Buses and taxis have long been a major source of danger for passengers and other road users in Africa. Through Transaid, Stagecoach UK Bus is making a major contribution to improving the skills of bus and taxi drivers. Trish Brennan, a driver trainer from Stagecoach Exeter Training Centre has been working in Ghana training and assessing drivers in the first in a series of interventions by Transaid and Stagecoach to make public transport in Africa a safer industry.
26th March 2009 - 10 foreign tourists, including Britons killed in a bus crash in Piet Retief in South Africa … and a few minutes spent with Google will reveal numerous similar headlines covering the whole continent and demonstrating the dire nature of the problem of road safety and public transport.
Buses and taxis have long been a major source of danger for passengers and other road users in Africa, and not just because their main load is people. As an industry public transport in Africa tends to be poorly regulated and managed, and inadequately trained drivers are often forced into working very long hours driving poorly maintained vehicles.
As part of Transaid’s work to improve standards of driving in the commercial sector we approached Stagecoach UK Bus to provide driver trainers to support the Professional Driver Training Project in Zambia and the Female Market Traders Project in Ghana. Stagecoach readily agreed and we have Neil Rettie lined up to work in Zambia from July 2009 for 12 months.
Stagecoach also provided Transaid with the services of Trish Brennan. It was a privilege to have Trish working with us for six weeks in Ghana, initially with the Women’s Market Traders/Women’s Transport Cooperative project, and then with Metro Mass Transit, Ghana’s largest bus operator, Ghana’s National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), and the Ministry of Health.
Trish’s tasks ranged from training Rita, the Cooperative’s only female driver, to drive one of their IVECO Dailey vans through the chaotic traffic of central Accra, through to advising the NRSC and undertaking the annual assessment of 40 Ministry of Health bus drivers.
Trish’s contribution has been considerable. Rita can now handle a large vehicle and confidently negotiate the unpredictable mass of vehicles, pedestrians and traders that base themselves around the Cooperative’s head office in Accra. And the Ministry of Health now has a system of annual driver assessment for their bus drivers, and has a current benchmark for the standard of their drivers (which overall is very high).
Through Trish’s presence in Ghana we were able to meet with the MD of Metro Mass Transit, which operates about1300 buses. The MD is passionate about safe efficient driving and a strong commitment to training drivers to the highest possible standard. He has determined that women drivers are the answer and wishes to recruit a team to train from scratch to supplement the all male driving team currently employed. Through Transaid’s intervention with Trish, Metro Mass Transit is discussing with the Road Safety Commission the problem of training from scratch and licensing female bus drivers. This is a difficult challenge, but one worth striving for.
In all of the above Transaid has been greatly assisted by Stagecoach and it continues to be. As Trish commented on completion of her work: “The visit to Ghana was an experience I would not have missed. The people I met were very friendly, extraordinary in their happiness with life. I felt a real sense of achievement at the progress made by Rita particularly and at completing the driver assessments for the Ministry of Health. I’d advise any future volunteers to put aside any worries about a similar visit and enjoy the experience.”
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