Drivers’ Ed

In major cities around the world, taxis are an integral and indispensable component of the transportation mix. To make them a better part, General Motors launched Chevrolet University in Bogota last year.
A corporate social responsibility initiative of the automaker’s Chevrolet Foundation, the education program is free and available to any taxi driver, regardless of the brand of vehicle that he may drive. The courses — on safety, maintenance, English (to serve the growing numbers of foreign business travelers and tourists) and small-business management, like budgeting — were developed by GM in partnership with the National Apprenticeship Service (SENA).
SENA instructors teach the courses, said Marco Vintimilla, marketing manager for GM Colmotores in Colombia. “They have the expertise to connect the pedalogical experience with the experiences of the cab drivers.”
The program consists of five hours of classes one day a week, taken over four to six months, a schedule designed for drivers to attend on the day their vehicles are not allowed to circulate. Retention rates have been high — only 13 percent of enrollees have dropped out, Vintimilla said. To date, Chevrolet University has graduated 1,300 drivers.
GM has added a second education center in Bogota to make it easier for more taxi drivers to attend, said Vintimilla, whose goal is to educate and graduate another 3,900 drivers before 2011 is out.
Although GM has roughly one-third of Colombia’s growing car market, Chevrolet — its only brand in the country ­— is in the top two for taxis, Vintimilla said. In addition, Chevrolet University is building goodwill for the brand and may help boost future sales.
The car market in Colombia is thriving. Total sales among all carmakers exceeded 254,000 vehicles in 2010, an increase of 37 percent over 2009 and surpassing the previous record of 252,000 vehicles, set in 2007.
A number of participants have indicated that their medium- to long-term goals include purchasing their own cabs or adding to their existing fleet, Vintimilla said, adding that some drivers who met at Chevrolet University are joining forces to work toward buying a vehicle together.
Given the strong reception in the capital, GM will expand Chevrolet University to a second city in Colombia in July. And it may go regional.
“Our friends at GM in Ecuador are very interested in the program,” Vintimilla reported.

—Mary Sutter

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