KEEPING AN EYE ON SAFETY
Safe driving is an integral part of Road Safety; eye testing, being a major part of driving safe is part of our outreach programmes.
The Layton Rahmatulla benevolent Trust (LRBT) has been working with Shell Pakistan for over twelve years to ensure healthy eyesight of our drivers.
The health of our drivers is pivotal to the safe transportation of volatile fuels, and anything less than 20/20 eyesight can be disastrous to our business and the environment in which we operate.
Regular eye testing camps are set up at retail stations and truck sites where drivers, their families and customers can have their eyes checked. The camps are set up for 30-40 days, with a specialist equipped for vision testing, medicine recommendations for eye irritation, cataract detection and glasses. If a driver needs further treatment, the patient is referred to the closest LRBT hospital and receives fast track free treatment.
The Shell-LRBT collaboration has expanded LRBTs outreach particularly to communities that are further from urban centres, while helping Shell consistently reinforce the importance of eye health and road safety.
In 2016, The Lubricants Team collaborated with Social Investment to provide free eye-checkups for truck drivers and mechanics in main trucking hubs in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad .Over a1000 eyes of truck drivers have been tested for refractive and cataract eye testing in collaboration with LRBT. Out of these, 164 patients were diagnosed with cataract and consequently, surgical treatment was made available for them in any of the 70 LRBT hospitals across Pakistan to ensure that our truck drivers and consequently, our roads are safer.
DRIVER SAFETY
Shell Pakistan’s approach toward road safety in the Pakistan oil industry is unlike any other company. We have a separate team dedicated solely to road safety and transport which takes a business approach by working closely with contractors.
Shell has a fleet of over 400 tank lorries with hundreds of drivers who transport our products across Pakistan and form the backbone of our business. As part of our commitment to their safety Shell Pakistan began a Haulier Professionalization Programme in 1998 to develop haulier staff and drivers to the point where road safety and technical skills were deeply embedded in all their operations.
Changing mindsets of people with little to no education was a fundamental challenge that Shell overcame by actively engaging in a step by step process to demonstrate and train the hauliers and their staff. In 2010, Shell Pakistan delegated this responsibility for road safety compliance, driver training and vehicle safety measures to its hauliers. From 150 in 2000, we now have 13 hauliers which serve to show the level of expansion and professionalization attained.
Our Hauliers now habitually incorporate the learning from Shell trainings into their daily affairs, even when they work with other companies; resulting in greater road safety throughout the oil transportation industry.
CHILDREN AND ROAD SAFETY
According to WHO, globally a child dies due to road accidents every 4 minutes. Many more are injured, often severely. These traumatic events cause immeasurable suffering and grief, and at times economic hardship for families and friends. In addition, they cost societies precious resources, diverting these from other pressing health and development challenges.
We at Shell believe that Safety is about inculcating the right mindsets and developing behaviors and the earlier we start, the more impactful is the intervention and can nurture more responsible citizens.
For countries in a phase of rapid motorization - many of them middle-income countries - roads are often built without due consideration for the communities they pass through. A shift in mind set is desperately needed to ensure that roads everywhere serve the needs of and are safe for all who use them, including children, but also other vulnerable groups such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
Shell’s Social Investment team, in collaboration with the business, has been conducting Road Safety Awareness Drives in schools along its transport routes. In addition, we have also managed to highlight key reasons why road accidents occur, allowing us to focus on targeted projects and activities to make children more aware of these issues to improve road safety.
To reach out to the children effectively, Shell developed with children’s online media group, Toffee TV, a road safety song with an animated video and an accompanying quiz. Batti Laal Hai (The Light is Red) allowed us to communicate our key road safety messages to children in an extremely fun and interactive manner, increasing their understanding and awareness.
In partnership with WHO and the Traffic Police, this song was launched via broadcast media and in schools at the TCF Korangi Campus as a part of the UN Global Road Safety Week and the ‘Save Kids Lives’ global campaign. During the week, over 1,000 primary school children were engaged in schools across Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Quetta and Multan and 2000 DVDs were distributed.
