Vivo Energy, the company that distributes and markets Shell branded fuels and lubricants in Africa, held its annual Safety Day today, with a focus on preventing safety incidents from happening.

The theme of the day - “See it, report it, prevent it” - encouraged employees, contractors and partners to continue to develop a culture of identifying and reporting potential incidents so that mitigation plans can be activated and incidents prevented from happening.

Vivo Energy’s commitment to achieving and maintaining the highest international Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) standards is at the heart of its business and in 2015 the company delivered industry leading safety performance with a TRCF (total recordable case frequency) of 0.26.

Commenting on Safety Day James Ngethi, Head of HSSE, Vivo Energy said: “Safety remains an integral and essential part of our daily operations and a critical priority for our business, our staff and our contractors. Our annual safety day is a moment for all our teams to stop; reflect on safety issues; and ensure that we are doing everything that we can to achieve our aim of ‘Goal Zero’ - no harm to people or the environment.”

Ngethi added: “Vivo Energy has a very strong safety record, but there is always more that can be done.  We recognise that the key to great HSSE leadership is identifying and fixing potential incidents before they become actual incidents.  In 2015 we did a good job of reporting potential incidents, increasing the number by 73% compared to the previous year. Through our actions today we will work hard to achieve our increased potential incident target and other HSSE goals in order to make continued progress to become recognised at Africa’s most respected energy business.”

Safety Day activity included townhall meetings for employees; safety quizzes; road safety education courses; and ‘safety walks’ to ensure sites and service stations were operating safely.

In Ghana, Vivo Energy in collaboration with the National Road Safety Commission, organised a three-day defensive driving training for over 250 drivers of the Achimota Bus Terminal. In addition, the company also donated an Alco metre (Alcohol Metre) to the management of the station to screen the drivers, ensuring that they do not drive under the influence of alcohol.

The Managing Director of Vivo Energy Ghana, Mr. Ebenezer Faulkner, said that the objective of the training was to build a culture of safe driving and enable the drivers to be more attentive, as well as exhibit professional driving skills in order to arrive safe and alive every time on every trip.