News

Transaid and road transport charities

06 March 2008

Transaid is a road transport charity which aims to bring modern methods of economical and sustainable transport to underdeveloped economies. It was founded the Chartered Institute for Transport and Logistics (CILT) and its work is funded by many leading road transport operators and often carried out by volunteers from those organisations.

The economic growth in poor regions is restricted by a lack of transport skills including driving, transport management and mechanical knowledge. As economic growth is the cure for poverty and the attendant problems of ill-health and poor education, Transaid aims to empower organisations and communities by teaching transport management skills, driver training and safety best practice to accompany the vehicles donated by truck manufacturers such as Iveco.

It also concentrates on transport provision for basic services such as health care. Without transport patients, medications and supplies do not reach clinics and medics have no efficient way of visiting patients. Typically volunteers will work with a seed group of commercial operators, drivers or a commercial collective. In all it has worked with public and private sector groups in 19 countries, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa, but also West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa and Sri Lanka.

Transaid's core work is in developing systems for government departments so their existing transport offers better service with lower costs. Typically it works with ministries of health and education; in Zambia it is in discussion with the ministry of lands and natural resources. Transaid develops information-based systems which monitor seven key performance indicators. This allows fleet monitoring, objective budgeting, and the fixing of problems. It also implements training, and puts systems in place for preventative maintenance inspections etc.

Road safety

Poor roads, negligible driver training, poorly maintained vehicles, overloading of goods and overcrowding of passengers all contribute to a horrific death rate on roads in African and less developed countries (LDCs) elsewhere. Forecasts predict road deaths in underdeveloped nations will increase by 80% by 2020. Only Aids is a greater killer of young men worldwide; road crashes kill on the same scale as TB and malaria. Transaid works to instruct drivers in proper loading, preventive maintenance and safe driving.

Current Transaid projects

Ghana: Transaid is currently working with collective of female market traders in Accra to teach driving and transport planning skills. This will allow the women to share the transport costs of picking up goods from the ports (up to 40km away) and their distribution to 30 local markets. The markets represent these women’s only means of making a living, but also the only means of local communities having access to essentials such as food and clothing. The women have been donated four Iveco Daily vans without which they would each walk the 40km to the port each day and pay up to 40% of their income for transport back to the market with goods.
Zambia: Transaid has been working with the governments of Malawi and Zambia to establish an internationally recognised training scheme for CV drivers. As part of this Transaid is sending logistics consultant Clare Bottle to Lusaka to work with the Chartered Institute of Logistics Zambia for two weeks. The aim is to provide more road transport qualifications.

Volunteers

Current volunteers include staff members from Wincanton, Goldman Sachs, CEVA Logistics and Clipper Group. Volunteers leave regular diary postings from which you can keep abreast of their work.

Other road transport supporters of Transaid:

Operators:

Manufacturers:

Retailers:

Find out more about supporting Transaid

Other road transport charities

Brake: Brake is a road safety charity which campaigns against the use of excessive speed in the UK. Its stance tends to be relatively anti-truck; however it does good work in raising the public awareness of road safety issues. It has a 12-point safety pledge for professional drivers and runs a subscriptin based Fleet Safety Forum.

BEN: BEN is the automotive industry charity which aims to help industry workers who are in need or distress. It has supported the families of many automotive workers who have been victims of injury or illness. It is supported by Autocar, Bentley, Ford, BMW, Mondial UK, Northridge Finance, Bosch and the Immediate Network among others. Find out more about supporting BEN.