how to create an automated system? No stress! We got this!
We have an automated traveler registration solution ready for you. This solution is powered by SimplyCast’s signature 360 automation manager, online form, and alert system. Bringing these three tools, we have developed a solution that can be activated right away. It’s super affordable and scalable as well. From handling a few hundred travelers to recording millions of travelers’ data, we can cover it easily. Our company is ISO 27001:2013 certified, which means all the data will be safe with us.
Speak to one of our experts to learn more about it and click the button below to request a one-on-one demo of the solution.
