Grab, Southeast Asia’s (SEA) leading transport app, recently formed separate partnerships with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and Honda Philippines to promote road safety awareness and knowledge among Grab fleet drivers.

“It is important to bring together stakeholders for a comprehensive intervention on road accidents, which are a major but neglected public health problem,” said Grab Philippines’ Country Head Brian Cu. “Road traffic crashes are the second leading cause of injury death in the Philippines while, in SEA, there are 101,873 road casualties recorded annually.”

Grab-IFRC MOU Signing: Grab and IFRC team behind the regional plans to promote road safety in Southeast Asia. (Third from left to fourth from right) Mr. Lim Kell Jay, Head of Grab Singapore, Xavier Castellanos, Regional Director of IFRC, Mr Benjamin William, Secretary-General/CEO of SRC and Mr Anthony Tan, CEO & Co-Founder of Grab.

The one-year partnership with IFRC, which is part of a broader regional collaboration, will equip over 270,000 Grab drivers with life-saving skills and road safety techniques. At the same time, it will tap Grab’s call center agents as a first-responder network during disaster and emergency situations. After completion of the trainings, Grab drivers and call center representatives will be certified with IFRC safety certifications.

The partnership also entails promoting a progressive road safety education in SEA, with Grab undertaking the role as official transportation partner to distribute road safety education materials and simple life-saving messages to passengers.

In a separate announcement, Grab Philippines has also launched the Grab Driver Academy in partnership with the Honda Safety Driving Center. The pioneering road education program aims to periodically up-skill Grab drivers in customer service and safety driving, by training them in essential yet practical techniques on efficiency driving and proper risk management while on the road.

Just recently, Grab and Honda held a 3-day training workshop for GrabTaxi drivers from Manila, Baguio, Bacolod, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu and Davao.

“Road safety is a multi-sectoral challenge as such all sectors need to be engaged in the advocacy for road crash injury prevention. Eventually, road accidents should no longer be seen as an unpredictable outcome of road transport. We’re continuously working with different stakeholders to provide safe and reliable transportation,” Cu said.