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Driver training

TRAINING WOMEN TRUCK DRIVERS FOR CHANGE : PHIONA KIBERU’S STORY

At Safe Way Right Way, our efforts are directed towards nurturing road safety cautious professional drivers generation with clinical regard to gender equality in the transport sector.

In an industry greatly dominated by male drivers, Safe Way Right Way has amplified women driver skills by offering free professional driver training to women drivers in Heavy Goods Vehicles and Buses, at our Mukono Professional Driver Training Centre.

Today, we bring to your Ms.Kiberu Phiona, a beneficiary of the above named facility and how it has catapulted her to considerable career heights to rank just among the best that there is.

Background

Ms. Kiberu Phiona, a 45-year-old mother of 2 with now over 15 years’ experience in the driving profession was one of our beneficiary students in our 2021 driver training cohort.

In a 2021 interview with the Training Centre Manager of the Safe Way Right Way Professional Driver Training School, Mr. Isaiah Ngabirano, Ms. Kiberu retorted that  she developed a love for driving from a young age and admired people that used to drive.  Against all odds, she was aggressively deliberate about turning driving into her career, She said, “For a long time, I have always wanted to do men’s jobs and most especially driving”.

Phiona’s dream and its becoming weren’t an offer on a silver platter, she recalled that the community had made her believe that truck driving belongs to men and them alone, but that just turned out to not be true and this is because currently there are fewer men who could stand to be ranked equally as Phiona is. And how is that for a change of the narrative, huh!

Contemporary Times

Phiona Kiberu  had done so many different driving jobs. She was the first Woman to drive Uber in Uganda, and she went ahead to start her own company, Allena tour and travel, albeit truck driving retained a special place in her heart. And when a friend miraculously referred her to Safe Way Right Way, her life and career took a turn.

About her experience with our team at Mukono, Phiona said “Safe Way Right Way has the best instructors in the country, they are very professional and knowledgeable about driving and what drivers go through. This is a rare opportunity for all the women out there and they should take part in this”

Ms.Kiberu has since joined the transportation department at Hima Cement (La Farge ) group Uganda where she has risen through the ranks to become a top performing woman driver at the entity. She cautiously, efficiently and professionally drives Heavy Goods vehicles for hundreds of kilometres as her contribution to her employer and to the country at large.

Phiona has been awarded by Hima Cement (Larfarge Group) as the best female truck driver at the company. Safe Way Right Way too, was awarded in recognition for championing the Women on Wheels that has nurtured female drivers in the developing Ugandan Market.

All in All.

You too, can realise your dream! Be sure to get in touch with the Safe Way Right Way  Professional Driver Training School-Mukono. 

Safe Way Right Way is committed to the professionalising of driving in Uganda and in the region at large through providing quality training based on the East African Standardised Curriculum.

This training is made possible by Safe Way Right Way and its private sector partners, TotalEnergies MS Uganda Ltd, Total E&P Uganda Ltd CFAO Motors, AGL, GP Advocates,The Motor Center East Africa , Reef Industries.

 

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Professional Driver Training Uganda (PDTU)

The Professional Driver Training Uganda (PDTU) Project by Safe Way Right Way (SWRW)
is here to see to it that you benefit the most from your driving career while keeping other road
users simultaneously safe. This project which commenced in 2017 has hitherto aimed at
building capacity for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) and Passenger Service Vehicles drivers
through subsidised HGV Driving Training.


Safe Way Right Way (SWRW) through this project seeks to both nurture a unique generation
of road safety cautious professional drivers ready to tap into the Professional commercial
Driving market in the oil and gas infrastructure projects that will be the result of oil extraction
in the Albertine region by 2025.


Our training ranges from Medium Trick driving (C), Heavy Truck Driving (CE) and Bus
Driving (DE) licences under the strict observance of the East African Community
Standardised Curriculum. All this action takes place from our spacious and well equipped
training School at Mukono.


SWRW is (has been) very keen to change the narrative in the transportation industry by
empowering women drivers as a measure for implementing gender inclusivity. We have so
far trained a total number of 1551 drivers out of which 131 are women. There is a record of
success stories and testimonies to the amplification that this training has had on several
Drivers’ careers.


This, therefore, is a clarion call to the drivers interested in Heavy Goods Vehicle Training to
secure their admission into one of our intake so that you get to be part of a Road Safety
cautious generation that is being prepared to be the drivers of the region into prosperity.
For more information, please contact 256-702-745-745 or reach us through any of our social media
channels.

