Frotcom East Africa and Airtel Kenya implement a Road Safety Initiative rewarding good driving behaviour

Kenya’s National Traffic Commandant joined Frotcom East Africa and Airtel Kenya in a new road safety initiative by rewarding responsible drivers from 2NK Matatu SACCO (cooperative) identified by Frotcom’s web tracking and fleet management system. This new initiative came as a follow up of the “Dereva Chonjo Initiative”, launched early this year by the two organizations, in a bid to encourage safe driving speed in public service vehicles and to reduce road carnage on Kenyan roads. Through the initiative, the National Traffic Commandant, Samuel Kimaru, will identify and reward drivers from 2NK SACCO along a number of busy highways in Kenya. Frotcom’s vehicle tracking system helps to monitor driving behaviour minute-by-minute regardless of where vehicles are in the country and uses the same data generated by the system to identify drivers who need extra training so as to achieve a change of attitude as they handle passengers. The rewarding program will go a long way enforcing compliance to traffic rules rather than evasion. According to Jackson Karisa Fagio, Commercial Director at Frotcom East Africa “Frotcom East Africa, Airtel Kenya and the Traffic Commandant have taken a proactive role to reward the drivers for their good driving behaviour. This initiative is meant to depart from the old traditional practice which has always focused on punishing wrongdoers and totally turning a blind eye on those who are doing right. It is common experience that when you positively recognize good efforts, the end result is motivation. With this initiative, we want to demonstrate that it pays to be good and try to win more investors in the industry to take the initiative of making their drivers recognized.” Airtel and Frotcom have already fitted GPS-tracking systems in more than 550 vehicles in the SACCO’s fleet. Estimated financial benefits show that the SACCO members could save up to Ksh 40 million (US$461,000) annually by sealing revenue leakage loopholes with the use of this solution. This will come along with reduced accident claims to the insurers significantly reducing the cost of risk management. Sources: Business Ghana; Humanipo