Every business - including car dealers - should set up a track and trace QR code to allow customers to check in

6:46 pm, September 24, 2020

All businesses – including car dealerships – that are open to the public should display a government-generated QR code to enable customers to Track and Trace.

With the launch of the Track and Trace App rolled out for iPhone and Android users today, any business that is open to the public is encouraged to display a QR code so customers can ‘check in’.

The government advice states: ‘You should create and display a QR code if you are a business, place of worship or community organisation with a physical location that is open to the public… or an event which is taking place in a physical location.’

Car dealerships with more than one location should generate a code for each one of their dealerships to help with the battle against the pandemic.

The government website adds: ‘If you have more than one venue, you need to create a separate QR code for each location. You can add multiple locations in the service.’

There was confusion at first that only food and drink venues need to create a QR code, however the government advice clearly states that all businesses should do so.

Although not mandatory, there’s little reason why car dealers wouldn’t want to be involved.

Joel Combes, director of motor trade legal experts Lawgistics, said: ‘We would advise car dealers and garages to create a QR code and encourage customers to check in when they enter the premises to comply with the rules.’

To set up the QR code, businesses will need:

Business email address
The address of each location of the business
An email address of the manager of each site
A phone number of the manager of each site

Banks are warning business customers that they must set up a QR code from today (September 24) to comply with the rules.

Barclays told its customers: ‘From today, 24 September, if your business has a physical location that is open to the public, you’ll need to display a NHS QR code at the entrance.

‘This is to support the government with its track & trace scheme.’

The QR codes can be generated online on the government website here.

The app has been rolled out as the UK recorded the highest single-day figure of coronavirus cases since the outbreak began.

As of 9am on Thursday, September 24, there had been a further 6,634 lab-confirmed cases of Covid-19 across the four nations, taking the overall number of cases confirmed to 416,363.

The Track & Trace app is available on iOS and Android operating systems, but will not work on older handsets.

On the iPhone, you will need to be running iOS 13.5, meaning the oldest possible iPhone device you can use it on is 2015’s iPhone 6s.

On Android, Marshmallow 6.0 – released in 2015 – and higher is required.

NHS Test and Trace says this is because the app needs something called Exposure Notification, which Apple and Google developed together for it to work.

Those unable to access the app are urged to continue using traditional contact tracing services instead.