An academic partnership has launched a new online educational road safety training programme.

The ‘Road Safety at Work: Online Course for Managers’ is designed to give managers and businesses the skills needed to deliver and sustain a robust road safety management strategy. 

The programme has been developed by the Eastern Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Transport (EASST) together with UK’s Cranfield University and IRU Academy.

Globally there are 1.25 million deaths each year related to road traffic crashes. With one in three road accidents taking place when people are driving for work purposes, reducing the risk of commercial vehicles and public transport globally could play a very significant role in cutting road fatalities and achieving the targets of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020. Evidence has shown that businesses that adopt a thorough approach to driver safety can also benefit from reduced insurance, less damage to vehicles and goods, better staff retention and a significant reduction in working time lost through accidents.

Patrick Philipp, head, IRU Academy said: “We are excited about the first universal digital training course in the field of managing fleet safety and are confident that this course will offer managers with key knowledge necessary to instill a culture of road safety awareness in their organisations.”

He added: “This course compliments the portfolio of IRU Academy road safety driven programmes such as Crash Prevention aimed at commercial drivers.”

The course is accessible online 24/7, is affordable and has no geographical boundaries. Through a series of 10 video lectures, quizzes and reading materials, the course uses real-life examples and case studies to give those who manage road safety at work the competencies and skills they need to safely manage a fleet of vehicles - awarding them at the end with an accredited certificate of completion.

Dmitry Sambuk, managing director at EASST Academy said: “We at EASST believe that road safety training and education are extremely important. This new online course produced together with Cranfield University and IRU Academy will have the advantage of being low cost and yet enable fleet and transport managers across the world to acquire competencies in the basic skills of managing a fleet of vehicles more safely and efficiently.”