Drive Safe India Initiative: Improving Safety of Truck Drivers and Goods Transport

In India, more than 11% of all fatalities from traffic accidents, or over 16,000 lives, involve commercial vehicles Given the loss of life, and the costs of damage to goods and property, there is an urgent need to reduce, and eventually eliminate this unnecessary loss of life. Shell, Michelin, and IRF Geneva have come together with a new initiative "Drive Safe India" (www.drivesafeindia.org) to improve all aspects of safety associated with transport of goods on Indian roads. The goal of the Drive Safe Ind
July 14, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

In India, more than 11% of all fatalities from traffic accidents, or over 16,000 lives, involve commercial vehicles

Given the loss of life, and the costs of damage to goods and property, there is an urgent need to reduce, and eventually eliminate this unnecessary loss of life.

763 Shell, 720 Michelin, and 1201 IRF Geneva have come together with a new initiative "Drive Safe India" (www.drivesafeindia.org) to improve all aspects of safety associated with transport of goods on Indian roads.

The goal of the Drive Safe India Initiative is to develop a voluntary industry code to reduce traffic accidents and fatalities by transforming:

1) commercial vehicle standards, 2) driver care and training, 3) vehicle financing, 4) insurance, and 5) road haulage contracts. As part of this initiative, a database of "safe" drivers and haulage companies will be developed. The industry code will be based on pan-India research and best practices from around the world. The impact of this initiative will be monitored using real time and collected data.

Once ready, the Drive Safe India Code will be adopted and used by the participating partners and is expected to become an industry standard used by the majority of, if not all, corporates, across all sectors of the Indian economy. The adoption of this code is expected to lead to a large reduction in the number of truck accidents and associated fatalities.

In the coming months, the launch partners of the Drive Safe India Initiative will seek to increase the number of partners to join this initiative.

The Drive Safe India Code will be formally launched at CROSSROADS World Road Meeting 2017 that is to be held in Delhi, India from 14 – 17 November 2017.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Efficient construction leads to quality roads
    November 30, 2012
    Technology to assist the installation of quick laying, yet top-quality, road surfaces requiring less frequent repair, thus limiting costs and the number of construction sites, is being sought by highways authorities the world over. The European Union devised project ASPHALT (Advanced Galileo Navigation System for Asphalt Fleet Machines) for satellite navigation and fleet management may have found just what such authorities are looking for. Within the scope of the ASPHALT research project MOBA, together wit
    Read More
  • Cost effective road maintenance
    February 7, 2012
    Highway maintenance and repair is an easy target for cuts in highway budgets, but there are cost-effective measures that can be adopted as Patrick Smith reports
    Read More
  • Improving safety barriers for motorcyclists
    February 20, 2012
    Delays to better barrier safety pose further risks for Europe's powered two wheeled riders. The issue of safety for powered two wheeler riders (PTWRs) is a matter of some debate in Europe. Although Europe's PTWRs make up a mere fraction of the vehicle population, they figure highly in accident statistics. Safety provisions could be improved using available technology but a recent political decision has downgraded the importance of such a move.
    Read More
  • Distraction poses increasing risk to driving safety
    July 21, 2014
    In the UK a number of road safety campaigning groups are warning that driver distraction from mobile phones will become a bigger killer than drink driving by 2015. While cellphone use by drivers is banned in the UK, penalties are still light and enforcement lax. Drivers still frequently use cellphones while behind the wheel. Suggestions have been made to double the penalties facing offenders, but if this ruling is accepted it will still take time to implement. And some say these tougher penalties are still
    Read More

Highlighted Content