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Empowering Women Through Professional Driver Training, Here Is Annet Tuhirirwe’s Story.

Professional Driver Training Uganda (PDTU), a project under Safe Way Right Way is working towards bridging the gender inequality gap and to encourage women to sign up for Heavy Goods Vehicle Driver Training. Safe Way Right Way has as such offered the training of women drivers for free but this is only for a limited period of time. This has attracted very passionate and committed women like Annet Tuhirirwe.


Annet Tuhirirwe is a 38-year-old mother of one. She is very passionate about transport and also very adventurous; always ready to try something new whenever the chance presents itself. “Whatever comes along I will always give it a try and so I thought why not give professional driving a try” Annet has worked in various jobs over the years and she describes herself as a versatile person always ready to take up a new challenge.


“I found out about PDTU from my brother who had completed his training at the facility. When he got to know of the offer that was being given to women, and he asked if I would be interested”, Annet says her family was very supportive when she informed them of her decision to start the training. She then visited the driver training center in Mukono where she was assessed and enrolled to begin her training in driving Heavy Good Vehicles in April 2019.


During the four weeks training course, Annet learnt so much about safe driving which she had not learnt in her initial driver training. She says “it was a fresh experience for me. I managed to learn more about driving, the instructors were very professional and friendly. They always highlighted the possible outcomes of any error done while driving. They taught with a lot of passion, often sharing their personal experiences since they have been in the industry longer”.


Annet now holds a CM driving permit and is looking for jobs where she can drive CM trucks. She says she is patient and she knows that the job will eventually come through.


Annet says Safe Way Right Way’s initiative of giving women free training is a good one and she hopes that other women can take her example and join the training because it will upgrade their driving skills and boost their chances for gaining better employment. She however says that women fail to join the training because they are afraid of big trucks and most of them consider professional driving as a job for men. Annet says that companies should also look at competence and stop focusing on the gender as this reduces the chances of women getting Jobs.


Safe Way Right Way is committed to improving road a safety in Uganda and driver training is one of the ways that this will be achieved therefore would like to encourage men and women who may be interested to drive Heavy Good Vehicles to sign up for this training which is based on the Standardised EAC curriculum.

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From a Secondary School teacher to a Master Driver Trainer, here is Andrew Ssejjemba’s story.

Andrew Ssejjemba is a 54-year-old father of four, teacher by profession and one of the two master trainers at Safe Way Right Way’s project, Professional Driver Training Uganda (PDTU). Until a few years ago, Andrew was driving a van, making deliveries to complement his teaching job. He later graduated to truck driving while continuing to teach. Eventually he was recruited as a full time bus driver and decided to commit himself fully to a career in professional driving. From his experiences on the road, Andrew’s concern for road safety continued to grow as the roads became more dangerous. At the time of despair, an advert came in from Safe Way Right Way looking for good drivers who could be trained to become driving instructors; right there he knew that was his opportunity if he was ever to contribute to safe driving in the country.  With support from his family, he decided to apply to be trained so as he can train other drivers.

Safe Way Right Way’s Professional Driver Training Uganda (PDTU) Project aims to improve standards in Uganda for drivers of trucks and buses, improving driver behavior and making Uganda’s roads safer places for all road users.

In May 2017, Andrew started training as a trainer for the PDTU. Despite his 53 km journey to the training centre in Mukono every day, and the long days, Andrew persisted and made use of the skills he had developed as a teacher. “I stay far away from Mukono where the facility is but because I knew this training was very important to me and my family, I persisted with travelling the long distance every day to come and do the training, and right now it’s worth it”.

   “People from my old job had doubted me and some of them had discouraged me from taking up a career as a professional driver since I already had my job as a teacher but they have now realised that I am doing what I love and it makes me happy and comfortable”.

Andrew taught his first intake of students in February 2018 and has since had a hand in training approximately 150 drivers in Uganda.  

 “I do enjoy training drivers because I play a part in changing their lives. Several of the drivers I’ve taught didn’t have jobs before and now they do, so I’ve helped improve their lives”.

PDTU also aims to train master trainers so that the capacity to deliver further training of trainers exists in Uganda as and when demand requires it. As one of the best performing trainers, Andrew agreed to undergo additional training to become a master trainer.  

“The best I can do is train as many trainers as possible so I can make more of an impact… We will get there in the end as a team”.

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