A P U B L I C AT I O N B Y E M I R AT E S D R I V I N G I N S T I T U T E

January 2012 | www.edi-uae.com

“

“

Marriage Fund

Al Jamaheer Press ConferenceEDI is on a continuous mission to spread awareness on Safe Driving... Page 4

Emirates Driving Institute Unveils a CompletelyNew Brand Image‘After 20 successful years of leading the market, the brand design now re�ects... Page 2

Emirates Driving Institute Named ‘Superbrand’ 2011& 2012First Driving Institute in UAE to win this title.. Page 3

EDI and its head o�ce joined together to sponsor the second mass wedding of Emirati couples organized through the Marriage Fund. �is is the second year when EDI is supporting this initiative, earlier it had contributed towards the Mass Marriage Fund in Fujairah.

�is year, �e Mass Marriage was held in Al Boom Tourist Village and was inaugurated by His Highness Sheikh Mansour Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. �e ceremony was attended by Habiba Issa Al Hosni, Director General of the Marriage Fund, and Rashid Obaid, board member of the fund, Amer Ahmed Belhasa, Managing Director, EDI and a number of o�cials of the fund and the families of grooms.

Amer Ahmed Belhasa, Managing Director, EDI expressed thanks to all in charge of Marriage Fund for providing this opportunity to EDI to contribute for this important social welfare cause.

His Excellency Dr. Maitha Salem Al Shamsi, Minister of State, Chairman of Marriage Fund praised the support of corporate organizations and other institutes who contribute towards this social cause. At the same time he urged the citizens to cooperate in reducing the costs of marriage and high cost of living and to avoid borrowing from banks in order to start a happy life free of any problems and obstacles.

Sheikha Lubna stressed that the mass weddings

are now a socially accepted tradition of the youth as it

facilitates to ease the financial burden of

marriage and contributes to building stable families

in the long run.

Rashid Obaid, board member of the Marriage Fund mentioned that the

Fund founded by late His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan has today become a landmark social platform and the founder of the family nucleus in UAE as well as an inspira-tion for future generations.

�e Marriage Fund was created in 1992, as a public corporation with full, independent legal personality powers to initiate legal actions for the imple-mentation of its objective. �e fund has received encouragement from the institutions of civil society to support family stability and to limit the mani-festations of extravagance in marriage ceremonies.

Ahmad Hassan Rashid Al Jarwan expressed sincere thanks and gratitude to Emirates Driving Institute for its support to strengthen the principle of community partnership with the private sector for funding such programs and expand the establish-ment of mass weddings.

DRIVING EXCELLENCE | التميز في القيادة

Emirates Driving Institute (EDI), the UAE’s longest-established and largest driving school unveiled the new face of their brand. �e launch, at the EDI Head O�ce in Dubai showed the new logo, name style and a new tagline ‘Driving Excellence’.

Together, these elements form an exciting new customer proposition and form a part of an overall brand repositioning exercise which EDI believes will endorse their continuing robust growth path in this ever evolving and dynamic environment.

As a market leader in providing driver training in Dubai, EDI has built a reputation of a company that delivers innovation and quality training to its custom-ers at all levels of skill and in all types of vehicles.

�e new visual branding reinforces the EDI core brand values and distinguishes EDI from the competition. EDI undertook extensive market and customer’s audits in order to arrive at this optimal design solution; it was decided to give the brand a clear, young and a more contemporary look.

Whilst the famous corpo-rate colours of Orange, Blue and White remain unchanged, it is the way EDI is inscribed is what helps give the new design a fresh and modern appeal.

EDI’s well-respected brand is one of its most valuable assets. �e brand embodies all that EDI and its sta� stand for and it helps to convey the beliefs and principles on which EDI operates and also serves as an introduction in any forum.

January 2012 | Emirates Driving | 2

Emirates Driving Institute Unveils aCompletely New Brand Image

Call Centre: +971 4 263 1100 www.edi-uae.com

‘After 20 successful years of leading the market, the brand design now reflects our excellence and progress’...

