Presentation of the Safety Culture Certificates to the trainers of professional heavy vehicle drivers

Toespraak | 15-04-2009

Alleen de uitgesproken tekst geldt.

Mr Yildirim, ladies and gentlemen,

• It is a great pleasure for me to be presenting 24 safety culture certificates today, together with my colleague Minister Binali Yildirim. These certificates are the result of an excellent Turkish-Dutch cooperation project.
• The certificates constitute an important contribution to employment opportunities and the flow of goods between our countries. After all, the demand for well-trained drivers is high.
• At the same time, these certificates are a tool for reducing the numbers of road accidents. The issue of road safety lies close to my heart and the same applies to my colleague Mr Yildirim.
• Every day, people fail to return home because they have met with a road accident. We can never do too much to prevent such sad events from happening. Whether it be in the Netherlands or in Turkey, or on a road elsewhere: every road accident victim is one too many!
• The certificates that we are presenting today grant you the official title of Master Trainer. It is a worthy title. You have every reason to be proud of yourselves. This certificate is proof that you have received top-class training and that you are truly professional trainers.
• The Netherlands supported this training project in every possible way. And we had good reasons for doing so. We can definitely use properly trained truck drivers.
• The Netherlands, advantageously situated on the North Sea with first-class links to the hinterland, is the most important transit country of Europe. Turkey, portal to Asia, is of great strategic importance to my country. We will be dealing with one another more and more in the years ahead.
• Qualified drivers are therefore more than welcome in the Netherlands, not only to unload their trucks but to load them as well. Currently, there are still too few professional Turkish drivers with the proper qualifications for hauling freight from the Netherlands. From today, you will be changing this situation – to the benefit of both our counties.
• I already mentioned the issue of road safety. Obviously, 24 certificates will not make all the 62,000 kilometre of national and provincial roads in Turkey safe at one fell swoop. And I have not even mentioned the 2600 foreign kilometres that truck drivers travel between our countries. · The certificates are, however, a solid basis for improving traffic safety and reducing road accidents. They are the foundation for a growing road safety movement. After all, the knowledge and knowhow to which the safety culture certificates bear witness, enable you to train others to a high level.
• With this certificate on the wall, you can get to work energetically to train an army of drivers that give safety the highest priority. Drivers who do not want to risk getting so much as a scratch on their vehicle.
• The diplomas we are presenting today are of benefit to both the economy and road safety. In such times of economic crisis we need to look ahead to how we can meet competition from other countries. To do this, we will need good drivers who haul their loads quickly and safely to their destination.
• The certificates that my colleague and I are presenting to you are a good start. I would like to wish you every success in the future and I hope that the knowledge and knowhow you have acquired will spread like wildfire among the truckers of Turkey.