TÜV SÜD activities reduce the number of road deaths in Turkey
TÜV SÜD activities reduce the number of road deaths in Turkey
The Turkish Ministry of Transport has announced a clear drop in the number of road casualties since the introduction of German-style vehicle inspection in Turkey. According to Minister of Transport Binali Yildirim, the number of road deaths has declined from 5,000 to 3,000 since the TÜV SÜD subsidiary TÜVTURK took up German-style motor vehicle inspection across Turkey. Since 2009, TÜVTURK, which is run by a consortium of TÜV SÜD, Doğuş Automotive and Bridgepoint, has been the only organization approved to carry out periodic roadworthiness testing of vehicles in Turkey.
The Turkish Minister of Transport Binali Yildirim presented the road death statistics at the 3rd Conference of TÜVTURK Partners in Izmir. In accordance with these statistics, the number of road casualties dropped from 5,000 in 2007 to 3,000 in 2010: "The sharp decline in road deaths can be attributed to TÜVTURK's periodic vehicle inspection", said the Minister, who was very happy about these trends. Horst Schneider, Member of the Board of Management of TÜV SÜD AG, emphasized, "The fact that the establishment of periodic vehicle inspection has manifested itself in such a positive trend in accident figures after such a short time is an excellent result. The clear drop in road deaths underlines the enormous significance of periodic roadworthiness inspection in overall road safety." From 2004 onwards, Schneider, then CEO of TÜV SÜD Auto Service GmbH, promoted activities in Turkey with determination.
After an expensive but successful initial phase, business operations were launched in mid-2007. The first inspection centre was taken into operation in February 2008 in Elazig. The full-scale network, comprising 191 test centres and 71 mobile test stations, was completed in February 2009. In autumn 2009, TÜVTURK had already topped five million roadworthiness inspections, hitting the mark of ten million inspections one year later.
Every year, TÜVTURK and its 3,000 employees carry out over five million roadworthiness tests. TÜVTURK is TÜV SÜD's largest international investment project so far. The company was founded in 2005 by TÜV SÜD AG, Doğuş Automotive and Akfen Holding, as a consortium in which each of the partners had a 33.3 per cent holding. In spring 2010, facility operator Akfen sold its shares to the private-equity group Bridgepoint.
The successful operations of TÜVTURK manifest themselves not only in the declining number of accident fatalities and injuries. The number of cars failing the roadworthiness inspection has decreased from 43 to 37 per cent since 2008, while repair shops registered a 30 per cent increase in sales in the same period: "These figures demonstrate that the defects that are identified in the inspection are actually repaired by motorists", explains Bernhard Horak, Chief Operating Officer TÜVTURK.
TÜVTURK also plays a significant and proactive role in a Turkey-wide road safety campaign promoting responsible behaviour by road users. The campaign plans to offer an array of educational activities to further promote road safety in Turkey.
The campaign initiators evaluated the data from 8.8 million vehicle inspections carried out by TÜVTURK between January 2008 and June 2010. The inspectors detected defects on the brakes or braking systems of almost 1.4 million of cars. The Turkish Ministry of Transport sees a close correlation between this issue and the high road accident rates in Turkey.
Contact: Frank Volk