SINGAPORE - Vehicle leasing company Lumens Auto, transport giant ComfortDelGro's driving centre and Toyota agent Borneo Motors have joined forces to offer free safe-driving tips to private-hire drivers.

The collaboration - the first of its kind - kicked off on Friday (July 5) with the aim of improving the safety record of such drivers, most of whom do not have any formal road safety training.

Mr Joe Zhang, Lumens Auto's head of driver relations, said: "The number of road accidents involving private-hire vehicles is a pertinent issue which the industry should actively address."

He said the new two-hour Road Craft Training course "will help to reduce the risk of accidents for our drivers".

It uses portable in-vehicle logging systems, cameras and advanced sensors to collect comprehensive data on the driver's performance during a training session. Trainers will then use this information to give feedback to each driver.

Borneo Motors is sponsoring a pilot batch of 100 drivers for the course.

Singapore managing director Jasmmine Wong said: "We aim to actively promote road safety through partnerships with various strategic stakeholders, and ComfortDelGro Driving Centre is certainly one of them."

Ms Wong added that since last October, anyone who buys a Toyota gets a free Drive Safe Course at the ComfortDelGro Driving Centre.

Mr Lim Tien Hock, the centre's chief executive, said: "ComfortDelGro Driving Centre builds its entire business model on safe and responsible driving so we are pleased to collaborate with Lumens Auto and Borneo Motors to provide this Road Craft Training course to private-hire car drivers."

The General Insurance Association of Singapore said private-hire cars are twice as prone to accidents as privately owned cars.

Lumens is among several rental and leasing companies supplying cars to the private-hire industry, which has quadrupled in size to around 70,000 vehicles in the past six years.