Trucks and Child Safety (TACS) is a road safety training programme run by the DHL business and funded by the DHL UK Foundation and we need support from you, our DHL colleagues, to help us continue our great work. Working with schools and community organisations, our team of TACS demonstrators teach children aged 7 to 11 years how to keep themselves safe around large vehicles.
Anyone can be involved in the programme, not just drivers. It’s a great opportunity for you to share skills and knowledge, whilst contributing to improving young people’s safety awareness around this important issue.
Every day, a child in the UK is seriously injured in a road traffic accident. DHL is striving to bring that number down to zero – and TACS plays a key role in helping us to play our part in achieving this.
Sharing your knowledge and experience of working with large trucks with young people is so important. Getting involved and becoming a TACS demonstrator will ensure young people gain the knowledge they need to be safe around large vehicles.
As a demonstrator, your knowledge and experience will play a key role in teaching young people how to stay safe around large vehicles. It’s also a great way to get extra training and develop new skills working alongside a team of passionate people.
If you’d like to join us in bringing fun, knowledge and meaningful advice to children in your local communities, the first thing you need to do is get in touch. Simply click ‘Register your interest’, send your name, site details and phone number to our team, then we’ll get the ball rolling.
“As a parent, I know just how unaware children can be of everyday dangers. If the TACS demonstrations I have run save just one child from being hurt by a truck, it’ll all have been worth it.”
“Running TACS demonstrations makes me feel like I’m making a real difference to local families. As serious as they are, though, they’re really fun, too and the children get a real chance to be involved. They are always wowed by the giant truck parked up at their school.”
“Running continuously since 1998, our ever-popular TACS programme continues to go from strength to strength. It’s helped hundreds of thousands of children to stay safe, and I’d urge any colleagues considering getting involved to take the plunge. It’s rewarding, enjoyable and you get to develop new skills and share your knowledge and experience with the community.”
“I know from years of teaching that the more engaging and interactive a lesson is, the more likely it is to take up permanent residence in a child’s mind. TACS demonstrations really capture children’s imaginations, and that means they’re doing their job of making those children safer.”
Trucks and Child Safety (TACS) is a national road safety training programme run by the DHL UK Foundation and specially trained employees of DHL. It is delivered free of charge and aims to teach children aged between 7 and 11 years to be safe on the road by creating a greater awareness of larger vehicles and their associated dangers.
Each colleague must attend a one-day mandatory training course delivered by the Transport Development centre (free of charge), to provide colleagues with guidance and support to carry out their role as a demonstrator. Demonstrators are assisted to identify local schools or community organisations to visit and liaise with external agencies where possible e.g. Road Safety Officers, Police Community Support Officers. Demonstrators should deliver a minimum of three TACS demonstration days per year.
Demonstrators also agree that, as a representative of DHL, they will behave in a professional manner in line with the code of conduct at all times (fair, polite, sensitive to cultural and social diversity).
Taking trucks into schools, trained TACS demonstrators teach children about the dangers of trucks, and about road safety.
The demonstrations are delivered by trained DHL employees and include:
If your application is successful, you will be invited to the next available training day. However, please note we operate a waiting list for training, so if you do need to wait for training we are grateful for your patience and continued enthusiasm.
We are now offering two opportunities for schools and community organisations to learn about the dangers of larger vehicles; these are a virtual session and the fantastic face to face demonstration.
The Foundation’s website provides a link to our TACS classroom session; this is easily downloadable material which provides the same message to primary school children about the dangers of large vehicles; this is useful for schools or organisations to use whilst unable to accept external visitors but also for those who do not have access for a large vehicle.
The live demonstration is the traditional face to face and fully interactive session whereby trained demonstrators take a large vehicle onto school or community organisation ground and provide a 30 minute demonstration safely around the vehicle to primary aged children.
The TACS classroom session is not planned to replace the face to face demonstration so if the school or community organisation has access to a large vehicle, they can have both!
If a school would like a visit from the TACS team, email talking.tacs@dhl.com and a trained demonstrator will be in touch to agree a mutually convenient time to discuss the details.
This is covered on the training day. Any opportunity for publicising TACS helps spread the word about road safety. If you want to publicise your activities in DHL newsletters or contact local papers, please contact your marketing or communications department and also work closely with that school or community organisation to ensure you meet their guidelines as well.