admin Entrusting one’s personal safety while being driven by a driver/chauffeur cannot be left to mere luck alone, executives should prioritize certain qualities that can minimize risks and ensure a safe driving experience when hiring drivers. These qualities include a good temperament, neatness, good habits, character, and minimum qualification of a school certificate.
Speaking exclusively to Crude Reports Magazine, the Chief Executive Officer of Providence Driving and Safety Consultancy, Mr. Lekan Morakinyo, shared his vast expertise on driver qualities that are most important to look out for when hiring drivers.
A former Corps Commander and Head of Administration and Human Resources, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), from where he served meritoriously and retired after 35 years, explained that the most common mistakes executives make when hiring drivers is the failure “To take into consideration the personality and psychological frames of mind of the driver; getting background information and pedigree of the driver; not testing them for drugs or other psychoactives via medicals; and not subjecting the driver to medical eye tests.”
On what inspired him to start Providence Driving and Safety Consultancy, the award winning road safety expert explained that his years in the service of the Federal Road Safety Corps were the prime motivation. Adding that another factor was “The necessity to continue to contribute one way or the other to minimizing or possibly eradicating road traffic crashes and the attendant loss of lives and property.” He also has a strong need to improve the driving culture in our clime, since vehicles form a major part of our transportation. After observing that issues arise on the roads and among motorists due to inadequate knowledge and unguided behaviors on the highway, which in most cases ended in fatality, injury, loss of bread winners, causing misery and trauma with ripple effects on family systems, economy and all.
The road safety expert added that the experiences he had been privileged to have had while working at FRSC, the various training programs he had attended, must not only be consigned to himself alone, but to be shared with others in order to create a better and safe motoring environment.
Asked how a company can effectively assess a driver’s skills and experience during the hiring process, the author of the book The Nigerian Road User: His Rights, Duties, and Liabilities, Mr. Morakinyo, emphasized the need to conduct driving tests, lean on certain check lists, request for evidence of past driving experience, ask for the year of acquisition of driver’s license and the history of any mishap, crashes or brushes with the law in the course of driving.
Regarding the training program executives should prioritize for their drivers, Mr. Morakinyo advised that it is important to have a general driver’s improvement course which comes with other topics that are germane to making drivers more worthy and competent and which will impact positively on the organization, both in terms of manpower and equipment and properties.
The CEO assured that Providence Driving and Safety Consultancy has a total package in its driver training courses. These Include: Drivers Training; Drivers Improvement courses; Drivers Recruitment procession; courses on security and convoy driving; Drivers Ethical behavioural attitudes; SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat) of your drivers (for the executives directors, and other high fliers that engage drivers to drive them); Fleet management; Training of fleet managers (for companies and organizations that have not less than five vehicles); Fleet management courses; courses on Road transport safety standardization scheme; Training of Road users on Safety measures on the Highways; Training of vulnerable road users; vehicle maintenance course; facilitating procurement of drivers licenses for company and organizations drivers, en mass; courses on Road Traffic crash litigation; consultancy on establishments of Driving School; Consultancy on dissecting the psychology of your driver (for executives and directors, and VIPs) Courses on transportation of dangerous goods (oil, gas and other corrosives).
Mr. Lekan Morakinyo
Providence Driving and Safety Consultancy Ltd.,
No. 4, Anifowose Avenue, zone 6, Osogbo
08060763141, 08055205325
By our Reporter
