Road Safety-Past Activities and Achievements:
The Road Safety Situation in Uganda has increasingly become worrying with 11 people killed on our roads daily according to Uganda Police Traffic Crime Reports and hundreds of thousands seriously injured and disabled resulting from road crashes. The Driving industry remains a largely informal practice with the majority practitioners being semi-illiterate as the majority transitioned from being turn men, conductors, mechanics, and washing bay operators into driving passengers or goods.
The Driver Training situation in Uganda was declared dysfunctional by The 2018 UN Road Safety Performance Review Report with gaps ranging from driver training, testing, licensing, certification and accreditation. There is no licensed training institution for driver trainers in Uganda, leaving the current trainers with no industry standards which translates into having their trained drivers with equally no standards of practice as different schools offer different content for both theory and practical training for their driver trainees.
Besides the Government having a budget for Continuous Professional Development for their employees and as well some private sector organizations; CPD for practising drivers to enable them professionally carryout their assignments and regularly update themselves with emerging issues and best practices in the industry has been generally lacking in Uganda. Global Best Practices demands that practising drivers need regularly undergo refresher training for them to be able to maintain best practices as professional drivers and can contribute to eliminating road crashes while behind their wheels
Existing practising drivers in Uganda besides having learnt informally from peers who had themselves equally learnt informally including the limited opportunity for continuous training have produced drivers who are hazards on our roads and are behind the wheels responsible for killing and disabling our road users
Despite having several driver operators’ groups and associations in Uganda, they have hardly been involved in Government and private sector-led efforts to reducing deaths and serious injuries on our roads as most of these groups continued to struggle with the capacity to effectively influence and participate in these processes. This is unfortunate because the drivers are the ones behind the wheel killing and physically disabling Ugandans and their lack of or very minimal meaningful involvement in the process of improving road safety in Uganda is the reason we keep on seeing increasing rather than decreasing number of road crashes in the country.
In 2019, UPDN in a consortium of SWRW and UDSA (only licensed Heavy Goods’ Vehicle driver training schools at the time); with funding from World Bank through PSFU-SDF-we were able to build in-country capacity of HGV driver training in Uganda in anticipation of need for professional truck drivers for the oil and gas sector in Uganda. Using this grant, we were able to procure two training trucks for the 2 driving schools above, trained and certified 3 HGV driver trainers, refreshed and certified 275 HGV drivers in Uganda and procured The UPDN Mobile driver database currently hosted on Google Play Store accessible both on android and web helping in managing existing driver training data in the country while offering a platform for linking the trained drivers with prospective employers and giving employers a platform from which to pick drivers whom due diligence have been performed on
UPDN is tirelessly working on ensuring the current UPDN App. is upgraded to have all practicing commercial/professional drivers in both public and private practice are registered on this platform for a one stop data source for due diligence of practicing commercial/professional drivers in Uganda. Besides this, the App. in the near future is intended to support ease access by users to Road Safety, Driver Health and Livelihood information, services, materials and products using the digital platform. The goal of the UPDN App is to strengthen Government and private sector regulations of commercial/professional drivers in the country using regularly updated data on training and work performance besides offering a platform to easily reach the driving community by both Government and the private sector road transport players.
Advocacy for Road safety
Coordinating and organizing participation of drivers, driving schools, driver employers, Government and road transport stakeholders in commemoration of The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims in Uganda since 2019 in partnership with Inter-Religious Council of Uganda, UNRA, KCCA, SWRW and The Ministry of Works and Transport.
- Enabled us to advocate to the Minister for Kampala; Madam Beti Kamya to consider having boda boda operations regulated in Kampala as it was the highest category of road user recording death and serious injuries across the country. The function also enabled us to advocate for an increased number of KCCA ambulances to effectively manage post-crash response for victims within Kampala metropolitan as most of the time the victims were transported on police pickups which led to deaths of many victims between the crash scene and medical facilities since the pickups could hardly help head injury victims common with motorcyclists and their passengers
- Enabled us to advocate for Government to improve post-crash response in 2019 that saw an increase in ambulance service in the country with the is the in percentage of victims reaching health facilities from then 7% to 11 % by 2021
- DOR Commemoration enabled us to influence the Government process of the Traffic Act amendment 2020 and introduced the the PrDP, good Samaritan law for first responders to crash victims, systematic organizing for transport operators, Demerit systems for drivers, regulations for driver training schools, etc.
- In 2020, the event attendees were able to make a collection that was given to 2 traffic crash victims who were at the time one in wheelchair and another using clutches but both were not working at the time
- 2021 we used the activity to influence Government’s move to regulate the boda boda operations that introduced a requirement for training for all operators. Same year enabled us to influence The Minister for Works and Transport Gen. Katumba Wamala (who was the chief guest) to fast track development of regulations to operationalize the 2020 Amended Traffic and Road Safety Act. The same function enabled us advocate for the Ministry of Transport to ensure there were stringent regulations on the key risk factors; Speed, helmet, child restraints, seatbelts and alcohol.
