FRESH NATIONAL EXPRESS EFFORT SUSTAINS TRANSAID’S TANZANIA WORK

1 November 2012

National Express Bus has sent two more Driver Training Instructors to Africa with Transaid, further cementing the company’s relationship with the industry charity, which saves lives through transportation-related projects across the developing world.

The trip was part of National Express’s continued commitment to support Transaid this year, with trainers Phil Reynolds and Kevin Roberts spending two weeks training six driving instructors at Tanzania’s National Institute of Transport (NIT) in Dar es Salaam.

Reynolds says: “I’ve been with National Express for 26 years, and this was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences I have faced with the company. I was proud to front our engagement with Transaid in Tanzania and would recommend the experience to anyone else in the industry who might be considering it.”

Gary Forster, Chief Executive of Transaid, says: “Road crashes are now the biggest killer of economically productive adults around the world, according to the World Health Organisation. But Transaid is only as strong as its partners in tackling this problem, and National Express has been a stalwart partner in our life-saving efforts in Tanzania.”

During regular working hours at National Express, Reynolds and Roberts deliver training interventions that cover a wide spectrum of content from training new people to attain the UK PCV licence, to coaching existing drivers with many years service in the most up to date practises of safe driving techniques, customer service and company values.

The men had to cope with a language barrier to deliver instructor training to two of the six instructors they were training. They focused on driving ability, instructional techniques, and daily vehicle check training. They placed an emphasis on on-the-road training rather than classroom-based theory, and prepared reports for Transaid and the NIT on their experience. Reynolds and Roberts also updated a blog of their experiences in Tanzania at www.nationalexpresstanzania.squarespace.com

Earlier this year, National Express driver trainers Raj Bhutta and Arthur Baddams ran a similar training input at the NIT. 

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Note to Editor:

Transaid (www.transaid.org) is an international development agency that aims to improve people’s quality of life in the developing world by making transport more available and affordable. It was founded by Save the Children and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (UK) and works by sharing skills and knowledge with local people to enable them to put in place and manage efficient transport systems.

Transaid’s core work includes creating transport management systems for the public sector and assisting with the provision of professional driving qualification development and the training of driver trainers.  It also assists with teaching preventive vehicle maintenance management and introducing local, low cost transport solutions including its innovative bicycle ambulance. Transaid also helps promote HIV, AIDS and road safety awareness and shares its specialist knowledge with the humanitarian aid sector.

Transaid enjoys strong backing from the transport and logistics industry and the active involvement of its patron, HRH The Princess Royal.

About National Express West Midlands: 

National Expressis the market leader in theUK’s largest urban bus market outside ofLondon. It operates more than 1,600 vehicles and covers over 70 million miles a year.

National ExpressWest Midlands is accredited for quality in driver training by the IAM (InstituteofAdvanced Motorists) and The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).  RoSPA and IAM created a new industry benchmark based on the efforts of the company’s in-house trainers having already recognised the training courses, delivered to the 5,000 bus drivers in theWest Midlands, are exceeding all EU Directives.National Expresswas the first company in the transport industry to be given the licence to deliver training in house and the first to be recognised for its driver assessment programme. 

About National Express Group.

More than 650 million journeys a year are made on its bus, train, light rail and express coach operations in the UK, North America and Spain.

For further press information:

Agnieszka Krasnolucka-Hickman at Transaid                                           +44 (0)20 7387 8136
Matt Davis at Garnett Keeler                                                                        +44 (0)20 8647 4467

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