5 January 2016
A UK Operations Manager has begun a three month secondment to Transaid’s Professional Driver Training project in Zambia and is helping the charity to improve the quality of training delivered by the programme.
Louise Gunby, who is Operations Manager for the Leeds distribution centre at Yusen Logistics, is on secondment to the Industrial Training Centre (ITC) in Zambia, supporting the centre in its aim to reduce the traffic fatalities in sub-Saharan Africa through professional HGV, PSV and forklift truck training.
Whilst on secondment Louise will be responsible for helping the ITC team standardise training materials, identify areas of improvement in the teaching, scheduling and planning of training activities and processing the project’s data.
“I’m looking forward to the challenge and I hope to make a real difference to the project while I am in Zambia. Sharing the skills and knowledge I’ve built up over my career in logistics with others will be hugely rewarding,” says Louise.
In addition to the day-to-day tasks, Louise will have to contend with Zambia’s power outages – sometimes as little as 5-6 hours of electricity per day – and none of the automated processes that are standard in the UK.
“It’s going to be interesting seeing how they overcome the lack of power but I’m excited to be going back to basics with paper-based and manual systems like we had in the UK at the beginning of my career 27 years ago,” adds Louise.
Neil Rettie, Road Safety Project Manager for Transaid, and who will work alongside Louise during her secondment, says: “We’re grateful to Yusen Logistics for donating their time and expertise to help us develop the project and further enhance the skills of those at the ITC. Louise will be a welcome addition to the team and we would like to thank her in advance for her valuable contribution.”
This is the first time Yusen Logistics has seconded one of its employees to Transaid’s projects since becoming a corporate member in 2014. More recently, the company has participated in the Christmas appeal through designing its own festive card, fundraised during its senior management conference and held a customer golf day in aid of the charity.
For more information and to find out how you can support the charity visit www.transaid.org .
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Note to Editor :
Transaid (www.transaid.org) is an international development organisation that aims to improve people’s quality of life in the developing world by making transport more available and affordable. It was founded by Save the Children and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (UK) and works by sharing skills and knowledge with local people to enable them to put in place and manage efficient transport systems.
Transaid’s core work includes creating transport management systems for the public sector and assisting with the provision of professional driving qualification development and the training of driver trainers. It also assists with teaching preventive vehicle maintenance management and introducing local, low cost transport solutions including its innovative bicycle ambulance. Transaid also helps promote road safety awareness and shares its specialist knowledge with the humanitarian aid sector.
Transaid enjoys strong backing from the transport and logistics industry and the active involvement of its patron, HRH The Princess Royal.
For further press information:
Aggie Krasnolucka-Hickman at Transaid +44 (0)20 7387 8136
Beth Laws or James Keeler at Garnett Keeler +44 (0)20 8647 4467, or by email to beth.laws@garnettkeeler.com or james.keeler@garnettkeeler.com
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