Total E&P Qatar and Karwa Transport and Training Development Centre (KTTDC) are collaborating on a key road safety programme, focusing on accident reduction and employee safety.
As part of its Safety Culture programme, the French oil and gas major held a full day defensive driving training course for its employees. The course, which was attended by many of the company’s local, expatriate and contracted employees and their families.
Defensive driving utilises safe driving strategies to enable motorists to address identified hazards in a predictable manner. These strategies go well beyond instruction on basic traffic laws and procedures.
The participants of the course were taught how to reduce their driving risks by anticipating situations and making safe well-informed decisions. In the classroom sessions, they were taught the proper seating positions, ways to avoid obstacles, and technologies such as ABS, and safety tips.
Several topics were also covered in the practical course sessions such as slaloming, obstacle avoidance, steering during emergency brake and practice driving session in industrial area.
Total said it has committed itself to safety as a top priority, regularly organising practice sessions in co-ordination with its stakeholders.
The French company signed a two-year contract with Karwa Transport and Training Development Centre to offer training to its employees on high quality driving skills. The training centre, which is operated by Mowasalat, is preferred by Total due to its dynamic approach to teaching safe driving, and high focus on occupational safety.
Yousef al-Jaber, a Total employee who signed up for the defensive driving course said: “Even with 10 years driving experience in Qatar, I found this training very helpful and informative.
Total E&P Qatar managing director Stephane Michel said: “At Total, attention to health and safety is a top priority, and that includes safety at home, work and on the road. That is why we organised this defensive driving course, to enable our employees to get training on good defensive driving skills, and arming them with invaluable tools to keep themselves safe behind the wheel. They were coached on how to adequately identify hazards in any scenario and taught defensive driving skills so they can stay focused, alert and most importantly, safe, when they are on the road.”