THE Road Safety Partnership (RSP-SA), in partnership with Toyota, NetStar and eThekwini, have joined hands in the Safe to School – Safe to Home: Scholar Transport Project.
It aims to upskill and improve transport providers.
RSP-SA said the programme addressed issues responsible for transports not meeting required standards.
These included improving driver fitness and behaviour, vehicle fitness, passenger behaviour, obtaining greater inclusion of schools, parents and communities in its improvement.
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According to RSP-SA, this would be achieved through a five-day road safety orientation workshop with drivers, who would spend time completing simulator exercises to identify weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.
“Driver performance will also be monitored during normal operating hours for better upskilling and provision of assistance based on personal driving habits. They will also learn how to handle incidents and receive first-aid training,” it said.
It added that the project would also give parents confidence in a system on which they greatly relied upon. “The aim is to also reduce the number of transgressions by drivers. An ultimate objective is to reach a point where there are no crashes resulting in injuries or fatalities.”
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Toyota South Africa said it will be making projects as appealing and beneficial to drivers as possible.
“This included providing incentives such as winning monthly fuel vouchers for drivers with the least traffic transgressions per kilometre. In fact, eight finalists recorded no transgressions during monitoring despite mileage of 4 000km. Seven finalists also received a cheque of R10 000 each,” Toyota SA said.
Overall winner Nondomiso Hlengwa was awarded a new Toyota Quantum through a lucky draw ceremony last month.
The lucky winner of the Toyota Quantum said: “I will now be able to transport more children. Previously, I was transporting pupils with a Toyota Avanza and had to turn some away because there was no space. The safety of learners is always my priority,” Hlengwa said.
