On May 15th, the EFA Delegate Meeting was held in Helsinki, organized by “Suomen Autokoululiitto”, the Finnish association of driving schools. The meeting was attended by several international guests who had the opportunity to present the latest innovations in the field of road safety, to support quality training.

The morning proceedings began with the presentation by Jarkko Saarimäki for the Finnish transport and communication agency on “Prospects for the future driver’s education”. The floor then passed to Timo Suominen, the President of the Finnish Driving Schools Association (Suomen), who explained the problems related to the state of driver’s licence training after the reform of the Finnish driver’s licence act.

Even the speech by Maria Meinero of ETSC on Young Road users and the Driving Licence Directive was much appreciated.

The following session featured some EFA members. The Portuguese Pedro Saldanha and António Pais Neto from ANIECA and then the Austrian Stefan Ebner from WKO explained the recent innovations in the domain of driving instructor training.

The dynamic presentation by Dr. Gunnar Meinhard and Alex Meinhard for Trafity aroused much interest, allowing those present to experiment with some uses of virtual reality in theoretical training in driving schools.

During the afternoon the floor was taken by the new EFA member, Nikolaos Grentzelos as Vice President of the Athen’s Chamber of Tradesmen. Mr. Grentzelos presented the activities of the Chamber of Commerce of Tradesmen: Representative of SMEs in Greece, the actions and initiatives next to the driving instructors.

Subsequently, Nicolas Akarsu of Ediser took to the floor talking about recent innovations in the field of quality simulators and how these could become a real opportunity for driving schools.

The day’s work closed with the elegant presentation of Jeanette Jedback, representative of the Swedish STR, focused on the recent innovations in the field of training that are influencing the field of driving training in Sweden.

See you all at the next EFA event in Milan in mid-October 2024!

Even this year, the event linked to the Let’s Learn To Survive project was very successful. It is now an international event and this year motorcycle instructors from Portugal, Lithuania, Holland, Slovakia, Greece and Italy arrived in the Czech Republic.

The training of the Motorcycle Police was also highly appreciated, showing some amazing choreographies.

The event was organized by EFA member Jiri Novotny and his Road Safety staff, who explained the most recent innovations in the field of motorcycle instructor training and how a quality standard of driving training is necessary today more than ever.

And not just in Europe. Indeed EFA is organizing training seminars for motorcycle instructors outside Europe. The first pilot courses for motorcycle instructors should start by the end of 2024. Some of these courses will also be certified according to the Global Standard Certifications (GDC).

The next motorcycle course for driving instructors in the Czech Republic will be in the spring of 2025, probably during the EFA Delegate meeting. On this occasion the participants will be able to demonstrate and increase their knowledge and skills of driving on two and four wheel vehicles, on the racing track of the Autodrom Vysoke Myto.

EFA had the pleasure of being invited again to the event European Business Summit organized by The Economist magazine, on the theme of protecting the environment and the role of small and medium-sized enterprises. The European economy continues to face significant challenges, although it has proven more resilient than many expected. Among other factors, geopolitical instability, imbalance in the energy and raw material supply and the rise of protectionism shape an unpredictable landscape. Small and medium-sized enterprises are a key driver in the country’s effort to fully recover the lost ground following the crisis of the former decade.

EFA participated in the panel “Turning crisis into opportunity: climate change and green growth”, sharing the stage with Christos Staikouras, Minister of Infrastructure and Transport; Nikolas Farantouris, Professor in EU & energy law at Pireus University and MEP candidate; Yannis Maniatis, professor at the University of Piraeus, former minister of environment and energy, MEP candidate.

The Secretary General of EFA, Manuel Picardi, spoke about the limited diffusion of electric cars in the driving school sector (small and medium-sized enterprises) due to the current limitations imposed by the European directive. The new European directive on driving licenses provides solutions suited to market demands, leaving more space for driving schools to teach on hybrid and electric vehicles.

During the break, EFA had the pleasure of meeting some members of the Greek driving schools association, who described the main problems and the recent news of training in Greece.

EFA also thanks the Greek association for giving it the opportunity to participate in the event.

A lowering of the driving licence age is being proposed by the EU parliament. Major shortages of commercial drivers are given as the reason. STR (the Swedish National Association of Driver Trainers) and VTI (the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute) feel this risks lowering traffic safety. They have jointly started a debate on this issue in one of Sweden’s leading national newspapers, Svenska Dagbladet.

The Excellence in Road Safety AWARD 2024 competition is officially launched, in which you can participate with your national association or company. Applications close on Monday 17 June 2024.

This year the PIN Conference will take place in Brussels on 19 June from 13.00-17.00.

ETSC will present the findings of the PIN Annual Report looking at progress in reducing road deaths and serious injuries across Europe. We will also present the PIN Award to a country that has made outstanding progress in improving road safety.

Road traffic collisions are a major issue for public health. Depression is characterized by mental, emotional and executive dysfunction, which may have an impact on driving behaviour. Patients with depression (N = 39) and healthy controls (N = 30) were asked to complete questionnaires and to drive on a driving simulator in different scenarios. Driving simulator data included speed, safety distance from the preceding vehicle and lateral position.

The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility has published the report “Improving Road Traffic Injury Statistics in Low and Middle Income Countries” (LMIC). The Report identifies the reasons behind statistical discrepancies between LMIC and outlines strategies to strengthen modelling efforts.The Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) and the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), in association with our partners the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) are jointly proud to announce this key regional seminar. In Nairobi on the 8th to 9th October 2024.