UPS Pairs its Driving Experts with Oakland Teenagers for Safety in Partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of Oakland

Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens, but UPS and its world-renown drivers are making an effort with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Oakland to change that.

Oakland, CA (PRWEB) November 25, 2009

The UPS Foundation, the charitable arm of UPS (NYSE: UPS), is rolling out a national program in collaboration with Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) to teach the company's industry-leading safe driving techniques to teens. Based in large part on the same safety training used with UPS's own drivers, the program - UPS Road CodeSM - will help teens learn the code for safe driving.

Thanks to a three-year, $1.5 million grant from The UPS Foundation to BGCA, 65 Oakland teens have taken the UPS Road Code training and more are expected to participate in the next year.

UPS Road Code provides teens with four sessions of classroom-based instruction and time "behind the wheel" of a computerized driving simulator. The need certainly is there. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one in every three teenage deaths occurs on the road.

"UPS drivers are among the safest on the road and Boys & Girls Clubs of Oakland clubs are delighted to be able to offer the training to their teen student-members. The Road Code program gives us the opportunity to use our nationally recognized safe-driving training to directly impact a need in our communities and prevent teenage deaths," said Ken Sternad, president of The UPS Foundation. "The program also provides UPS employees the chance to participate in what we like to call 'skilled volunteerism' by using their professional safe driving expertise to help save lives."

UPS's more than 100,000 drivers worldwide live and breathe safety, logging more than 2.5 billion miles a year while averaging less than one accident per million miles driven.

The UPS Road Code program spans four weeks, as follows:

•     Week one includes a "code" of safety principles that UPS drivers use each day. During this session, teens will hear from a UPS Circle of Honor driver, who is one of the more than 4,600 active UPS drivers with 25 or more accident-free years.
• Week two covers the consequences of risky driving behaviors - such as talking, texting or using cell phones while driving.
• Week three focuses on the 10 safe driving tips and tools used by UPS drivers. This course also features a laptop-based hazard-identification test that is used by UPS to train new drivers.
• Week four enables teens to practice what they've learned behind the wheel of a computerized driving simulator. Three computer screens serve as a "windshield," and teens use a steering wheel and gas and brake pedals to navigate a virtual roadway. The simulators tabulate scores based on safe driving, providing a friendly competition aspect to UPS Road Code.

Oakland teens, parents and others interested in learning more about safe driving and UPS Road Code in Oakland should visit BGCOakland.org or ups.com/roadcode. And for regular updates on UPS Road Code, safe driving tips and other UPS news, sign up for the UPS Twitter channel at twitter.com/ups_news.

About Boys & Girls Clubs of Oakland
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Oakland’s mission is to develop our community’s youth into positive contributors to society. Now in its 71st year, the Club continues to provide safe places to learn and grow, opportunities for ongoing relationships with caring adult professionals, life-enhancing programs, and other character development experiences each year for over 2,200 girls and boys, ages 6 to 17. The organization supplements the endeavours of our families and our schools. If you believe in what we do and would like to show your support you may do so by visiting http://www.bgcoakland.org.

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