Dubai Police, in partnership with MAN Truck & Bus Middle East and RoadSafetyUAE, recently hosted an event for fleet owners and other stakeholders of the public and private sectors, showcasing various road safety initiatives and solutions to reduce heavy commercial traffic incidents in the country.

The event was aimed at emphasising the role of heavy vehicles in ensuring safety on UAE roads. It explored ways to boost road safety, in line with the targets outlined in ‘UAE Vision 2021’, which aim to reduce road traffic fatalities from about 6/100,000 residents (end 2016) to 3/100,000 by 2021, said a statement from the organisers.

Citing dangerous road habits of drivers and the need to constantly educate and train them, Captain Salem Mesfer Rashid Alamimi from the Dubai Police, said: “Our various campaigns and initiatives in partnership with industry stakeholders in the past have resulted in a significant drop in the number of accidents involving heavy vehicles over the years.”

“To ensure road safety for all, it is critical to engage with truck drivers, the owners and fleet operators as well. Such workshops play an important role in achieving the targets, and I express our sincere gratitude to MAN Truck & Bus Middle East and RoadSafetyUAE for their strong commitment to making the country’s roads safer,” he added.

The event highlighted the ongoing efforts by MAN to increase road safety, both by building safety into its trucks and fostering a culture of safe driving.

Franz von Redwitz, managing director, MAN Truck & Bus Middle East, said: “We are pleased to partner with Dubai Police to further enhance road safety awareness among various stakeholders of the commercial vehicles industry in the UAE.”

“The importance of stricter enforcement of laws and continuous education and training is paramount, but it is also critical to equip commercial vehicles with new technologies to ensure complete and absolute safety on the roads in the country,” he added.

Participants gained insights into how proper safety measures, best tyre and load practices, technology-driven solutions and driver training support programs can lead to a significant drop in road incidents, it said.

Redwitz added: “Adopting best practices in vehicle safety not only helps in driving down the number of traffic incidents and enhancing road safety but also results in reducing fuel consumption and optimising loads thereby maximizing the economy of the fleet operating companies.”

“As the leading provider of commercial vehicles and buses, we remain dedicated to introducing efficient and safety solutions for our loyal customers in this region,” he said.

Thomas Edelmann, managing director of RoadSafetyUAE, said: “MAN is setting a great example as a pro-active thought-leader in the commercial vehicle industry by committing resources to arrange such an impact-strong event, which educates the involved stakeholders and also provides a great networking platform to connect delegates and to foster new ideas of how to tackle road safety”.

Taking the event to a new level, the senior representatives from MAN presented an interactive ‘Truck Safety Walk-Around’, which examined various factors leading to fatal accidents, Redwitz added.

MAN representatives encouraged fleet owners to establish a framework in their companies for continuous education for drivers. They introduced the MAN ProfiDrive programme which improves driver knowledge and skills and promotes rational driving behaviour to make every day driving safer and more economic.

They also demonstrated a number of technological solutions developed by MAN such as electronic stability program (ESP), anti-spin regulator (ASR), constant damping control (CDC), and MAN TeleMatics, an intelligent technology solution that provides drivers and fleet managers with essential data to optimise vehicle usage and plan services well in advance, and comprising a MAN Tachograph which automatically records the vehicle’s speed, distance travelled, and time spent on the road, helping keep tired drivers off the roads, it stated. – TradeArabia News Service