Mr. Amer Ahmed Belhasa, Managing Director, Emirates Driving Institute said:

We are proud to say that we are a highly trusted brand in UAE in the driver training and road safety sector. Our students have made EDI a strong and stable brand over the past 20 years and the new logo design integrates the faith, confidence and trust given to us. This is a truly exciting day for EDI and our supporters, and we have great pleasure to announce the creation of our all-new logo as a part of our future growth strategy.

“

“

EDI has gone through many positive changes since it was founded in 1991 as just a driving school. Over the years EDI has expanded from its initial learner driver training

initiatives and methodologies in the driver training and road safety sector.

Amongst these many leading initiatives, EDI can count on CSR-related road

safety projects, development of a dedicated Safety Hall, establishing new courses such as Defensive Driving, to keep drivers safe on the roads of UAE; helping the Special-Needs people to make them mobile and less dependent with the Disabled Driver Training course and also for o� road enthusiasts, the range of Desert Driving courses.

EDI is also unique in the Middle East in that it delivers a great number of specialised post-license driver training courses internationally, many of which are for internationally - renowned customers who share EDI’s high standards.

base into many other areas of expertise in the driver training and road safety sector. EDI has indeed led Middle East in training, innovation and international best practice

First Driving Institute in UAE to win this title.

Emirates Driving Institute (EDI), UAE’s oldest and largest driving school joins the exclusive league of UAE’s �nest brands after being awarded the prestigious ‘Superbrand’ status for 2011 & 2012. �is also makes EDI, the �rst ever Driving Institute in UAE to be given this honor.

�e ‘Superbrands’ organiza-tion is acclaimed worldwide as being the independent author-ity and arbiter of branding excellence and is committed to paying tribute to exceptional brands and promoting the discipline of branding. �e Superbrands Council in each country comprises individuals who have shown exceptional aptitude in business and who

have a thorough knowledge of that particular country's markets and methods of business. �e Superbrands Council members are asked to �nalise a shortlist from a list provided by the researchers (includes all brands available in

the country that are widely available). �e CEO and Managing Director of all brands on the shortlist are invited to vote online for all the other brands and the scoring is then tabulated. �e top scoring brands are designated as

Superbrands.Emirates Driving Institute

has recently unveiled the new face of the brand with a new logo and tagline - ‘Driving Excellence. Together, these elements form an exciting new customer proposition and form a part of an overall brand repositioning exercise which EDI believes will endorse their continuing robust growth path

in this ever evolving and dynamic environment. �e new visual branding reinforces the EDI core brand values and distinguishes EDI from the competition. EDI undertook extensive market and customer’s audits in order to arrive at this optimal design solution; it was decided to give the brand a clear, young and a more contemporary look.

Emirates Driving Institute Named‘Superbrand’ 2011 & 2012

Speaking on this achievement, Mr. Amer Ahmed Belhasa, Managing Director, Emirates Driving Institute said:

To be voted as a ‘Superbrand’ is indeed a matter of pride for us and is also recognition of our constant effort to offer service that matches global standard. It is also a reward for all our staff members who have successfully contributed over the years to create brand ‘EDI’. This award inspires us to further strengthen our brand position and continue to build on our reputation as the leading learner and driver training organization in the Middle East.

“

“

It therefore became neces-sary to revisit and realign our mission, vision and core value statements, and to launch a new tagline as well.

The New Vision Statement

“To build on our reputation as the leading learner and driver training organisation in the Middle East and to remain at the forefront of road safety awareness”

“We wanted to have an easier visual brand recall in the minds of our students which the new logo has addressed. �e orange and blue circular logo has a cleaner and more modern look – We are the same people but, with new thoughts” said, Robert A Hodges, Chief Operating O�cer, Emirates Driving Institute.

As part of the rebranding exercise, the graphical imagery of all the information materials, corporate website, vehicle livery and the internal and external appearances of the EDI o�ces will also be transformed over a period of time.

A sneak peek at the journey of EDI

1991 - 2011 A Proud Record of Achievement….First and ONLY Driving Institute

• To be Awarded the Dubai Quality Award in Professional Service Sector.

• To integrate the use of Heavy Truck Simulators into training.

• Provider of ‘Mock’ (practice) Theory Tests & Theory ‘Coaching’.

