Goodyear India has, in association with the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), initiated a unique road safety programme, ‘Safer Roads, Safer You,’ offering complimentary training to selected taxi drivers in Delhi NCR and Mumbai. In order to curb traffic rule violations and make taxi services safer and more customer friendly, the new initiative is aimed at supporting fleet owners and taxi operators by training their drivers.
The focus of this initiative was to train 2,400 drivers in Delhi and Mumbai between December 2015 and March 2016. A one-day workshop was conducted for groups of 20 taxi drivers to create awareness and cover critical aspects such as defensive driving, passenger comfort and safety, as well as vehicle, personal and incident management. The participants were also given an incentive of Rs. 500 along with a complimentary accidental death insurance policy of Rs. 200,000 and a certificate on successful completion of the workshop.
“With our association with Goodyear India, we hope to improve the customer service standards and to control occurrences of traffic violations. This initiative will address these issues through its various workshops and will provide an opportunity to the State to regain the trust of people, especially tourists, in the taxi service and its public transportation system,” said Dr. Rohit Baluja, IRTE President.
“Goodyear India is committed to helping build and support collaborative programs that create positive outcomes for the people, communities and the world around us. Specifically, the company focuses on promoting safe mobility, helping to make the communities stronger and safer. With ‘Safer Roads, Safer You,’ we hope to create a culture of safe driving and passenger care in the taxi service industry to help increase ridership of the public transportation system, thereby benefiting the fleet owners, taxi drivers, police organizations and end-users,” said Mr. Rajeev Anand, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Goodyear India.
“We are pleased to sponsor this initiative by IRTE which has an experience of more than 15 years towards providing safer roads for users,” he added.
The taxi industry plays a critical role in development of tourism by moving passengers around cities on a daily basis. Radio Taxi service has provided an important means of public transport in most mega cities, increasing their share in light passenger vehicle population.