SA Roadlink work on its safety image

Johannesburg - SA Roadlink, South Africa’s leading nation passenger bus operator, has launched groundbreaking bus passenger safety initiatives which will significantly raise the safety bar in the industry.

Allan Reddy, Managing Director of SA Roadlink, says: “We have been operating for over 5 years and in this time have carried over 2-million people more that 30-million kilometres, but safety and how to improve it will always be our first concern.”

We have set up new standards for bus safety that we hope the rest of the industry will follow.

We wanted to make sure all travellers feel safe as possible so we have instituted several new initiatives to give passengers the peace of mind that they are travelling on the service that provides the most vigorous safety standards in the country.

The six key initiatives are:

- All buses to be checked for roadworthiness before each trip and at each halfway stop too. To facilitate this, SA Roadlink has partnered with their bus manufacturer Volvo whose workshops they will use at halfway stops. The company had also employed a new team of in-house fleet mangers to carry out roadworthiness checks. Most bus companies currently only check their buses every 20 000kms.

- Limit bus driver’s time at the wheel to 48 hours per week with a mandatory 12 hour rest period between drives. Currently all SA Roadlink buses have two drivers and each driver drives for periods of 4 hours before he has to change. Driving periods currently vary widely in the industry.

- All drivers to undergo mandatory medical checks before employment with SA Roadlink and further tests each three months. Tests will be carried out for eyesight, illegal drug and alcohol use and other ailments that may impair a driver in any way. All drivers will also now be provided with medical aid, another industry first.

- All drivers have to pass SA’s advanced bus driver training academy Duratech. This is even if drivers have had years of experience already and will ensure new drivers are given the best training in South Africa.

- Each bus will have mandatory brake testing at the start of each round trip. SA Roadlink has purchased a state of the art brake testing machine from Germany called a MAHA for R300 000. The machine will be stationed at SA Roadlink’s Centurion Depot and

- Roaming safety inspectors to carry out spot checks on SA Roadlink buses. These will be a team roving inspectors tasked with carrying out spot checks on vehicles to detect problems as soon as they arise and also to report to management any deviations from safety procedures.

Reddy notes the new safety initiatives will not lead ticket prices to rise.

* And with the Easter break coming up, we are hoping for a safe holiday season.

* We call on all South African road users to respect the laws of the road and not put themselves or anyone else at risk. We can all drive more safely and we hope that all companies involved in the carriage of lives will do all they can to ensure safe passage, says Reddy.