Unitrans Botswana wins 2019 Global Fleet Champions Award

Global Fleet Champions Awards celebrate the best safety and sustainability standards of fleets anywhere in the world, including in low- and middle-income nations where occupational road risk management is in urgent need of promoting and encouraging. The Company Driver Safety Award, sponsored by Allianz, recognises organisations that have implemented initiatives that effectively enable drivers to be safe, and rewards education and awareness-raising initiatives about safe driving that extend beyond employees to their families.

The Company Driver Safety Award was judged by members of the Global Fleet Champions standards committee. The judges commended Unitrans Africa Botswana for creating a culture that encourages every employee and contractor to strive towards the overall objective of ‘Zero Harm’ – through behaviour and commitment that contribute to the reduction of road crashes and the improvement of road safety. Judges praised the organisation’s rigorous driver training programmes, as well as its detailed policies and procedures that champion safe driving behaviours, making it an exemplary role model for other operators working in Botswana and across sub-Saharan Africa.

Michael Zano, Regional SHEQ manager for Unitrans Africa, said: “We are honoured to receive the first Global Fleet Champions Award for Company Driver Safety, which recognises our stringent efforts to protect the health and safety of our employees and other road users. We are fully committed to reducing the number of road crashes in Botswana and support for children’s road safety is a top priority in our corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes. This award strengthens our resolve to do whatever we can to help end the carnage of road death in Botswana and the other nations in which we operate.”

Maatla Otsogile, President of Society of Road Safety Ambassadors, said: “Road safety in Botswana has been ignored for far too long. We need a sustained, committed approach to address the substantial social and economic burden of road crashes in our country – this starts with government recognition that we have a national problem that requires financial investment and human resources. We are delighted to partner with the Global Fleet Champions campaign to stop road deaths and injuries and end pollution caused by work vehicles.”

Mary Williams OBE, Chief Executive of Brake, the road safety charity, said: “Road crashes are devastating events that rip families apart, and leave communities reeling in shock and victims feeling alone and without hope. Road deaths caused by work vehicles are a global catastrophe. The good news is that these deaths can be prevented through government action, through good policy that controls the management of organisations operating work vehicles on our roads. These deaths can also be stopped by organisations that transport goods and people taking responsibility for safety and saying that they will put safety first. We are delighted to work with SoRSA through the Global Fleet Champions programme to reward Unitrans Botswana for putting safety first.”

About Global Fleet Champions
Launched in February 2019, Global Fleet Champions is a global campaign working with organisations across the world to prevent crashes and reduce pollution caused by vehicles used for work. It also seeks to build organisations’ capacity to implement safety policies, and to enable government regulation and enforcement of road safety.

Global Fleet Champions is a partnership initiative, overseen by academic and practitioner experts working in the field of occupational road risk. It is administered by Brake, the road safety charity. The five pillars of the Global Fleet Champions campaign explain the key areas of risk for organisations that employ people who drive for work: Driver Behaviour (sponsored by Allianz); Community Outreach (sponsored by Arval); Journey Routing and Modal Choice (sponsored by Verizon Connect); Incident Analysis and Intervention (sponsored by Verizon Connect); and Vehicle Procurement and Maintenance. Global Fleet Champions supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Decade of Action for Road Safety and its ‘safe systems’ approach to road safety.
globalfleetchampions.org