MAN Truck & Bus UK and Britcom send truck and trailer to Transaid 20 July 2010

A refurbished ERF 4x2 tractor unit and ERF 6x4 rigid truck, with service spares, as well as a refurbished tri axle trailer, complete with a 40ft GP container have been donated by MAN and Britcom respectively to Transaid.

Britcom carried out the refurbishment work at its workshop and bodyshop in East Yorkshire. Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics one of the world's leading Ro/Ro carriers serving Southern Africa, is shipping the consignment – due to arrive in Durban on Friday 23 July – free of charge.

The trucks, trailer and container are the third donation to go out to the Zambia Professional Driver Training Project, where the international development charity Transaid is working with the Industrial Training Centre Trust (ITCT) the only national commercial driver training centre in Zambia.

Three trucks and two trailers were shipped in the autumn of 2008 and a forklift in Winter 2009. However, due to a recent change in Zambian law, ITCT could not train on certain types of vehicle until now. With the arrival of the refurbished rigid truck, however, the centre can now train on all classes of vehicle.

The donation of the container is also of special importance as it will allow trainees to practice driving with a load. hitherto, newly licensed drivers could go into a role with no prior experience, but then find themselves driving a full load of steel (52 tons).

Chris Saunders, Transaid's chief executive says that, to date, almost 1000 drivers have been trained and the ITCT now has five driver trainers capable of delivering training to internationally recognised standards. Transaid continues to give input to the centre and is developing a quality assurance scheme, all with continuing help and support from the UK transport and logistics industry.

"We are delighted to receive this latest donation from MAN, Britcom and Wallenius Wilhelmsen. It is of huge value to the project and is helping us raise driver training standards significantly," says Saunders.

"Thanks to the industry's support, the Zambian Road Safety Agency has ruled that anyone applying for an HGV licence must be trained at the ITCT. This is a great step forwards to making sure that truck drivers have the correct knowledge before heading out on the road unaccompanied It will help to further reduce the number of road crashes that occur at an alarming rate," he adds.

Author
Brian Tinham

Related Companies
Britcom International Ltd
MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd

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