Fleet Forum - The Kenya Implementation

The Kenya Implementation

In October 2007, the Fleet Forum began a pilot implementation of its toolkit with six humanitarian agencies willing to work to fine-tune the material and provide practical feedback on the training modules. Kenya was selected as the venue for the pilot due to its high density of humanitarian agencies and the country’s higher than average road deaths. Oxfam, Goal, UN-World Food Programme, World Vision, Care and ADRA committed to the initiative comprising continual feedback and data gathering, training for all staff, and a long-term internal implementation of a fleet safety programme.

The Trainings

In addition to the toolkit, the Fleet Safety Project is comprised of complimentary training modules including:

Awareness briefing	The foundation training module, it is designed to raise awareness of the global fleet safety epidemic and educate all staff within organisations about their individual responsibility in addressing the issue.
Senior management workshop	A guide for senior management to assist them in understanding that the responsibility for fleet safety within their organisation ultimately lies with then and the policies and procedures they implement. The training sets out to guide managers in establishing a fleet safety programme for their operations.
Transport Operators training	A technical training aimed at managers directly responsible for transport operations.
Professional driver training	Specific practical driver training, including information on vehicle checks, technical driving styles, and journey planning.
Training of Trainers	Designed to empower participating organisations with the tools necessary to embark upon continual education programmes but training internal trainers.

The training sessions began with awareness briefings for all staff at each of the participating agencies and continued through each of the modules for relevant staff. While interrupted by the Kenyan post-election unrest, from October through the end of June 2008 68 sessions were held with the six pilot organisations across Nairobi, Kisumu, Dadaab, Wajir, Kakuma, Lodwar and Mombasa resulting in more 1250 staff trained in relevant modules. In addition, 18 drivers and 5 other staff were trained in Training of Trainers modules.

Training Assessments

Evaluation of the trainings by the participating organisations gave the overall initiative high marks for its success. Drivers in particular were positive about the project as they received the support to ensure management recognised that fleet safety was not their responsibility alone, and they were also given valuable skills in training methodology. All drivers trained responded positively when asked if they felt prepared to train following the TOT sessions, while 94% rated the trainings as having met their expectations. For the all staff awareness briefings, results came back rating an increase in awareness at 4.54 out of 5 for all participants. Interestingly, when asked what would change following the awareness sessions, high marks were received for practical activities including obeying traffic rules and utilising safety belts, but driver responsibility was in the bottom of activities of focus. At the same time, better fleet planning, a management issue, and sensitising and advocating on their responsibility as individuals were within the top half for all organisations, illustrating that the awareness briefings alone began to shift the way in which participants thought about fleet safety including management and individual culpability.

What’s Next

To ensure long-term viability of the Fleet Safety Project implementation in Kenya, at the conclusion of the trainings each organisation identified a dedicated fleet safety focal point and committed to developing a fleet safety implementation programme. To provide the organisations with on-the-ground assistance in utilising the toolkit to develop their own fleet safety programme, the Fleet Forum along with the assistance of project partner TNT, has in place a dedicated specialist in Nairobi working with the organisations on a daily basis.

To date, each organisation has begun to set the foundations of their individual fleet safety action plan. For World Vision, who recognised the importance of fleet safety for its massive Kenya operations, this included the recruitment of a dedicated Fleet Safety Coordinator. Each organisation has also committed to sharing its progress in an effort to create a community of practice for all involved. For up-to-date information on what’s happening with the Kenya implementation, click here.

Addressing the Data Gap

Initial project research identified a significant gap in fleet and fleet safety data within the humanitarian community. Data gathering is key as organisations are better positioned to improve their Fleet Safety in a cycle of continuous improvement as data allows accurate measurement, tracking, and identification of areas where change can be made. To address the data gap, the Fleet Forum has conducted surveys and worked with 11 agencies in Kenya who agreed to record and track fleet safety data. The objective of the fleet safety data collection initiative is to collect, benchmark and report on key data concerning fleet safety metrics. All survey results are reported anonymously, and all participating agencies are provided with a copy of the results.

The eleven organizations reported on 3066 light vehicles, over 6.3 million kilometres driven and 39 accidents. This benchmark shows an APMK (Accident per million kilometres) of 6 and an INPMK (Injuries per million kilometres) of 1. 1,27 % of the all vehicles were involved in an accident to date.

An essential component of the Fleet Forum’s focus on positively impacting humanitarian fleet safety, this data gathering exercise is an initial step in the process of establishing valuable benchmarks for the community. Both quantitative and qualitative data was gathered, resulting in notable headway towards institutionalising data collection and analysis.