Getting Proactive about Safety
Intelligence: Information about bad driving can save lives

SOUTH Africa has the most dangerous roads in the world. This is the statement by South Africa’sMinister of Transport, Sibusiso Ndebele,who said in his keynote address at the recent opening of the Permanent International Association of Road Congress’s (PIARC) international road safety seminar that “unless we do something about it soon, by 2020 we will find that road crashes will kill more people than those who die from HIV and Malaria put together”.

Ndebele said: “Approximately 1,3 million people die each year on the world’s roads, and between 20 and 50 million sustain nonfatal injuries. The Global Status Report on Road Safety in Africa indicates that 62% of the reported road crashes occur in 10 countries.One of these is South Africa. Vehicle crashes cost the South African economy in 2008 approximately R56 billion.”

Drive Report is a South African Driver Behaviour Management company that is committed to reducing road fatalities through the deployment of groundbreaking drivermonitoring technologies that change the way commercial vehicle fleets are managed.

Launched in 2001, Drive Report links South Africa’s vast national network of cel lphone users to adedicated 24/7 call centre, allowing them to report any untoward or unsafe driving of fleet vehiclesmarked with the highly visible Drive Report sticker, displaying the well-known 0860 555 999 number.

According to Louis Swart,managing director of Drive Report: “The only way we canmake our roads safer and less dysfunctional is to improve the way we drive. It’s all about improving driver skills and behaviours. “All reported incidents are logged by Drive Report and processed through its powerful driver-profiling software, giving fleet managers a comprehensive on-road behaviour analysis of every driver in the fleet,” explains Swart. “With real-time response to onroad incidents using SMS and e-mail messaging to key management personnel, Drive Report gives fleet operators the power to proactively reduce incidents of dangerous driving and vehicle abuse, while transmitting a strong message of social responsibility to other road users.”

Over time, the data gathered by DriveReport enables fleet managers to pinpoint where their drivers need counselling and coaching, Swart continues. “It’s about being proactive and engaging in ongoing drivers kills development. We know that women make excellent teachers and certainly, in the commercial transport industry where skills shortages are rife, a diligent, empathetic and nurturing approach to driver training and retention is sorely needed.”

With demand for his company’s products and services on the rise, Swart recently appointed a young woman, Mariette Joubert, to act as chief risk consultant at Drive Report and promote the concept of proactive driver skills development. “The position involves a hosto fduties that go well beyond simply selling the Drive Report concept,” adds Swart. “Our risk consultants, apart from having sharp marketing skills, must be passionate about road safety, the promotion of defensive driving skills and how to deliver the right sort of information to our clients to enable them to make their fleets safer and more efficient.”

Joubert has undergone intensive product training and travelled the country extensively, delivering her Drive Report sales presentation to scores of fleet managers. “The response has been exceptional and I’ve signed up over 1000 new vehicles on to the Drive Report service,” she says. “The benefit of having the motoring public acting as ‘co-driver’ to every fleet vehicle is readily appreciated by my audience. With fleet drivers on their best behaviour, fuel consumption is reduced as is damage to the vehicles .Most importantly, accidents are prevented and our roads are made safer.” Drive Report has over 320 vehicle fleets on its books and its bold sticker is displayed on some 10 000 vehicles around the country.

oubert’s ambition is to take the company to even greater heights, targeting not only local fleets, but those conducting cross-border transport too. “Drive Report also acts as the after-hours call centre for the National Traffic Call Centre and has, over the past nine years, accumulated a massive amount of nationwide driver-related data that now serves as vital intelligence for any operator seeking to improve fleet efficiency and safety.

In the months ahead, pressure on fleet owners from government to conform to new road traffic legislation like the points demerit system (administrative adjudication of road traffic offences), will make the information Drive Report delivers all the more valuable and my job all the more rewarding,” Joubert concludes. — Supplied.