Alconbury Driving Centre Blog

SAFED Training for Luminus Employees

15 Feb 2012 | No Comments | posted by admin | in Blog

Luminus Drives the Way Forward

Fifty tradesmen from Luminus Group have passed the Safe and Fuel Efficient Driving (SAFED) training programme with flying colours. Completing the SAFED driver training course is especially important as Luminus deals with more than 30,000 customers and 7,000 homes with a commitment to the highest quality customer care. Luminus has a substantial fleet of different types of vehicles and ninety-six drivers working within and serving residents of the local community. The remainder of the drivers will have been trained by the end of July.

Luminus also has an environmental policy, which considers how to reduce the environmental impact of all activities, and investigates and adopts examples of environmental best practice wherever possible.
By going through the SAFED driver training course Luminus tradesmen learn how to drive more safely, with less stress and a greater degree of fuel efficiency.

The benefits of the course for Luminus are lower costs, reduced carbon dioxide emissions and improved environmental performance. Many of the tradesmen have noticed a positive difference when driving their own cars too.

Training was well received by all, with a number of positive comments made after the training, such as,

“I found the advice from the trainer was very useful, I was surprised at how much difference was made to the fuel consumption by making just a few changes to the way I drove. I will be using this advice when I am driving my own car,”

and

“It is nearly 40 years since I passed my driving test and obviously over that time I had picked up one or two bad habits so I found it useful to have a refresher like this.”

 

Chan Abraham, Luminus Group Chief Executive said,

“Luminus has a commitment to excellence in every aspect of our organisation. By including the SAFED training in Luminus’ excellent driver training programme, we create an ideal opportunity to minimise our environmental impact, reduce our road risk and increase the professionalism of our drivers.”

Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) play an important role in the country’s economy with activity in the United Kingdom in 2003 accounting for some 58 billion combined kilometres. Over 90% of this distance was in connection with the collection and delivery of goods, travel between home and workplace or journeys between jobs.

 

About SAFED

SAFED has been designed as a single-day course aimed at improving the safe and fuel-efficient driving techniques of drivers of vans up to 7.5 tonnes.

It was developed from a pilot programme carried out in November 2005. This pilot showed that improved driving skills can reduce fuel use by over 8% and the number of gear changes by over 50%. This improved driving style is expected to reduce driver stress and the number of accidents.

Safer driving means:
• Fewer injuries and fatalities on our roads
• Less accident damage to vehicles
• Less unproductive downtime for vehicle repair
• The potential for reduced insurance premiums

Fuel efficiency means:
• Lower costs
• Improved profit margins
• Reduced emissions
• Improved environmental performance

Where operators actively monitor and manage the fuel used by vehicles a fleet’s fuel consumption can typically be reduced by 10%, with an equivalent cost saving. Use of safe and fuel-efficient driving techniques as part of fuel management will make a major contribution to this fuel saving.

About Luminus Group

Luminus Group is widely known for inspirational leadership and innovation in housing services delivery. Seen by many as one the most progressive businesses in the UK, Luminus leads the way in socially responsible business in eastern England, focusing on providing homes, employment and real estate services, building sustainable communities and energising hope for life’s best – today and for future generations.

Luminus prides itself on being an enthusiastic pioneer of innovative, independently financed schemes for high quality affordable housing that give people of all ages and backgrounds choice to rent or buy.

Strategically positioned in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, one of the UK’s fastest growing areas, Luminus provides homes for over 30,000 people, and is growing.