1 February 2024, Geneva, Switzerland – UNITAR is pleased to collaborate with Together for Safer Roads (TSR) to deliver joint training specifically designed to empower and improve safety systems for small to mid-size fleets, taking the best practices of the largest fleets and leading road safety technology companies, and distilling this information into a comprehensive fleet safety programme structured around three key pillars: Safety Leadership; Training and Development, and Technology.

Peter Goldwasser, Executive Director of TSR, highlighted:

We look forward to this unique opportunity to partner with UNITAR and the larger international community, learning from their deep expertise and broad networks and ultimately helping to improve fleet safety in scalable, measurable, and effective ways.

Ensuring regulation of driving times and conditions for professional drivers, as well as training of drivers and companies that manage fleets is critical for the prevention of crashes, injuries and deaths. In this line, UNITAR signed a collaborative agreement with TSR to offer training on fleet safety, bringing lessons learned and good practices from various stakeholders including cities and companies operating fleets around the world.

Road traffic injuries are an important development challenge. Progress has been made in different regions of the world but still, there were an estimated 1.19 million road traffic deaths in 2021 according to the latest status report on Road Safety [1].

The global motor vehicle fleet (including passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles) is currently exceeding 2 billion vehicles and is likely to reach 3.5 billion by 2031 [2]. Companies, organizations, and governments own and manage vehicles. In some cases, city governments manage the largest fleets in a country. Such is the case of the City of New York managing the nation’s largest municipal fleet, with over 30,000 vehicles including trucks, school buses and more and over 79,000 drivers. Similarly, organizations like the United Nations operate vehicles in the field. Companies operate fleets to deliver products and dangerous goods across the globe. 

Considering the importance of the global automotive market and that a key component of the Safe Systems Approach is Safe Vehicles, legislation, policies and strategies related to promoting safer vehicles are essential in improving road safety globally. 

In contributing to safe vehicles with an emphasis on passenger/cargo vans, heavy-duty vehicles and trucks, technology and training play a key role. Telematics systems for example provide real-time data about how vehicles are driven and can send alerts on speeding, lack of use of seatbelts and others. Training of professional drivers and appropriate technologies are also essential in improving vehicle safety and reducing traffic crashes.