Supporting driver training in Zambia

Chilled and ambient food producer and distributor Samworth Brothers is among those companies that have generously donated time-served trucks to a driver training school in Zambia. The Industrial Training Centre (ITC) in the African country's capital, Lusaka, is a non-profit-making body which comes under Zambia's Ministry of Technology and Science. ITC receives Zambian government funding plus revenue from the training fees it charges. While its income from these sources allows it to pay the salaries of employees and its fuel bills, it is not enough to fund the purchase of training vehicles. The Drivers Hours rules are in practice non-existent, overloading is rife, and maintenance standards are poor, as is the overall standard of driving. Loads are still regularly roped and sheeted, and frequently hang off either one side of the truck or trailer's cargo bed or the other.