Driving Skills for Life

DSFL Training 2015 with Ford’s US trainer

Among foreign automobile manufacturers in Vietnam, Ford Vietnam is one of the companies which has contributed the most to the society, especially in areas of education, environmental sustainability, road safety, health and humanitarian support.

Over the past ten years, in line with the Ford Motor Company’s ‘Better World’ vision, Ford’s employees volunteered to better the life of the less fortunate in the name of the ‘Global Week of Caring’. In this program, each employee across the world has given their time and effort in a week-long display of caring. Ford Global Week of Caring is celebrating ten years of building a better world. In 2015, Ford designated all of September to caring for others, turning the Global Week of Caring into Ford Global Caring Month. This was an opportunity to create more projects, help more people and strengthen more communities. In 2015, Ford employees completed more than 9,000 volunteer projects in more than 40 countries, and invested more than 1 million hours of their time to helping others.

“As one of the leading automotive brands in Vietnam, our vision is making people’s lives better through automotive and mobility leadership. We don’t just build cars at Ford, we’re working to encourage safe driving habits, introduce educational innovations and much more, adding value to the growth of the Vietnamese community,” said Pham Van Dung, managing director of Ford Vietnam.

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Ford Vietnam’s general director granted Top 3 prizes for “Do not drive after drinking alcohol” drawing contest

Importantly, Ford Vietnam also takes a lead role in road safety issues, with activities such as building a Safety Village for primary school pupils; providing helmets for school pupils; educating school pupils on traffic safety; organising training courses about first aid for taxi drivers; and donating Ford ambulance minibuses to the Red Cross.

The company is now in its eighth year of the successful Driving Skills for Life program (DSFL) in Vietnam which is run with its road safety partners including National Traffic Safety Committee Vietnam and Asia Injury Prevention Foundation.

“DSFL is tailored to reflect the local driving environment and road conditions with a variety of practical training sessions updated annually. Although our trainees may not become an expert right away after a DSFL training session, we do hope that together we could improve the awareness and attitude on road safety and our drivers would make the best decisions for their and others’ safety,” said Pham Van Dung.

Reducing the number of traffic fatalities and injuries remains the key mission for Ford’s global Driving Skills For Life campaign across the company’s global markets. The program has utilised online, classroom and practical training to enhance the learning of more than 500,000 drivers of all ages.In Vietnam, the programme has trained a total of 1,630 drivers nationwide, exceeding the target of 1,500.

In addition to safe and fuel efficient driving techniques, Ford began running the No Honking campaign in 2013 under the DSFL umbrella, in support of Vietnam’s Safety Traffic Year 2012. The campaign is designed to raise awareness about the prevalent and inappropriate use of vehicle horns in Vietnam and its adverse effects on road safety. After three years of activites, there are more than 35,000 followers of Ford’s No Honking Facebook page.

In 2015, the manufacturer extended the scale of the campaign with the ‘Do not drive after drinking alcohol’ drawing contest to promote an old but serious problem. This campaign is also part of Ford’s strategic cooperation with the National Traffic Safety Committee.

The drink-driving alcohol drawing contest of Ford raises the awareness of drivers who drink by creative means such as cartoons.

From December 8, 2015 to January 16, 2016 the first stage of the five-year campaign saw the engagement of nearly 40,000 people on the campaign’s Facebook page. Nearly 200 artworks by 141 amateur artists were entered to highlight the key campaign message.