The National Drivers’ Conference since 2021 in partnership with The Private Sector Foundation Uganda; bringing together over 400 practicing commercial informal and corporate drivers, transport managers, transporters, driving schools, driver trainers, road safety experts, and other stakeholders annually to dialogue on road safety
- The event has enabled us to improve drivers’ attitude and performance for now 1,479 who have participated through the years. None of them have recorded an incident and they have been able to retain their jobs as professional drivers at their different work places. Their supervisors have reported improved efficiency and professionalism in the way participants to the conference are performing that have reduced the costs of their fleet management over time
- The Transport Stakeholders’ Awards that is incorporated into the conference has promoted health and positive competition among practicing drivers and related stakeholders to observing professional ethics in order for them to annually emerge as best practitioners during the yearly awards ceremony that climaxes the conference
- In 2022, we were able to influence Government through the Minister for Works and Transport; Gen. Katumba Wamala to consider ring fencing professional driver jobs in the anticipated oil and gas sector
Worked with Government of Uganda to develop and implement several road transport legal documents and programs. Among key documents are;
- The Traffic and Road Safety Act Amended 2020
- Goods Vehicles and Drivers’ Regulations 2019
- Update of the High Way Code
- Development of Regulations as The Demerit Systems
- Review and update of regulations on key risk factors; Alcohol, Seat Belts, Child Restraints and Helmets among others including
- Participated in the Technical Committee that developed the Recent National Road Safety Action Plan 2021/2022-2025/2026
- Reached over 80,000 drivers with Behavioral Change Communication materials and information on road safety through our social media campaigns and communication
Coordinating and Organizing community dialogues and events on road safety since 2018
- Coordinated consultation meetings for drivers’ Associations and driving schools on proposed road safety laws and policies by The Ministry of Works and Transport. So far coordinated 39 user community workshops in regards to road safety
- Coordinated drivers’ work place meetings with drivers and their fleet managers/supervisors which have influenced 19 employers introduce modern methods and policies for fleet management that upholds and promotes safety of drivers, company/institution employees, vehicles and other road users
Capacity Building for Road Safety
- Capacity Building trainings and engagements for Drivers’ Organizations in implementing road safety activities targeting their members-Currently coordinating 27 Drivers Associations in Uganda
- 100 trained peer mentors/educators supporting community led activities in Road Safety.
- All the Drivers’ Associations working with UPDN have incorporated Road Safety among their programs and activities including adoption of WhatsApp platforms to regularly engage their members on road safety
- Offering Continuous Professional Development (post driver education) training programs for practicing (employed) drivers. Trained 4,319 to date in different professional driver competence modules including soft skills
- Supported professional drivers’ capacity building trainings for 38 women drivers in Uganda who have been linked into employment
- Conducted 2 refresher training of trainers for harmonized training/trainers’ standards across member schools.
- Supported training of 3 Driver trainers, currently deployed in 2 professional driver training schools in Uganda
Knowledge Management
- Coordinating Driving schools for Quality Assurance and Standards by collecting and managing trainees data from partner licensed driver training institutes under the Umrella Association of Professional Driving Schools in Uganda coordinated at UPDN.
- Developed and is hosting a Drivers’ mobile Application database to support collection, archiving and management of drivers’ and stakeholders in Uganda. Currently having data of 268,413 practicing drivers’ training background data
- Reached over 80,000 drivers with Behavioral Change Communication materials and information on road safety through our social media campaigns and communication
- Supporting employers in performing due diligence for driver job applicants for especially Oil and Gas Companies like CNOOC, TOTAL and other corporate Companies.
- Working with 29 companies and interviewed 6,017 applicants with 3,214 refreshed and ushered into formal driver employment
Knowledge Management
- Coordinating Driving schools for Quality Assurance and Standards by collecting and managing trainees data from partner licensed driver training institutes under the Umrella Association of Professional Driving Schools in Uganda coordinated at UPDN.
- Developed and is hosting a Drivers’ mobile Application database to support collection, archiving and management of drivers’ and stakeholders in Uganda. Currently having data of 268,413 practicing drivers’ training background data
- Reached over 80,000 drivers with Behavioral Change Communication materials and information on road safety through our social media campaigns and communication
- Supporting employers in performing due diligence for driver job applicants for especially Oil and Gas Companies like CNOOC, TOTAL and other corporate Companies.
- Working with 29 companies and interviewed 6,017 applicants with 3,214 refreshed and ushered into formal driver employment
Networking, Coordination and Partnerships for Road Safety
- Coordinating and working with 27 Drivers’ Associations/Organizations in implementing road safety targeting their members. Offering a platform for interactions among the practicing drivers, driving schools, road safety consultants and stakeholders, driver employers and Government of Uganda with current network of 100 trained peer mentors/educators from different associations/organisations supporting community/work place based activities in Road Safety
- Established a platform that brings together All Drivers’ Associations in their category of Bus, Trucks, Medium Omni-Bus, Taxi and Machine Operators(Earth moving equipment) to attend to and promote issues concerning the driving industry in Uganda
- We have supported coalition building for sector drivers like the formation of Federation of Taxi Associations, Medium Omni-bus and Truck Drivers Associations to foster positive networking within themselves other than fighting each other based on the small differences within their Associations to be able to effectively influence decisions and activities regarding their operations for the benefit of their members across Uganda
- UPDN Supported and is hosting the Umbrella Association for Professional driving schools’ in Uganda as a means of attaining standards through quality assurance and promoting joint ventures for safer roads in Uganda
- We have a MOU with The Inter-Religious Council of Uganda for joint implementation of World Day of Remembrance for Road Crash Victims in Uganda
- UPDN is currently coordinating all Government and private sector engagements related to practicing drivers. The Secretariat has become a one stop centre for anyone intending to engage with practicing drivers of any category in Uganda
- Working with The Private Sector Foundation Uganda, The Ministry of Works and Transport and other stakeholders to annually bring together practicing drivers from public and private sector at The National Drivers’ Conference and Road Transport Stakeholders’ Awards to discuss and agree on National strategies on improving road safety in Uganda; especially through the driver who is the direct user of our vehicles and roads and behind all the crashes on our roads
- We have engaged several driver employers to considering adopting and practicing best standards in fleet and driver management on behalf of the driving community (operators) and Government in Uganda