Volvo Trucks are supporting the Transaid charity to the tune of £5,000 this year and the latest cash is going to help develop a second Professional HGV Driver Training Project in Tanzania.
Sub-Saharan Africa is desperately short of trained HGV drivers and this puts road deaths into the top three premature killers, close behind HIV/AIDS and malaria. The death toll often adversely affects young children and young men. In much of Africa driving is sadly seen as a job of last resort and there is a huge shortage of professional driver training facilities.
Amanda Hiatt, Marketing and PR Director for Volvo Trucks said, “The issue in Africa is not a shortage of drivers, but the lack of proper training for them. As the UK’s leading road transport charity, Transaid have done marvellous work in getting this issue more widely recognised as well as putting professional training in place. We are naturally delighted to provide this help.”
Chris Saunders CEO at Transaid said, “We have already run a very successful driver training project in neighbouring Zambia and are now in the first stage of replicating the work in Tanzania. This will not only increase the impact of the work but contribute to the harmonization of training curriculum and operating standards along one of the most important trading routes in the region.
He added, “There will be a consortium of companies involved in this project, and the help we have had from Volvo Trucks in the UK has been superb in kick starting this phase.”
