VECV rolls out Road Safety program across India

More than 20,000 drivers to be trained in 2012

New Delhi, January 2 2012: VE Commercial Vehicles Limited (VECV), India’s leading commercial vehicle company haslaunched a nationwide Road Safety program across the country. During 2012, VECV will train more than 20,000 drivers in different cities.

As part of the 23rd National road safety week, a Grand driver Event “The Safe Drivers Mela” will be held at Indore in association with the Indore traffic police, local administration and NGOs. The event will showcase Road safety initiatives of the company and also reiterate VECV’s commitment towards Driver Development & Road safety. National Road Safety week will be inaugurated on Jan 2 by Mr. Prabhat Parashar, Commissioner Indore, and Ms. Anuradha Shankar, IGP Indore and other senior bureaucrat of the Transport Department of the State Govt. During the two day event, there will be special emphasis on drivers education on health, HIV-AIDS, free medical examination including eyes, driver training on Safe Driving, fuel conservation and driver education on proper operation & maintenance of vehicles through OEMs. A road show will be organized to integrate the masses at various other locations around Indore. The mela will see the participation of other industry players also who share the same commitment of VECV towards road safety. 1500- 2000 people are expected to attend the safety week celebrations

In addition to the safe drivers’ mela, our regional driver trainers will conduct road safety program covering two wheeler, 3 wheeler, LMV, MMV, HMV, Passenger Vehicles, School bus and hazardous goods transport drivers. The program will take place at Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Cuttack, Mysore and Chennai. There will be a special focus on school children in selected schools in all these locations. There will be special screening of Eicher Road safety film for school children (Pehla Kadam Safe Roads Safe Kids). The entire program will be conducted by involving traffic Police, government agencies & local administration. Adequate emphasis has been given for mass media promotion of these programs so that it reaches the target audience.

According to Mr. Vinod Aggarwal, CEO, VECV, “Our aim is to reach out to more number of drivers across India and train them on different aspects of life & work. We intend to train around 20,000 drivers in 2012. It is also heartening to see the similar kind of commitment from various government agencies, industry players and NGO’s . We are committed towards safety and would be holding similar kind of practices in future also to reiterate VECV’s commitment to roadsafety and driver training”

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. A.K. Birla, Executive Vice president, VECV said: “Our organization has been in the forefront of honing driving skills through Eicher Driving training programs. In 2011, our organization had also imparted Road Safety education & defensive Driving training for market Drivers of Commercial Vehicles, Passenger Vehicles, School bus and Hazardous goods Drivers”.

Around 1500 drivers were trained across the country during the road safety week last year. These activities were done involving Traffic police, Local administration, Transport commissioner & Collector, Transport Association & SIAM. Large STUs like BMTC and KSRTC were also targeted to cover a large no of drivers. During this year’s National Road Safety week 3500 drivers will be trained.

Road safety education programs were also conducted by Regional driver trainers at their respective locations last year. Around 18,000 drivers benefited from this initiative, he added.

VECV’s road safety program has been organized under the able guidance of Mr. A. Nandkumar, General Manger, VECV. An Industry veteran, Mr. Nandkumar has been recognized by SIAM for his initiatives on road safety. He was also the member of the international jury at the Global film festival on road safety at Morocco. He has received several awards including global recognition of the road safety films at various international forums. The film on “Safe Driving” won an international award in the Global road safety film festival in January 2007 in New Delhi. The second film” Safe Transportation of Hazardous goods” won an award at Paris Global film festival on road safety in October 2008. The third film “Pehla Kadam-Safe Roads-Safe Kids”-road safety education film for children, won an award in Feb 2010 at the Global film festival on Road Safety at Marrakech (Morocco).

Disclaimer: All statements included or incorporated by reference in this media release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry, management's beliefs and certain assumptions made by us. Although VE Commercial Vehicles believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement was made, and VE Commercial Vehicles undertakes no obligation to Update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. No assurance can be given that actual results, performance or achievement expressed in, or implied by, forward-looking statements within this disclosure will occur, or if they do, that any benefits can be derived from them.