Cargo Carriers, a leading transport logistics and supply-chain specialist, continues to support initiatives aimed at creating safer roads for South Africans, including the country’s youth.
It remains a serious concern that as many as three children under the age of 15 die on South Africa’s roads every day, and this dire situation can only be arrested by significantly raising road safety awareness in the country’s education system.
The company has, therefore, partnered Active Education, which provides unique Scholar Road Safety Education to public schools on behalf of the Department of Basic Education.
Cargo Carriers recently supplied more than 5 000 reflective sashes to Active Education for its training programme. Students will wear these “walking seatbelts” every day as official components of their school uniforms to significantly improve their visibility on the roads.
They will be introduced to students at six schools in Lichtenburg, five in Vanderbijlpark and five in Sasolburg as part of the ongoing rollout of this unique training programme that is designed to instil a culture of road safety in young minds.
Importantly, Active Education does not use scare tactics by rather adopting a fun and engaging approach to communicating a very serious topic to children.
Learners are introduced to the department’s 10 basic principles for road safety, which is aligned to the national school syllabus.
They also learn the lyrics to Active Education’s road safety anthem. The song is a key component of the training programme as it reinforces the need to “look right, then left and right again” before crossing any road. Moreover, it helps young learners better understand and retain the life-saving knowledge.
Notably, the organisation works closely with teachers throughout the sessions to ensure maximum success in conveying concepts to the students, while educators are able to access the instructional content at any time to conduct their own refresher road safety training.
Cargo Carriers is pleased to learn that Active Education has already reached more than a million young South Africans, and that its programme has also been acknowledged by the Department of Basic Education as being one of the most effective in South Africa.
While it is already having such a profound impact on the lives of so many young South Africans, the long-term merits of the programme are still to materialise. This is considering that many of these learners, who have been exposed to a culture of safety early on in their lives, are still to reach driving age.
Worryingly, there are about 13 800 road fatalities in the country every year, making South Africa’s roads among the most dangerous in the world.
Active Education commenced rolling out the programme at the schools in Lichtenburg, Vanderbijlparkand Sasolburg this month.
This leg of the programme is also receiving additional support from Cargo Carriers’ subsidiary, Ezethu Logistics, as well as the company’s joint venture partners, Uzuko Carriers (East London) and Sitanani Carriers (Mpumalanga).
Cargo Carriers is a prominent operator in-and-around the Lichtenburg, Vanderbijlpark and Sasolburg areas and this programme will bolster its own initiatives geared at raising safety levels there and elsewhere on South Africa’s road network.
The company’s unwavering commitment to road safety is also demonstrated by its long-standing business partnership with large industrial clients operating in the fuel, powders, chemicals, steel, mining and gas market segments.
This specialist client base demands strict adherence to the highest health and safety standards, in addition to only partnering a specialist with the necessary skills and capabilities to provide them with a cutting-edge transport logistics and supply-chain solution.
