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by This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on Sunday, 27 January 2008
Trying to arrange an interview with Terry Reynolds is a complex affair. It's not that the managing director of RogenSi Middle East is a difficult man; he is more than accommodating when it comes to rearranging our interview. And I should know: our meeting is cancelled and rearranged on three separate occasions before we finally give up and agree to talk by telephone.
Because that was the week that travelling across Dubai became even more of a nightmare than it usually is. It was the week that made navigating anywhere across the city nigh on impossible due to record amounts of rain and a total shutdown of the city due to president Bush's visit.
The irony is that RogenSi - a global consultancy agency with a turnover of US$39.1m - has been working closely with the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) for the last six months to find a solution to the traffic problem, and has just completed its biggest project with the transport authority to date.
The project, most noted in the press because of its use of the British television character, Mr Bean, was the ‘Drive for Results' safety campaign for Dubai's bus drivers. "We weren't teaching the bus drivers how to drive, we were teaching them about safety awareness, which from what we know about accident rates across the world is the biggest cause of accidents," says an enthusiastic Reynolds.
The project, which served around 2100 bus drivers in Dubai, over 11 days with a focus on teaching the city's bus drivers how to deal with Dubai traffic, overwrought passengers and increasingly congested roads. "We showed all of the drivers that you can't ever control an event but what you can control is how you respond to that situation. We used the acronym SAFE - safety, awareness, focus and energy - to cover the basics of safety and awareness. I have generally found that if bring people into a room and all you do is talk to them it raises awareness anyway, but it just needs to be done regularly," he explains.
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