Maruti Suzuki has announced that its driving training school – Maruti Suzuki Driving School (MSDS) has enrolled 2 million learners under its driving training programme. MSDS commenced operations in 2005, with the objective of offering driving curriculums for its learners, which include novice learners, as well as those who wish to brush up on their driving skills.
Since then, MSDS has expanded its operations to cover the length and breadth of the country, from Leh in the North to Trivandrum in the South, Bhuj in the West to Tinsukia in the East. Today, there are 520+ Maruti Suzuki driving schools spread across 250+ cities in India.
Commenting on the milestone moment, Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki India, said, “Education is one of the key pillars of road safety and Maruti Suzuki Driving School (MSDS) was conceived with an aim to provide professional driving training. While it took us 13 years to reach the milestone of 1 million learner trainings, the next 1 million was achieved in just 5 years. This is a testament to our commitment to make Indian roads safer as an increasing number of vehicles are taking to the roads in recent times. We believe driving is a life skill, and with MSDS our aim is to keep expanding the network and train over 4 million people with quality driving skills by 2030.”
Driving training courses offered by MSDS feature advanced training methodology that includes state-of-the-art driving simulators along with practical and theoretical courses. The courses available are – Learner Standard Track Course, Learner Extended Track Course, Learner Detailed Track Course, Advance Course and Corporate Course. These courses are available in 9 languages including English & Hindi. The skilled trainers provide the trainees with training sessions on-road behaviour, defensive driving, Good Samaritan Law, as well as traffic rules and regulations. These courses are designed to suitably meet the training requirement of the trainees. MSDS also collaborates with various corporate, government sectors, the defence sector, fleet owners, NGOs, schools, and colleges to jointly conduct road safety programmes to suit their varied needs.
As part of Maruti Suzuki’s digital initiative, MSDS has also introduced a mobile application that is based on the concept of “Learning on the Go”. This allows trainees the option to take their theoretical sessions from the comfort of their homes. Apart from this, MSDS has also launched a functionality where users can take mock learner license tests on its official website to check their knowledge and practice before appearing for their learner license test.
In an earlier interaction with Autocar Professional, Rahul Bharti, Executive Officer, Corporate Affairs at Maruti Suzuki emphasised the need for technology for enforcement and reiterated the need for education and an objective evaluation before issuing driving licenses, to reduce human errors.