Freedom Pizza – one of the most popular pizza companies in the UAE – is on a mission to promote a strong safety culture amongst their delivery drivers and the public at large. Recently, they’ve launched what they proudly call Safety Delivered, a powerful initiative that’s driving this mission forward, tapping into people’s mind-sets and behaviour on and off the roads.
Freedom Pizza employs 125 delivery drivers, many of them expats who are working hard to support their families, and provide a better future for their children. Being the sole provider for a family back home can put pressure on the drivers to deliver fast, with speed often taking priority over road safety. This triggered the very essence of the safety message, giving the mission the heart it needs to spread.
“As a mission focused company, we are ethically and morally bound to ensure that our drivers have high-quality safety gear, new and well maintained delivery bikes, are provided with both medical and workmen’s compensation insurances and receive driver safety training.” Freedom Pizza’s founder and CEO, Ian Ohan, feels passionately about this mission and the drivers’ safety. Ohan continues, “We have taken this one step further with our Safety Delivered initiative—we want to remind our drivers that no delivery is more important than their own personal safety or the safety of anyone else on the road. We also invite the public to consider the importance of this and be mindful of delivery drivers on the roads.”
Freedom Pizza worked with Saatchi & Saatchi Dubai to articulate their vision for driver safety. Richard Copping, Executive Creative Director at the global agency said, “We thought Freedom Pizza’s mission was important and we created a cultural platform for them to communicate this to influence the behaviour of delivery drivers and the general public for good.”
Freedom Pizza interviewed each one of their delivery drivers, to discover why they were doing the job, and who were the most important people in their lives. The result was a road safety message inspired by family: each driver’s helmet was decorated with a photo of someone they loved; a son, daughter, mother, father or wife. This visual reminder promotes road safety when the rider thinks of the loved one they’re providing for, and also promotes road safety in other road users who see the message on the Freedom Pizza helmets.
Safety Delivered is a product of Freedom Pizza’s passion and existing safety precautions, representing an evolution towards a safer driver culture. Each of its drivers are asked to sign a safety pledge that they carry with them on the road and when leaving a store for a delivery, each driver calls out “I will drive safe” as a constant reminder to honor safety on each and every delivery.
Thomas Edelmann, founder of Road SafetyUAE.com said he hopes motorists will take the campaign’s message on board and that “people in other institutions will learn from this example and hopefully we will see more of those creative initiatives in the future.”
Freedom Pizza’s founder and CEO, Ian Ohan, is also an avid motorbike rider commuting daily to work in Dubai and being a father of three young children he needs to come home safely, everyday.