Road Safety Authorities across the globe have recognized the importance of public private partnerships to make roads safer. To make our roads safer we cannot merely rely on a policy document from governments and transport departments. It requires cooperation between government, corporates and individuals with a variety of skills and specific expertise!
One of these Campaigns with a very direct and highly visible impact has been the Imperial I-Pledge Campaign. Imperial has been able to not only fund specific worthy projects, but also to contribute with managerial expertise to ensure that specific projects are well executed and the impact thereof meticulously evaluated.
The Arrive Alive website has been able to share many highlights on activities from this Campaign and decided to go behind the scenes with a Q&A with Niki Cronje from Imperial i-Pledge to enquire more about the history and objectives of this Campaign
Q1. How long have you been at Imperial and the I-Pledge initiative?
I entered the motor industry in May 2011 when I was recruited to implement the road safety campaign at IMPERIAL, which is what is today known as I-Pledge.
Q2. How would you best describe the objective of the Imperial I-Pledge Initiative?
IMPERIAL I-Pledge’s road safety philosophy is “safer roads start with you - encouraging each individual to take responsibility for their actions on the roads. We are all road users; we all share the roads whether you are a pedestrian, cyclist, motorist, or a commuter. It is also about seeing other road users from a different perspective so that the person behind the wheel or the person crossing the road is somebody’s mother, daughter, sister, aunt or cousin.
Of course, there are so many campaigns that warn us about the consequences of driving dangerously yet we all take chances without even thinking. We have developed so many bad habits – from driving over the speed limit and texting while driving to not using the road at pedestrian crossings. The campaign encourages people to take the pledge online at www.ipledge.co.za and commit to road safety by choosing a pledge they would like to commit to or compiling their own.
The campaign also goes further than this by focusing on grass root level road safety education – teaching children and learners the rules of the road as well as the importance of following these rules everyday.
Q3. What are the major focus areas of the initiative – and why has Imperial decided on these areas to focus on?
Three of the major focuses include the Scholar Patrol Project, Car Seats for Kids and Concessionaires campaign.
Imperial I-Pledge has made a difference and has changed the lives of thousands of school children through our scholar patrol improvement project. At the rate of 20 schools a month, not only are we re-implementing scholar patrol in schools but through this, we are teaching both the learners and educators the basics of scholar patrol as well as kitting out the scholar patrol team with visibility bibs and peaks, and refurbishing the zebra- crossings. The children are encouraged to have fun while learning about buckling up and making the back seat their “docking station”. We have already reached 360 schools to date and over 200 000 learners.
Another project close to my heart is the “Car Seat for Kids” campaign. Every year in October, for Transport month, Imperial I-Pledge partner with 94.7 Highveld Stereo’s breakfast team and Wheel Well in order to collect used car seats that are then re-furbished and are given out to people that cannot afford them, for a small donation, and to date we have managed to collect over 2000 seats.
IMPERIAL through its Europcar business also sponsors vehicles to both the N3TC (N3 Toll Concession) and N1N4 Bakwena over the busy April and festive holiday seasons where they act as a support for route surveillance and post crash care and assistance. The hope is that these vehicles will assist in reducing the high number of road crashes that we experience quite significantly during holiday periods, as well as demonstrate additional law enforcement visibility.
Q4. How do you measure the success of the Imperial road safety initiative?
This is always a difficult thing to measure, but without of course looking directly to the pledges we have received online, I feel that we have certainly made great strides in reaching our objectives of the larger campaign – with a growing base on pledges each month and of course a number of projects that are sustainable and each successful in their own right.
If we speak to the Car Seats for Kids Campaign specifically, there is certainly a big success story that can be told here – one that we at IMPERIAL are very proud of. We partnered with Wheel Well to drive awareness around the use of car seats, as well as to encourage consumers to donate their car seats once they are done with them. Through this partnership and together with 94.7 Highveld Stereo, we started the Car Seats for kids campaign in September 2012 – where we managed to collect 750 car seats through a call to action for the donating of seats.
While it was always meant to be a sustainable campaign over time, given the success of last year’s campaign, we embarked on this project again last year and announced that we would double the target for this year – to collect 1 500 seats over the month of October, as part of Transport Month. This proved to be an easy feat thanks to the phenomenal response from parents and the corporate sector locally, where we reached the set target in the first 3 weeks of the month. A combination of solid media outreach, consistent marketing via 94.7 and numerous internal communications to staff and stakeholders around this initiative resulted in the strong awareness of the campaign and drove the initiative in the aim of reaching our objectives.
The campaign culminated in a roadblock on the 23rd of October, where the Ekhuruleni Police Department assisted us in pulling people over who didn’t have their kids strapped into a seat and ensured that they were not only given a seat but shown how to strap their kids in correctly as well as providing them with background information on the importance of strapping kids in.
Through this project, not only did we collect 1 500 car seats but, we believe, we have also raised the bar in terms of educating consumers around the importance of car seats and buckling up – key to responsible road use and to our objectives as a leader in the transport and logistics industry
Q5. How does Imperial communicate these initiatives with employees to ensure that everyone gains an understanding of the campaigns?
IMPERIAL Holdings launched its I-Pledge road safety campaign internally to staff in July 2011 which aimed to encourage staff to take a pledge to become responsible road users in a number of different areas - where it garnered 25 000 IMPERIAL pledges within the first 5 months. The project was then launched to external stakeholders and the public and today, the I-Pledge campaign boasts nearly 174 0000 pledges across South Africa.
The essence of the campaign was initially underpinned by the premise that safer, roads start with each of us as individuals and has, over the past years, developed into something much larger than merely individual pledges, but rather a fully fledged road safety campaign. The campaign is made up of a number of projects that aim to increase awareness around safe road usage as well as to educate the broader South African market around becoming advocates for positive change in a country that boasts the largest per capita road death rate in the world.
The campaigns and their success are communicated to staff via internal channels as and when there are updates and success to share.
Q6. Is it necessary to evolve and adjust as a campaign from the initial objectives and how is this being done?
Yes – I think it is. This is because we always have to find new and interesting ways to promote the campaign to the public, without it becoming to repetitive or dreary. Keep your eyes open as in the coming months in fact, as IMPERIAL I-Pledge, will be re-shifting our approach to market and elevating the I-Pledge brand, to give it a fresh take and to continue to reiterate the importance of road safety.
Q.7. What have been the most pleasing for you about the Campaign?
Through constant marketing of the I-Pledge campaign via our projects and the larger IMPERIAL brand as well as a solid media outreach we are able to reach a large audience of people, including various organisations, which is very satisfying. We find that there is very little resistance from South Africans when asked/encouraged to take the pledge and people are generally very keen to commit. It would be great to see other corporates encouraging their own staff to take the pledge and drive this campaign through their own businesses too.
Also view:
Imperial I-Pledge and Road Safety
Child restraints and Road Safety
Scholar Patrol and Road Safety
A word of appreciation to Niki Cronje from Imperial I-Pledge