With the aim to create an eco-system that promotes safe road behaviors on Indian roads by collaborating with like-minded corporate and government and to spread awareness on best practices being followed worldwide, FIPI conducted a virtual workshop on ‘Road Safety’ in collaboration with Shell India (a member organization) on June 26, 2020.

In the oil & gas Industry, land transportation of fuel is the last leg of the value chain and plays an important role in safe & efficient operations. Thus, as part of FIPI’s Health, Safety & Environment Committee, we encouraged members to come forward to collaborate and contribute towards safe operations on Indian roads.

Mr. Swapnil Kamulkar, General Manager, Downstream Land Logistics, Shell took the lead to initiate the programme.

Dr. R. K. Malhotra, Director General, FIPI while delivering his opening address highlighted that the oil industry has moved to BS-VI fuel standards considering the carbon emission and said that these clean fuels can improve the air quality. He also emphasized that digitalization & technology advancements like GPS tracking, speed monitoring can be applied for safe running of vehicles considering the fact that oil companies transport dangerous goods. Use of data analytics for analysing vehicle speed, route, driver behaviour can improve the safety, he further added.

The opening session from FIPI’s side was also delivered by Mr. T. K. Sengupta, Director (Exploration & Production) and Mr. N. K. Bansal, Director (Oil Refining & Marketing). The other speakers of the Opening Session from Shell’s front were Mr. Suresh Nair, Distribution Operations Manager and Mr. Pramod Srivastava, Road Transport Manager.

The panelists of the other sessions were Mr. Abhilash Verma, Global Road Safety Advisor; Mr. Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, RT Programme Manager and Dr. Kumkum Roy, Road Safety Lead, India.

Mr. Abhilash Verma presented the Award-winning initiative “Eye camps for commercial Drivers” as part of the Shell India CSR project. This initiative is successfully running since 2019 and more than 180000 Industry drivers are covered in India.

The four-hour long virtual awareness session covered the topics like HSSE and Contract Management, Driver Management, Vehicle Management as well as Journey Management which was attended by more than 360 participants. While presenting HSSE and Contract Management the discussions focused around Importance of structured road transport management system (PDCA cycle), Challenges and risk of Indian road/logistics environment and Setting up robust contract management process. The Driver management covered Importance of drivers in value chain and current challenges, Driver selection and onboarding, human factors, care and respect, Defensive driving training and remedial training program for year and Driver empowerment and welfare programs. The Vehicle management focused on Importance of vehicle standards and structured maintenance management, Structured regime of daily and monthly inspection, New technologies to make vehicle safe and improve comfort and performance and Use on In -vehicle monitoring system (IVMS) and on-board camera. The Journey management talked about Importance of Structured route hazard management and route planning, Updating and communicating JMP (Journey management plan), Safety, security and emergency as part of JMP and Authorized halt point and monitoring of duty/driving/rest periods.