Why use our services & benefits
Lack of access to treatment, preventive health care and education represents one of the biggest hurdles to development in rural Africa. For any organisation working in Africa, predictable transportation brings with it the ability to plan its work effectively and to manage finances and budgets.
In 2005 the international business consultancy OC&C carried out a pro-bono due diligence report on Riders for Health’s activities in Africa. They found that Riders was having clear economic, social and health benefits and was also increasing health worker outreach.
If you would like to download a copy of the OC&C report, please click here.
Economic benefit
By managing your fleet properly, there are clear economic benefits. The impact of vehicle failure and the costs associated with that failure are largely invisible. However this graph shows the real costs of running, or attempting to run, vehicles that are not part of a management system, compared to the costs of running correctly managed vehicles of the same kind.
Comparison of the cumulative cost per vehicle for managed and unmanaged systems for delivering health interventions in Africa (Riders for Health’s fifteen years’ experience).
Riders has dramatically reduced the fleet maintenance costs associated with health worker outreach. Riders’ pricing mechanism is based on its ‘cost per kilometre’ (CPK) calculator, which enables vehicle management to be based on a precise understanding of how much money vehicles are using in terms of management, fuel and part. CPK calculates charges on distance travelled rather than for specific labour and parts. The direct link between distance travelled and cost regulates the normally unpredictable costs of vehicle maintenance, and allows your organisation to budget expenditures.
Zimbabwe has seen a 62% reduction in the annual costs for motorcycle fleet maintenance per thousand people reached by health workers in Zimbabwe. In the Gambia there has been a 24% reduction in annual vehicle maintenance cost per person treated per month by nurses at outreach clinics in The Gambia.
‘Our vehicles last longer in TRM. This is the point of preventive maintenance.” – Permanent Secretary, Dept. Of State for Health, Zimbabwe.
Effective fleet management does not only have financial advantages. If a fleet is managed correctly, it will not fail, and there will be huge benefits for service delivery.
‘It was very difficult before the motorcycles. We had to walk 50km to reach some villages. A village could wait three months before receiving a visit.’ – EHT, Zimbabwe.
Increased health worker outreach
OC&C found that Riders dramatically increases the number of health workers that can be kept mobile on a given budget. For example, they found that in a Riders supported area in Zimbabwe, there are around 90% more health workers using vehicles than in areas where Riders is not working. This means that Riders is able to help more health workers become mobilized, allowing them to reach even the most isolated villages.
Health benefits
The due-diligence report found that the mobility afforded by Riders enables health workers to diagnose and treat more patients. In 2002, after Riders began operating in the Gambia, there was a 261% increase in diagnoses of diarrhoea, a 75% increase in diagnoses of acute respiratory infection, and 55% increase in the diagnosis of malaria, compared to 2001.
Riders has also helped increase the proportion of fully immunised infants in The Gambia. The immunisation rates amongst infants have risen from 62% to 73% while Riders has been operating. In Zimbabwe malaria deaths have decreased 21% in one region served by motorcycles and supported by Riders, compared with a 44% increase in a neighbouring region, where Riders was not operating.
When health workers are mobilised, and no longer have to walk huge distances to reach villages, they are able to spend longer with patients, visit them more regularly and build the trust and relationships needed to tackle sensitive issues like HIV/AIDS. In short, they can do the job they were trained to do.
‘We understand that the benefits we deliver to the community are as a direct result of Riders. It is very easy to watch a whole community of children be wiped out by malaria just because you cannot access them.’ Deputy Director, Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe.