City fleet drivers show postive change behaviour
01 December 2024
City of Cape Town fleet drivers who are implementing golden rules of smart driving and improving their driving behaviour, after receiving training, were recently awarded commendation certificates during the City’s Smart Driver of the Year award ceremony hosted at the Smart Living Education Centre in Green Point. The overall winner, Mawande Zizi, from the Water and Sanitation Directorate, received the winner trophy in recognition of this achievement.
This Smart Driver Programme is a transversal City programme, and mandatory training for all City fleet touch key drivers across all directorates. The Environmental Management Department from the Spatial Planning and Environment (SPE) Directorate in partnership with the Fleet Management Department of the Corporate Services Directorate lead the programme.
‘The challenge of the Smart Driver training programme is to demonstrate that by improving driving skills you can ensure savings.
‘We monitor the City fleet drivers three months before they attended the training and then for 18 months after the training and we are already seeing significant savings,’ said the City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews.
The City’s Smart Driver Training Programme focuses on:
• City fleet (touch key) drivers
• Refresher training for fleet drivers involved in accidents
• Managing risk in transport operations training for managers, supervisors and operators focusing on liabilities
• MyCiTi and Dial-a-Ride bus drivers and
• Advanced Smart Driver Skidpan training for response vehicle drivers. As for City fleet drivers that are involved in emergency response and pursuit driving, we have trained 735 response vehicle drivers so far with the majority from the Directorate for Safety and Security and some of the VIP unit.
‘Between January 2018 and June 2024, the Smart Driver Programme trained 11 189 city fleet drivers and saved the City over R3 million in petrol and diesel costs. This is a saving of 621 108 litres of fuel and 1 769 ton reduction of COs emmissions. This training provides staff with reasons why it is important to change driving habits, mindsets and driving styles,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committtee for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.
The awards were first hosted in January 2018. This year’s categories are as follows:
• Top 10 performing drivers in Safety and Security
• Top 10 performing drivers in other departments
• Top 10 for fuel efficient and CO2 emission reduction
The top performers in these categories were:
• Emergency Top Driver: Alungile Ngudle, Safety and Security Directorate, Public Safety Department
• Non-emergency Top Driver: Mawande Zizi, Water and Sanitation Department, Technical Services Department
• Top Fuel Saver Driver: Edward Diedericks, Safety and Security Directorate, Public Safety Department
The Overall Winner: Mawande Zizi from the Water and Sanitation Directorate, Technical Services Department received the winner trophy in recognition of this achievement.
High resolution photographs are available here.
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