• Provider of Assessment Test video replay and feedback.

• Provider of public ‘Road Safety Roadshows’.

• To create and distribute 300,000 educational ‘Mama I’m Home’ road-safety packs for school childrens.

• To gain double-accreditations from the World’s two most prestigious driver training and driver improvement

organizations – the AADS & the IAM.

• To win the RTA Dubai Award for Sustainable Transport

(Safety Category).

• To create a specialised data-based computer-

integrated customer training and development system

installed in every vehicle.

• To provide comprehensive modular Desert Driving

Training courses.

First Driving Institute to:

• Create an integrated programme of lectures for students.

• Create specialized modern Lecture Halls.

• Create Learner Driver Manuals for all types of vehicles.

• Create student quick-reference ‘Prompt-Cards’.

• Utilize DVD-based learning materials.

• Create structured training curricula for all vehicle groups

• Implement student-Feedback and Progress Records.

• Apply international adult-educative ‘coaching’ methodology.

• Attain ISO and OHSAS 18001 Quality and Safety Awards.

• Provide Defensive & Advanced Driving Courses at best western levels.

• Integrate the use of LMV driving simulators into training programmes.

• Create a Safety Hall depicting seat belt use/head restraint use/child harness and booster seat utilization/rollover safety.

January 2012 | Emirates Driving | 3

Sponsorship

EDI is on a continuous

mission to spread awareness

on Safe Driving and to keep

this momentum going, EDI

undertook an initiative of

sponsoring the popular

television programme

‘Al Jamaheer’ on Dubai

Sports Channel. �e idea

was to educate the youth

and especially the sports

fraternity at large through

the medium of this very

popular sports program.

�e o�cial announcement

of this initiative was made

on October 10, 2011 at the

Grand Hyatt Hotel during

the press conference held

by the channel to celebrate

the 11th Anniversary of the

show.

Mr. Amer Ahmed Belhasa,

Managing Director, EDI said

“It is our vision to remain

at the forefront of Road

safety awareness. �rough

this initiative, we aim to

promote a culture of safe

driving amongst youth and

the sporting community.”

Rashid Amiri, Director of

Dubai TV thanked all the

key partners for their support

and applauded their valuable

contribution for the sports

community.

January 2012 | Emirates Driving | 4

PARTNERSHIP/SPONSORSHIPAl Jamaheer Press Conference

January 2012 | Emirates Driving | 5

Dubai Women’s Association campaign

EDI partnered with Dubai Women’s Association, Dubai Police and RTA for the campaign ‘My Driving re�ects my culture’ which is speci�cally aimed at lady drivers.

�e objective is to educate women drivers on road safety issues such as how to react in emergency cases,

what to do and who to call for protection, etc. As a part of this campaign EDI along with RTA and Dubai police plan to visit various colleges, schools and government organizations to deliver interactive road safety lectures. �e safety lectures have been conducted in

Dubai Women Associations and other institutions such as Ajman University of Science & Technology, Zayed College, Al Sequim School for basic education, Dubai Customs, etc. EDI during its visits show the videos which contain the statistics showing the number of deaths from

car accidents and the safety guide-

lines set out to tackle road surprises.

�e Dubai Women Association is

a public welfare establishment that

exists under the umbrella of the

General Women's Association of the

UAE.

EPPCO Lubricants agreementNewsmaker

EPPCO Lubricants signed exclusive three-year supply agreement with EDI.

�e exclusive agreement was signed by Amer Belhasa, Managing Director, EDI and Ahmed Al Mulla, Senior Manager, EPPCO Lubricants. As part of the agreement, EPPCO Lubricants will provide its high quality products to EDI, Dubai’s largest driving institute which owns a �eet of over 1000 vehicles in di�erent categories. �e premium products of EPPCO Lubricants cater to a wide range of applications covering automotive, indus-trial, marine and other special-ized services.

January 2012 | Emirates Driving | 6

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Emirates Driving Institute shares a special bond and has been working closely with Al Noor Center as part of its social campaigns. Keeping the momentum going, EDI donated books and novels for a garage sale organized by the center. Al Noor Training Centre for Children serves children with special needs from di�erent nationalities and can accommodate up to 300 children in their campus.

