Hyderabad : Do you know what do big companies like Meru Cabs, Mahindra Satyam, Canon, Bayer, Castrol, Reliance etc have in common? Most of their employees, across seniority and age groups have undergone Road Safety refresher training.

Over speeding trucks, wildly swerving buses, non-stop honking, driving on Indian roads is like tackling a live obstacle course.  In fact, statistics prove that one of the most dangerous places to be in India is behind the wheel.  India accounts for 10% of the total fatalities due to road accidents in the world.

India Inc is quickly catching up the trend of training young employees in safe driving training practices. Companies across sectors are rapidly adopting the international best practice of training their employees in safe driving practices. These classroom based programs focus on attitude and knowledge of safe driving and benefit the employers by avoiding loss of manpower in accidents or in man hours due to stress during long commute. It also enhances the Safety First policy upheld by HR managers.

Companies are approaching experts in the domain like Maruti Suzuki, who have gained expertise in training people in safe driving practices by managing 6 Institute of Driving Training and Traffic Research and over 250 Maruti Driving Schools in the country.

In past eight months over 25,000 people have been trained under these programs by instructors of Maruti Suzuki managed the Institute of Driving Training & Research (IDTR) and Maruti Driving School (MDS). Cities of NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune comprise 70% of the trainees. Companies located in tier II cities like Bharuch, Hubli, Vishakapatnam, Goa and Lucknow too are imparting this training. MDS recorded a 1.5 Lakh cumulative training hours in the last 12 months.

Hyderabad reported 462 fatal accidents last year and 2556 road accidents occurred and 2453 were injured last year. There were many ‘Near Miss” cases which have potential of becoming accidents in future but can be addressed if corrective measures are taken immediately. The content for the training program is provided by MSIL and can vary depending on the requirement of the particular customer.

But, why training on Road Safety for coporate employees and others is  to reduce loss of human life and property, for knowledge and skill, to reduce potential hazards on the road, for awareness of law and driving, for fuel efficient driving, to save maintenance cost and enhance life of vehicle, to inculcate road safety habits in one and all. Because training is one of the most effective way which can lead in to significant and lasting improvement in road safety.

Explaining the concept Mr. Mahesh Rajouria, Chief General Manager Maruti Suzuki says, “Our program is highly interactive and our instructors with help of quiz and films conduct awareness on safe driving practices.

These customized trainings help bring the much desired behavioral changes in people driving these cars. The alarming issue which comes forward in these accidents is not lack of driving knowledge but it is more to do with road rage and behavioral aspects. Our trainings target these pain points specifically. We have developed a refresher programs which are half day class room training that focuses on behavioral aspects, road behavior, road signage, first aid to name a few.”

These forward looking companies have tied up with the Institute of Driving Training & Research (IDTR) for training their employees in safe driving. The IDTR is a PPP model between the State governments and Maruti Suzuki wherein Maruti Suzuki is responsible for providing the technical know-how and managerial skills to run the institute. These facilities are considered as one of the `model institutes’ in promoting Road Safety in the country. The curriculum of these training modules is based on successful international models from Europe and Singapore.

Specially designed courses for corporates include course for employees, personal drivers, taxi operators, operators of companies goods vehicles, transporters/fleet operators etc.

Apart from corporate which are major segment of this training other organizations like educational institutions, ITI colleges, RTO/Police also have undergone training in this program.

The charges for this program can vary from Rs.400/- to 1200/- depending on the duration and batch size of the training. Some of the key corporate trained in the last year across India include: Meru Cabs, Bangalore; Canon, Bangalore; Mahindra Satyam, Bangalore; Bayer Crop Life Sciences, All India; Castrol, All India; Cairns, All India; IOCL, Guwahati; Cipla, Goa; Times of India, Lucknow ; Chep, Mumbai; Vodafone, Delhi; Gujurat Gas, Bharuch, Gujarat; Reliance Industries, Gujarat; Rajasthan Road Transport Corp.  Companies like Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Tata Motors, Yamaha Motors India Pvt. Ltd, Gurgaon Police, Rajasthan State Road Transport ; Corporation, Castrol India, World Health Organization are examples of some organizations who have taken similar steps.