Effects of global pandemics on hygiene-based contactless logistics in COVID-19 process and the eighth right of logistics: "right hygiene".

ABSTRACT

This study aims to realise hygienic contactless logistic activities to ensure more secure sustainability of logistic movements, in order to protect global logistics from pandemics such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which was first seen in Wuhan, China in the first quarter of 2020. The Industry 4.0 and hygienic contactless logistics has been examined and defined for hygiene-based contactless logistics, a concept that is considered new in logistics literature. During the COVID-19 pandemic, contactless logistics and the eighth right of logistics called "right hygiene" practices will reduce the risk of human-induced diseases and support the sustainability of logistics activities with physical distance between machine and human as the concept of social distance. In the study, the terms of hygiene-based contactless logistics has been introduced into the literature and in addition to the accepted '7 Right Principles of Logistics', an eighth right one called "right hygiene" has been proposed.