Orphans Day Celebrated

Garage Sale at Al NoorCentre

© Copyright - MSF

© Copyright - MSF

MSF Foundationcharity initiative

EDI partnered with MSF -Medecins Sans Frontiere for providing aid to victims of severe famine that has caused malnutrition and diseases amongst them who are �ghting for survival in East Africa.

Towards this urgent humanitarian cause, employees of EDI pooled in close to 1820 AED which would provide for Vaccination through MSF.

MSF is one of the world's leading independent organisations for medical humanitarian aid, giving quality medical care to people caught in crisis regardless of race, religion, or political a�liation. Every day, more than 27,000 MSF �eld sta� provides assistance around the world to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed con�ict, epidemics, malnutrition, and exclusion from health care or natural disasters.

P.O. Box: 20948, Dubai, UAECall Centre: +971 4 2631100, Fax: +971 4 261 3595

Email: info@edi-uae.com, Website: www.edi-uae.com

P.O. Box: 20948, Dubai, UAECall Centre: +971 4 2631100, Fax: +971 4 261 3595

Email: info@edi-uae.com, Website: www.edi-uae.com

A DIVISION OF EMIRATES DRIVING INSTITUTE

Call us on +971 4 2631100today for more details NOW!

Desert Driving Course

Defensive Driving Course

Your Safety: Its up to you!

Explore the beauty of the untamed desertExplore the beauty of the untamed desert

EDI participated in ‘Orphans Day’ in Aswaaq, Al Warqa wherein Safety demon-stration using Roll over cars and other exhibits was held especially for orphaned children. �e event saw enthusiastic participation from children and the community at large. Aswaaq is a responsible local retailer working towards a better neighborhood whose key distinctive feature is the personal �air of an authentic, traditional and open-street market.

Hundreds of Al Rawabi employees and their

families enthusiastically participated in a

‘Safety Week’ organized in association with EDI

Exxon organized ‘Family Day’ for employeeswherein Roll over Car exhibit was showcased

Safety Campaign organized foremployees of McDonald

DEWA Safety Week held in association with EDI,

Safety demonstrations using Roll over car and

Seat belt convincer were conducted.

Safety Demonstration held by EDI team

at Proctor & Gamble

EDI conducted Safety Demonstration

at Global Village

EDI partnered with Lesley Cully’s ‘Buckle Up

in the back’ initiative for Children safety

Safety Campaign conducted with Al Noor at

Higher College of Technology Sharjah

Road Safety Day organized at Al Batha where

EDI safety exhibits were demonstrated

‘Do Not Text’ Campaign organized at Middlesex

University- EDI was the strategic partner

Seat Belt convincer demo forPolarcus Employees

ROAD SAFETY VISITSJanuary 2012 | Emirates Driving | 7

Ramadan Football Premier League

EDI sponsored “Ramadan Football Premier League” organized by Profes-sional Link during Ramadan at the Qusais stadium. 12 teams participated including the EDI football team which played several matches. Mr. Amer

Ahmed Belhasa, Managing Director, EDI presented the trophy to the winning team “Hamriya” at the Grand Finale.

EDI sponsored the Furjan District Championship-2011 organised by Dubai Sports Council for the fourth consecutive year, held in cooperation with Dubai Municipality under the slogan “Safe Driving and Playing Clean”. �e champi-onship had participation of more than 1600 athletes from di�erent age groups representing 144 teams across football, basketball and volleyball.

Furjan Championships are organised every year and are an attempt to enhance the culture of sports and �tness in various districts of the emirate, while also giving voluntary sports leaders the motivation to put their skills into practice.

Furjan 4

EDI Cricket team participated in DUBAL Ramadan Cricket Tournament and successfully won up to the quarter �nal stage.

