…upscales AMRTO truck drivers skill
The Lagos State Drivers Institute (LASDRI) targets training of 80,000 drivers by the end of the year on the importance of ensuring their safety and that of other road users across the state.
LASDRI General Manager Mrs. Tiamiyu Afusat made this disclosure on Monday, during a phased special training session of the Association of Maritime Reefer Trucks Owners (AMRTO) drivers at the agency’s headquarters LSTC Yard Oshodi, Lagos.
Tiamiyu said, “From January till April ending we have been able to train 24,000 drivers and we are targeting like 80,000 this year, we were able to do 56,000 last year and we want to work on getting more, that informs why we don’t stay in our office, we move and we do on-site trainings for drivers.
“Some companies will say they don’t want to release their drivers for any reason, we say okay we can move our facilities both human and material resources to your doorsteps but the only thing is that we don’t issue our cards outside,so as to avoid the rakecteering issue.”
According to the LASDRI boss who personally engaged the AMRTO drivers in an educative and interactive session, she harped on the fact that safe driving is the main target of the training, while availing them the 3Cs important tips of driving which includes- Caution,Concentration and Consideration.
The LASDRI GM noted however, that the agency is in partnership with AMRTO to train their articulated truck drivers, 150 in total on how to be a professional drivers.
“For the AMRTO we are doing their trainings in phases, we have done two this is the third phase, the first set of people they were 21 in number,the second phase was 19, today they are 15.
“What they are taught is that driving is not a commoners affairs, you have to be trained. We believe with continuous orientation, training and retraining we will be able to get the best out of them.
“Majority of them are ignorant of what they are required to know but we are taking them back to classroom, I have told them even the first two sets we have been able to train have good stories about the agency, because we took our time to take them through the skills required to be defensive drivers.
“After the training we usually subject them to computer based test, we don’t compromise our position after the training in Lagos state here.
“We issue them Drivers Institute Re-certification Card and we don’t issue the card without you taking a good grade, we issue it to them because of their performance.
“As everything is evolving we are also deploying technology to score their level of performance.
The LASDRI boss also hinted that the next thing for the agency is to make the trainings a stimulator based one going forward.
“What we are trying to do next is to make our trainings ‘Stimulator based’,with the help of our Honourable Commissioner for Transportation (MOT), he wants to help us get enough stimulators so, that even frontline drivers can come to the agency and learn more. We want to leverage on technology to do more of our trainings in future.”
She also appealed to employers of drivers to encourage them to come and learn in LASDRI.
In a chat with newsmen on why the training is necessary, the AMRTO Chairman Mr. Gbadeyan Babalola said that the association took the step in alignment with the state driving culture, adding that a specialized job requires a specialized training.
“The training was to align our drivers with the standard driving culture in Lagos state, given LASDRI’s spacious compound which can accommodate up to 500 drivers at a time, but because of the essence of our job which is specialized, we break them into batches, some of them that you see there are just coming from the warehouse having parked their containers.
Also Mr. Pessu Temisanren AMRTO Financial Secretary was quick to add that they seek the best for their drivers given the delicate goods they move from one point to the other.
“We want to empower the drivers to let them know the importance of being a professional driver, because most of them learn to be a driver from being a conductor, but it does not end there, there are other things it takes for you to be a good driver, so we looked around to find who can give us the needed training, as my chairman said this is the third batch.
“We are discussing with LASDRI to have a calendar every year these are the kind of training models put in place like the twist-lock training, often times you hear containers fell from the trucks why?
“That forms what the GM LASDRI has come to take them through this morning, the trainings have been outlined one after the other for their benefit.
“We carry containers that are mostly white coloured, the refrigerating containers for frozen foods and the likes from all wet and inland ports, because we move specialized containers so, our drivers needs specialized trainings because of the delicacy of the goods they move.”