Total Nigeria Plc says it has trained 2,181 drivers in the last four years against the backdrop of serious concerns about the state of trucks and drivers conveying petroleum products on Nigerian roads.
The oil marketing company said its Truck Drivers’ Initiative had helped to improve road safety in the country with continuous training and audits.
The Executive General Manager, Total Country Services, Bunmi Popoola-Mordi, said at a virtual media engagement that one of the areas the company had been contributing enormously in the country was in the area of road safety.
She said there was a need to highlight the contributions and inform and galvanise stakeholders in order to get feedback for continuous improvement.
The company’s General Manager, HSEQ, Mr Muhyideen Nuradeen said in a presentation that Total Nigeria had conducted 2,740 truck audits at its training facility in Ibadan, Oyo State between 2017 and 2020.
It said the company had also helped other players to conduct 2,149 truck audits between 2018 and 2020.
He said the effort had resulted in zero fatalities and severe accidents, zero lost time injury and zero spill in cubic metres, among Total Nigeria’s drivers since 2017.
He said the training 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.”
Nuradeen said while the company was in the business of making profits, 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.
He said the company’s stakeholders, including the Federal Road Safety Corps, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria and the National Association of Road Transport Owners, were being involved in the initiative.
In his remarks, the Country Communication Manager, Dr Charles Ebereonwu, expressed optimism that the initiative would progress to a level where the country would achieve a critical mass of trained, professional drivers and quality trucks to eliminate road safety hazards associated with trucking petroleum products.
-Punch