Yamaha India promotes safe driving among truck drivers

India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd (IYM) has trained more than 800 truck drivers from 34 national transporters over the last twenty months to improve their safe driving skills under a special initiative titled– Yamaha Drivers Safety Training Program (YDST). The program is aimed at making Indian roads safer by imparting safe driving skills training to heavy vehicle drivers. YDST has resulted in 3 times reduction in accident ratio of trucks carrying IYM two-wheelers from factory to dealers across the country over last 2 years.

IYM has partnered with Chola MS Risk Services to run the YDST program under which the heavy vehicle drivers undergo various practical as well as classroom training sessions conducted by road safety experts. Special stress management workshops and driving skill testing games are integrated within the program to improve the mental alertness of the drivers. Also innovative engagement building tools like Skit Play and Feature Films are used to make the program engaging for the drivers. They are also trained in physical methods of ensuring vehicle, personal and pedestrian safety. Special sessions are also conducted at the onset of summer, monsoon and winter seasons to educate drivers about meeting challenges during harsh weather conditions like heavy rains or fog.
 
Elaborating on the social initiative Mr. Om Prakash, Group Head – Corporate, India Yamaha Motor, said, “Road safety has always been one of the strategic focus areas for IYM’s CSR initiatives. We have been running number of programs to promote safe riding among two wheeler riders. The special Yamaha Drivers Safety Training program is targeted towards the drivers of various transporters who carry our vehicles from our production plant to dealers across the country. YDST aims to reduce accidents on highways caused by unsafe truck driving and make the roads safer for the truckers as well as the fellow users of the roads. The program has made us achieve drastic reduction in accident ratio of the fleet of trucks carrying our vehicles over last two years.”
 
Under the YDST program 125 training sessions were conducted in 2013. In the current year till August, 77 sessions have been conducted. In total, 202 such training sessions have been conducted in the last 20 months for drivers of 34 national transporters who carry IYM vehicles to more than 400 IYM dealers spread across the country.