Fleet management company Netstar is providing telematics units for scholar transport vehicles in Durban, as part of the “Safe to School Safe to Home” school transport project, in partnership with Road Safety Partnership (RSP) SA, Toyota SA and the eThekwini Transport Authority.
The project, worth more than R200 000, will use car-tracking technology to monitor drivers to protect learners on their way to school when on the roads.
The Safe to School Safe to Home programme provides training in driver fitness, driver behaviour, vehicle fitness and passenger behaviour.
Netstar, an Altron subsidiary, says the project is set to reach an estimated 120 taxi drivers, 2 000 passengers and around 10 000 learners in Durban for three years.
It will also educate drivers about road safety and enhance their driving performance, improve the quality of scholar transport and set a safety standard for school-transport operators.
Netstar MD Pierre Bruwer comments: “Children are our most precious resource, and we are thrilled to be able to use our expertise in telematics and the Internet of things to help improve driver behaviour and keep our children safe as they go to and from school every day.
“Education should be about improving your knowledge and your opportunities, not about being in danger. We are committed to working with our partners to make that vision a reality.”
Lucky Molaudzi, general manager of RSP South Africa, says: “South Africa suffered more than 12 000 road deaths last year, and we are working to reduce these horrific numbers, particularly among school children. We know that by improving the driving of the people transporting our children to school, we can make a big difference.”
He says the initiative was a pilot project and learnings from the programme would be applied in rolling it out to other parts of South Africa.
RSP SA is part of the international GRSP group, a non-profit organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, working towards building a world free of road-crash death and injury.
Share