Goodyear India and IRTE collaborate for Safer Roads, Safer You initiative

A lot of tyre manufacturers are stepping up and taking several initiatives to make Indian roads safer. Now, Goodyear India, in association with the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), has initiated a road safety program called Safer Roads, Safer You. The basic idea behind this program is to train selected taxi drivers in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai.

In addition to preventing accidents and reducing confrontations, this program will also help to enhance the overall experience while using taxi services. Several fleet owners and taxi operators will benefit from 'Safer Roads, Safer You' as their drivers will be trained as part of the initiative.

The program focused on training 2,400 drivers in Delhi and Mumbai from December 2015 to March 2016. The selected drivers were divided into groups of 20 and then each group went through a one-day workshop. During this, participants were educated about various aspect of safe driving including defensive driving, passenger comfort & safety, vehicle maintenance, personal management and incidence management. Each participant was also granted an incentive of Rs 500 along with a complementary accidental life insurance policy of Rs 2,00,000 and a certificate for completing the training.

Rajeev Anand, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Goodyear India said, “Goodyear India is committed to helping build and support collaborative programs that create positive outcomes for the people, communities and the world around us. Specifically, the company focuses on promoting safe mobility, helping to make the communities stronger and safer. With Safer Roads, Safer You, we hope to create a culture of safe driving and passenger care in the taxi service industry to help increase ridership of the public transportation system, thereby benefiting the fleet owners, taxi drivers, police and end-users,”

“We are pleased to sponsor this initiative by the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), which has an experience of more than the 15 years towards providing safer roads for users,” he added.

As the metropolitan cities see growth, the taxi industry plays a critical role and grows with it. Training the taxi drivers would play an important role in making the roads safer. Additionally, the increased consumer confidence will eventually boost the taxi industry.

“With our association with Goodyear India, we hope to improve the customer service standards and to control occurrences of traffic violations. This initiative will address these issues through its various workshops and will provide an opportunity to the State to regain the trust of people, especially tourists, in the taxi service and its public transportation system.” said Rohit Baluja, President, Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE).