1. ROAD SAFETYIN QATAR’S OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY
In the second of our
series on road safety
in Qatar, TheEDGE
takes a look at how
the hydrocarbon
industry is countering
the economic and
human toll of road
accidents on their
sites and involving
their employees and
vehicles, and how
they are utilising tools
such as defensive
driving courses and
in-vehicle monitoring
systems to do so.
By Miles Masterson
BEHIND
THE WHEEL

2. Evocative artwork from a recent Ras Laffan Road Safety Awareness
campaign on driving with mobile phones. Image courtesy Ras Laffan.
BEHIND
THE WHEEL
TheEDGE82
TAKING ROAD SAFETY SERIOUSLY
the health and safety of its employees, large
multinational and local companies in the
hydrocarbon industry operating in Qatar
understandably have stringent standards
when it comes to road safety. These are even
more necessary when you consider the long
distances travelled annually by the industry’s
commuting employees, as well its trucks, buses
and transport vehicles such as fuel tankers.
According to Safedrive International,
which conducts ‘defensive driving’ tuition
(see sidebar) in Qatar, “motor vehicle
crashes [are] the leading cause of fatalities
within the industry”.
This is based on information taken from
an international database of 2913 million
hours worked in 38 countries and including
operations in 93 countries across the world.
to global levels (see TheEDGE issue 13), this
is especially relevant in Qatar. The country
has a large expatriate community, almost
all exclusively here to work on medium- to
long-term contracts, the majority in the
hydrocarbon industry and more than 60
percent of whom account for road accidents,
injuries and fatalities here. Therefore the
safety of those working in this sector in Qatar
is treated as paramount.
Take Shell, whose approach to road safety
industry treats the issue. Beyond mandatory
defensive driving training, Shell has invested
in decreasing the potential for accidents
and back in May we passed 200 million
kilometres driven,” says Simon Buerk, Shell
communications manager, who adds that this
is the equivalent of driving 5000 times around
the world on the equator.
that project alone, from the onset Shell, in line
with its set of international ‘lifesaving’ criteria,
It took into the account that the company had
tens of thousands of workers commuting seven
kilometres twice daily from Pearl Village in
had hundreds of staff commuting in their own
vehicles from Doha and decided to eliminate
unnecessary journeys wherever possible,
actively managing their transport by providing
buses for all of them.
“For people that are based in Doha who
to travel up to site by bus,” explains Buerk.
“This has saved us 15 million kilometres
that people would have otherwise driven by
themselves in private cars. Most of those
kilometres would have been early in the
morning, or late in the afternoon after a long
day at work, so we think this is a much safer
way to do it.”
Those commuting the shorter distance
company buses, further decreasing the odds of
an accident.
about 13,000 kilometres (kms) a day within
seatbelts in the front and the back and for all the
vehicles that we have, we have an in-vehicle
monitoring system.” (IVMS, see sidebar.)
The savings, in both lives and on equipment,
Buerk reveals, have more than been worth it.
buses, investing in the safety of its employees,
we achieved those 5000 trips around the world
without a single serious injury.”
As per many companies in the industry,
Shell has been involved with further road

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TheEDGE 83
says they are also working with the Ministry
Supreme Council of Education on including
road safety in the education cirriculum. Of
course, Shell is not alone in promoting such
initiatives, and Buerk is quick to point out
that the company is also currently part of a
community outreach programme in northern
Qatar, alongside its peers.
“It is not just us, it is all the end users in
turn extremely focused on improving and
maintaining a high standard of road safety.
“Road Safety campaigns comprise a good
campaigns on monthly basis,” says Ras
In 2010 alone these have included
campaigns on speeding, not driving with
mobile phones and safer bus driving.
“Every campaign consists of more than
all over the city. More than 40 outdoor
signboards are distributed all over Ras
electronic billboards on the main gate and
These initiatives, as well as the city’s
zero-tolerance attitude towards reckless
driving, are clearly paying dividends. As
Bob Coventry, country manager for Qatar
of Safedrive International, who has worked
environment, strict speed limits, observation
of limits, signalling, wearing seatbelts;
there are inspectors out there, as well as Ras
As as a result , explains Coventry, there
the number of people working on site.
THE VALUE OF DEFENSIVE DRIVING
STRATEGIES AND IN-VEHICLE
MONITORING
According to Safedrive International,
analysis conducted in the United Kingdom
(UK) and in South Africa, before and after
defensive driving courses and other
DEFENSIVE DRIVING AND IVMS
A prerequisite for employment in almost all facets of the hydrocarbon industry is the completion
of a ‘defensive driving’ course, which extends to all subcontractors. This is augmented by a
computerised in-vehicle monitoring system (IVMS), installed in industry fleets to ensure that drivers
adhere to defensive driving – legally, safely and economically.
Driving, says Bob Coventry, country manager for Qatar of Safedrive International, is one of the
most dangerous things most human being will ever do, on a par with skydiving for example, and as
companies and individuals, we all need to be more cognisant of that fact.
“We don’t teach people to drive, we teach people with a licence to drive defensively and be aware
of the driving situation and their own vehicle.”
“It’s also attitude,” furthers Ian Caygill of the Qatar International Safety Centre (QISC).
“For example,” he says, “when I started training people here, they used to complain about people
switching into the right hand lane to overtake and cutting them off. And I said: ‘Hang on, you know
this is going to happen so why does it annoy and upset you? Why are you not aware of this and just
say to yourself, ‘I have to deal with this?’ It is all about attitude.”
Using such examples, QISC begins its one-day defensive driving course with a practical module
designed to enlighten drivers to the merits of being vigilant and remaining calm behind the wheel.
It also provides them with a handbook aimed at explaining the intricacies of Qatar’s roads and local
traffic laws. As up to 95 percent of road accidents are due to driver error, QISC then emphasise their
charges to not take the act of driving anywhere for granted.
Many though, express that they feel they are adequately skilled behind the wheel and do not see
the point – but they are soon corrected. “We talk about emergency braking at 80 kilometres per hour
(kph),” says Marco Virgili, head of driver training at QISC. “We ask the class how many metres will it
take to stop, and you know for a fact that they will say five metres. But it takes 57 metres, and that’s
the thing, when you are driving and you have someone behind you two metres from your bumper, he
thinks he can stop, but he can’t, he’ll hit you.”
Followed by a practical component in the second part of the day, this information is backed up
by a series of enlightening photos and sobering videos, including what happens to a car when it hits a
brick wall at various speeds, the lesson being that slowing down by a few kph per hour can more than
double your chances of survival in an impact.
Apart from the dangers of speeding and tailgating, QISC’s defensive driving course also covers
dealing with many other facets of road safety, including predicting traffic behaviour ahead, how to
negotiate Qatar’s roundabouts, when it is okay to drive talking on a mobile phone (never, obviously)
and the importance of wearing seatbelts. Others include adapting to the weather, how to deal with
dense traffic situations, the difference between normal and ABS brakes, and how to gear down, brake
and stop correctly, as well as adopting a safe following space and leaving a gap in front of you at an
intersection or a roundabout.
Defensive driving students must achieve a 60 percent pass. “If not, then we say to the company
they are is not competent and it is up to them what they want to do,” says Virgili.
Nevertheless, with the introduction of a global positioning system (GPS)-based computer-driven
IVMS located on-board company vehicles, the performance of drivers can be assessed continually
and their bad habits rectified over time. This data can also be used to determine the cause of an
accident. However, not only does this system record each driver’s information on USB, thanks to GPS
programming it can also immediately warn them, via a small buzzer when they are exceeding the
speed limit in a certain area, for example.
Using this information, a reputation for good driving performance can set a healthy competitive
atmosphere within organisations and forces even management to set a good example, as
everyone’s results become common knowlege internally. Moreover, says Coventry, this system saves
hydrocarbon companies money, as it weeds out consistently poor drivers, saves on wear on tear and
decreases the accident rate significantly.
“The drivers see the upside too,” he says. “They can complete their journey in the same time, but
they are more relaxed, so everybody benefits.”

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techniques were introduced to participant
hydrocarbon industry companies, has
highlighted a marked reduction in clients’
automobile accident rate (an accepted global
industry measure of automobile accidents).
60 percent; and a 58 percent reduction in an
another, over 14 months.
There are also corresponding associated
savings in reduction to vehicle damage, in
the former case above, 55 percent, and in
the latter, 95 percent.
“Through our driving programme and
driver monitoring, fuel is saved,” adds
Coventry, whose company also advise
institutions on the best economic choice
one million pounds (QR 5.6million) over six
months, because their drivers were driving less
harshly and idling for less time. So not only are
they saving them money, they are emitting less
pollution into the environment.”
Yet despite these facts, a positive
attitude towards road safety is not as
pervasive in Qatar’s private sector as one
might imagine.
“The larger companies, the likes of
Shell, Exxon Mobil and Qatargas, are
active proponents of road safety,” says
Mario Virgilli, head of driver training and
road safety at Qatar International Safety
Centre (QISC), another leading facilitator
of defensive driving in Qatar. “Then you
get the smaller companies that have to get
the certificate to get on site,” Virgili adds.
“That’s where they question it; how good
it is, how bad it is and how much it costs…
day to learn what we already know?’”
“They only see the outlay on their bottom
line, but they really need to look beyond
that,” concurs Coventry.
Nevertheless, at least in the hydrocarbon
industry in Qatar, the fact is that companies
paying more attention to road safety both in
the private and public sector, this standard
is set to follow into other industries, such
as construction. Here, for example, says
Ian Caygill, senior business development
manager at QISC, speed limits of 30 kms per
hour are now being enforced to ensure the
safety of pedestrians on building sites.
the move to or travel to Qatar for business
reasons, it only seems fair that the private
sector should respond to the example set by
the hydrocarbon industry, take action and
it might be going too far to suggest defensive
driving and IVMS should be made mandatory
for all organisations across all sectors in Qatar,
reduction of accidents, if they were.
“There is no reason it would not succeed
in any company if you applied the same
principles,” offers Coventry. “Plus, there is a
“Defensive driving and other
road safety measures result
in a marked decrease in road
accident rates.”