From October 17 to 21, at the Test & Training Safety Centre Sp. z o.o. Sp. k. facility in Bednary near Poznań, MPK Łódź drivers improved their driving techniques using Solaris Urbino city buses. The classes were divided into theoretical and practical parts. They began with a lecture on the main causes of accidents and dangerous situations in traffic, as well as appropriate behaviors and reactions in emergency conditions. Training on the track covered a range of issues, from proper seat adjustment to recovering a vehicle from a skid resulting from understeer or oversteer. Drivers were also able to practice emergency maneuvers, such as sudden braking or avoiding obstacles on the road. Great attention was also paid to improving cornering skills.
– Our role as a manufacturer does not end at the moment of vehicle delivery – said Solange Olszewska, CEO of Solaris Bus & Coach S.A. – We ensure that our clients’ drivers are even better prepared than they are now for their daily duties, which is the safe transport of passengers.
– Thanks to the cooperation with Solaris Bus & Coach, for the second time, MPK-Łódź drivers can use the Test & Training Safety Centre. This time, it is the result of this year’s contract for the delivery of 45 low-floor and air-conditioned Urbino buses to the Łódź depots on Nowe Sady and Limanowskiego streets – said Marcin Małek, press spokesperson for MPK-Łódź.
– Many participants in our training sessions admit that they did not realize how a city bus would behave in the emergency situations we simulate during the classes. Not everyone can, for example, predict how long the vehicle’s braking distance will be on a slippery or wet surface. Unfortunately, it is usually much longer than the drivers initially anticipated. That is why we are most concerned with increasing their awareness and showing them what threats they may encounter on the road while driving a vehicle with such dimensions and mass as a bus – added Przemysław Tomaszewski, an instructor at the Test & Training Safety Centre.
More than 700 people have already benefited from the driver training program launched by Solaris in 2005. For the past three years, the classes have been conducted in cooperation with Test & Training Safety Centre Sp. z o.o. Sp. k. This is a Driving Technique Improvement Center that has created the largest training complex for drivers in Poland on the site of a former airport in Bednary near Poznań. All training sessions were conducted in accordance with the methodology of Test & Training International, an Austrian school with an international reputation. Thanks to the classes just completed for MPK Łódź employees, the group of “Safe Drivers” has grown by nearly 100 people.