Total says driver initiative has improved safety, road accidents

Total Nigeria Plc has helped to reduce road carnages associated mostly with fuel-laden trucks significantly in the last three years within its operations, and by extension in the country.

This is because of the safety measures the company has put in place recently, particularly, the establishment of ‘ Total Nigeria plc Truck Drivers Initiative through which drivers are made to undergo a whole gamut of processes whose ultimate goal is to ensure the safety of the drivers, products and other road users.

The process involves continuous training of the drivers, checking them as often as possible to ensure that they don’t engage in any alcoholic substance that would make them endanger their lives and that of other road users, and auditing of their vehicles regularly to ensure that they are in good conditions.

At a parley held online with the media, the company showed that it had conducted 2,181 Truck driver training, 2,740 truck audits at its training facility in Ibadan, Oyo State between 2017 and 2020. It also helped other players to conduct 2,149 truck audits between 2018 and 2020.

The company noted that the effort had resulted in zero fatalities and severe accidents, zero lost time injury and zero spills in cubic metres, amongst Total Nigeria PLC drivers since 2017, as the training has ensured “Improved defensive driving skills, reduction of road accidents caused by driver behaviour and truck breakdown, handling of dangerous goods during transportation and public enlightenment on road safety topics and government regulatory agencies’ campaigns.”

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Bunmi Popoola-mordi , executive general manager, Total Country Services while given reasons for the media engagement stated that one of the areas that the company had been contributing enormously in the country was in the area of road safety and there was a need not only to highlight the contributions but to inform and galvanise stakeholders to get feedback for continuous improvement.

While responding to some questions during the interactions on the Truck Drivers Initiative, Muhyideen Nuradeen, general manager, Health, Safety, Environment and Quality (HSEQ) stated that while the company was in the business of making a profit, it was more interested in saving lives, making the roads as safe as possible and making sure drivers return safely to their families and loved ones at the end of each business day.

The company explained that its stakeholders including Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, and National Association of Road Transport Owners, NARTO, were being involved in the initiative.