IRU and CLDP have teamed up to raise professional qualification standards in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to advance road transport operations along the Trans-Caspian route.
With the support of the United States Department of Commerce’s Commerce Law Development Program (CLDP), IRU has trained over 70 local instructors, through the train-the-trainer programme, in the Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan.
The instructors will deliver IRU’s newly established courses for the region: Tachograph – Drive and Rest Time Rules, Safe Loading and Cargo Securing and Certificate of Professional Competence for Drivers (CPC Driver).
The courses are reinforced with practical elements and the IRU RoadMasters assessment methodology, enabling trainers and companies to obtain holistic driver profiles for targeted driving and non-driving skills improvements.
The partnership with CLDP has also allowed IRU to equip its members the Association of the International Road Transport Operators of the Kyrgyz Republic (AIRTO KR) and the Association of International Road Carriers of Uzbekistan (AIRCUZ) with the latest internationally recognised driver and manager training programmes.
Through this project, the IRU Academy partner BILIMINTERTRANS helped over 120 Uzbek and Kyrgyz transport companies to receive their Certificate of Professional Competence for Managers.
The programme covers, among other topics, transport trends and their impact on business and vehicle operating costs. It also looks at how the legislative environment affects companies and drivers. Following the successful capacity-building activities, the course has now been extended to Kyrgyzstan.
The aim of the IRU-CLDP project, which supports the C5+1 Economic Resilience Initiative in Central Asia, is to further enhance the efficiency of operations along the Trans-Caspian route and close gaps in the knowledge and skills of Kyrgyz and Uzbek truck drivers, as well as to help reintegrate returning migrant workers.
The professionalisation of the road transport sector helps increase the attractiveness of the truck driver profession, which is suffering from a chronic shortage of drivers. Over three million truck driver positions are unfilled in just 36 countries, according to IRU’s latest survey.
The shortage of truck drivers undermines the movement of goods and east-west trade, such as along the burgeoning Trans-Caspian trade route.