DUBAL CricketTournament

SPORTSJanuary 2012 | Emirates Driving | 8

Students of ‘Deira Private School’

experiencing the Roll over Car

Rashid School Of boys learnedabout Road Safety with EDI

Girls at Latifa School with

EDI Roll Over car

Roll over car demo with

students of German School

“Mamma I’m home” talk atOur Own English High School

Staff and students of British Orchard

School seeing the demonstration of

Seat Belt Convincer

EDI team visits Nad Al Hammar School

SCHOOL VISITSJanuary 2012 | Emirates Driving | 9

As part of EDI’s ongoing employee development programs, a seminar was organized for

male sta� members on bone and back related issues. It is fairly common for professionals

in motor training and vehicle industry to face back and joint problems because of the strenu-ous nature of the job. Hence, this interactive session in association with DBAJ turned out to be highly useful and informative for instructors and technical sta�.

DBAJ-Dubai Bone and Joint Center, a member of Moham-mad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Academic Medical Center is the premier center for musculoskel-etal treatment and complemen-tary services in the Middle East o�ering patients world-class specialists and facilities to improve their quality of life.

EMPLOYEE NEWS & EVENTS

Bone health is an issue of growing importance as rate of osteoporosis is on the increase with women. EDI in association with Anlene held a free Bone Scanning checkup for its entire ladies sta�. Pocket Booklets and Flyers outlining the causes of arthritis and risks of arthritis were distributed to the sta�. �ese were provided by the Emirates Arthritis Foun-dation (EAF). On completion of the Bone Scan all the ladies were given free milk samples to taste and were also provided free consultation on their bone scanning results. Anlene is a specialized adult milk product, formulated for optimum bone

health to help prevent osteopo-rosis bone deterioration.

�e ladies sta� members found the checkup camp

extremely bene�cial as it helped many of them know their bone mass related issues and ways to keep the bones healthy.

Farewell-Peter Richardson

Ramadan Foodand Healthsafety lecture

Bone Scanning Check up

Seminar for Male staff onback problems

To welcome the holy month of Ramadan in true spirit, EDI organized a talk on ‘Healthy Eating’ for its male sta�. �e talk was conducted by Dr. Ikrammudin in association with Nucleus Healthcare.

�e core objective behind this event was to clear myths and perceptions around healthy eating before and after fasting hours during Ramadan. Dr. Ikrammudin explained in simple terms the do’s and don’t’s to follow to maintain a healthy mind and body. �e session was interactive with employees clearing doubts especially on diabetes and BP related problems and how to tackle them during fasting hours.

�e talk was followed by free blood sugar screenings and blood pressure checks which saw eager participation from the male sta� at EDI.

EDI will miss you!

In February 2011, the management and sta� of EDI bid a fond farewell to Mr. Peter Richardson who had been the General Manager - Technical & Operations since 2007. In his 5 year stint at EDI, his contribution in technical and operations management has been exemplary and would be tough to replace. His absence will be strongly felt. Heartfelt appreciation was expressed at a small farewell party held for him where close colleagues wished him all the success for future!

January 2012 | Emirates Driving | 10

Ladies From ‘Ministry of Water & Environment’

at the EDI Safety Hall

Popular Syrian actress

‘Deema Hasem Bayyaa’ at EDI

A Team of Driving Instructors from Finlandalongside EDI Family

Famous football players ‘Jakson Avelino Coelho,Luis Antonio and Edinaldo Libanio’with Mr. Khalid Halboub

Amr Diab, the renowned Egyptian singer received

a warm welcome by Mr. Amer Ahmed Belhasa,

Managing Director, EDI

Well-known tennis player ‘Sania Mirza’

with her husband ‘Shoaib Malik’,

the cricketer, with EDI Staff

CELEBRITY STUDENTS & VISITORSJanuary 2012 | Emirates Driving | 11

DRIVING EXCELLENCE | التميز في القيادة

SOLO DRIVER TRAININGSOLO DRIVER TRAINING

Gain theconfidence &experience ofdriving a car

alone Get topractise

“Real Life”parking

techniques

Learn tomake improvedobservations &

well-timeddecisions

Becomemore aware ofyour personal

responsibility &learn to drive

sensibly

P.O. Box: 20948, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Fax: +971 4 263 1268, Email: info@edi-uae.com

www.edi-uae.comCall Centre: +971 4 263 1100

EDI’s brand new facility and innovative approachgeared towards creating better & safer drivers