Ford Driving Skills for Life
Ford Philippines believes the pandemic is no excuse to put safety in the backseat. It recently held its 13th Driving Skills for Life (DSFL) program online.
Usually held in September, during Ford’s “Global Caring Month”, the DSFL training module covered safe driving in wet weather, which includes basic vehicle dynamics and handling, driving in various conditions, anti-distracted driving, and fuel-efficient driving.
This year’s theme was “Safe Driving in the New Normal”, timely in this time of COVID covers additional topics which includes pandemic car care and maintenance tips, car sanitation and disinfection.
“We are excited to bring the DSFL back this year as part of our Global Caring Month, bringing to life our long-standing advocacy on road safety on the digital platform,” said EJ Francisco, AVP for Communications, Ford Philippines. “This year, we are making the DSFL a more relevant training program for our participants by sharing the necessary driving habits and skills as they navigate the roads in the ‘new normal’.”
Tuason Racing School (TRS) is the facilitator of the DSFL, and due to the pandemic, this year it will be held online instead of in person, for participant safety. TRS gave us a run through of this year’s modules and we found them very comprehensive.
They start off with the common sense basics like what things in your vehicle you need to check daily, and monthly; what parts to sanitize and how to do it; new normal do’s and dont’s; defensive driving; safe driving at night or in the rain; the safest distance to be from the car in front of you at different speeds. The sessions also tackled use of vehicle technologies that were often overlooked.
This is a great foundation of knowledge for new drivers to start with, or for those who want to learn how to drive. Even for us seasoned drivers behind the wheel, we found the DSFL is a great refresher of basics and fundamentals with some updates for our old school skills.
Driving Skills for Life was established in the United States in 2003 by Ford Motor Company Fund, the U.S. Governors Highway Safety Association, and a panel of safety experts. Here in the Philippines, DSFL has successfully trained over 26,000 drivers since it launched and garnered the Gold award under the Road Safety category in the 4th Driven to Serve Awards by the Society of Philippine Motoring Journalists (SPMJ) in 2020.
The 13th Driving Skills for Life online sessions will be open to the public to participate in with an interactive training session with instructional videos, games, and contests to make it fun and engaging. Visit Ford Philippines’ Facebook to find out more.