Renault renews partnership with the world food programme

The World Food Programme (WFP) operates over 900 trucks and relies on 5,000 vehicles around the world to carry out its operations every year. The world's largest humanitarian organisation is often the first to dispatch aid to crisis areas, using food and other assistance to pave the way to peace, stability and prosperity. WFP is leveraging Renault Trucks’ expertise to improve the conditions and availability of trucks used in countries across Africa to reach vulnerable communities.

Confident in its knowledge of extreme terrain, the professionalism of its employees and its high-quality equipment, Renault Trucks committed to an initial partnership in 2012, offering the most experienced among its employees the opportunity to train WFP teams on the ground.

Technical expertise supporting humanitarian aid

The partnership between the two organisations has just been extended until 2026, with a renewal of the itinerant system set up by Renault Trucks, consisting of two trucks equipped to serve as mobile training units. Renault Trucks is therefore passing on its expertise, not only to help ensure the availability and optimal performance of WFP's trucks, but also to support the development of technical skills at local level and improve road safety in West Africa.

A training catalogue has been created, featuring modules on truck mechanics for technicians and workshop managers, fleet management for truck fleet managers, and eco-driving for drivers. In addition to World Food Programme staff, government officials, NGOs, other UN agencies and private transporters are also to receive truck maintenance training.

Under the renewed partnership, Renault Trucks will also be supporting the establishment of a permanent technical training centre in Accra, Ghana, with two classrooms for face-to-face sessions and access to IT equipment for online trainings.

30 Renault Trucks employees have already provided their support and expertise to the World Food Programme

Paul, Sylvain, Benoît and Ahmed are among the Renault Trucks employees that decided to leave their daily routine behind for a while to help make a difference, experience a different reality, and provide their expertise to those who work daily with trucks within WFP.

There is real enthusiasm for volunteering among Renault Trucks' teams. It reflects a genuine desire on the part of employees to engage and contribute to their company’s vision to a fairer world. "I went to Ethiopia as part of a two-man team to train mechanics and workshop managers in how our vehicles function, to help them maintain the trucks as effectively as possible," explained Sylvain Thiercelin, a vehicle test project manager. "What I take away from this experience is the quality of the exchanges, the sharing and the human adventure. We went there with a degree of humility, wondering what we could teach them, and in the end, just being there helped enormously. We managed to answer a lot of questions and learnt just as much, if not more, about their way of life. It was an amazing experience."

The next training duo from Renault Trucks is set to leave for Ghana in July.

A win-win partnership

For several years now, Renault Trucks' commitment to the World Food Programme has been yielding results for WFP and for those most in need. There is lower turnover in the organisation’s fleet teams, greater engagement among employees and a clear reduction in maintenance costs and vehicle losses. Locally, in the field, teams are now better equipped to choose the right vehicle for a given terrain. This translated into more effective and timely support to the most vulnerable.

“Counting Renault Trucks among our partners for the next 5 years to establish a Technical Training Centre in West Africa is key to transfer this expertise and train not only WFP employees, but also a range of other actors in the transport sector, to positively impact transport management in the region,” said Jean-Francois Milhaud, Head of the WFP Global Fleet Unit.

Improvements in the cost per kilometre of maintenance per vehicle have resulted in savings of $1.5 million.

Key figures

Since 2012, the year of the 1st partnership:

• 2 mobile training units have been created
• 5 training modules have been proposed
• 19 training sessions have taken place
• 250 people have been trained in the field
• A catalogue of 12 training courses has been established
• 30 Renault Trucks employees have travelled to Africa under the partnership