Girteka, the logistics company managing the largest private vehicle fleet in Europe, has been focusing on children’s road safety education in Lithuania since 2016, emphasizing practical learning in its initiatives. The goal is not only to remind the rules but also to help children better understand the real situations they will face on the road and how to act safely in them.
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This year, Girteka is taking another step – actively involving its employees and their families in road safety education. On the occasion of September 1st, gifts dedicated to the theme of safe visibility on the road were given to employees’ children, and a special road safety lesson was prepared for the employees themselves, which they can present in their children’s classes or schools.
Safety is more than just a topic for educational projects
Girteka’s history of children’s road safety education began in 2016 with road safety days for schoolchildren, and over time the forms and scale of initiatives changed: practical education about visibility on the road was organized, special spaces where it was possible to compare how a person is seen in the dark with and without a reflector, and in 2020, 30,000 educational road safety booklets for children were distributed throughout Lithuania.
In 2025, the Road Safety Caravan visited Lithuanian schools. This year, it also rolled out to city festivals, where road safety education reaches a wider audience.
“Children learn the rules quite quickly, but just knowing how to behave is not enough. It is important to us that they learn to apply them practically. They should also understand the reasons – what can happen if an unsafe decision is made and how to avoid it. Safety is not a separate topic of a single campaign for us – it is part of our daily activities: we invest in a modern vehicle fleet and safety technologies, constantly train drivers, and analyze their driving habits. Therefore, it is natural to share the practical knowledge we have accumulated with those who are just becoming independent road users,” says Mindaugas Paulauskas, Director of Girteka Transport.
Girteka also continues the public campaign “Be safe on the road. Trust the rules, not intuition.” Its message is simple: safety in traffic should be determined not by guessing “I still have time” or “they definitely see me,” but by knowing the rules and being able to properly assess the situation.
To the classroom – with a lesson led by mom or dad
This year, road safety education comes even closer to children – into classrooms. Girteka has prepared the entire content and materials for a road safety lesson so that interested employees can visit their children’s classes or schools and conduct the session themselves.
The lesson clearly explains to children how to safely cross the street, recognize important road signs, properly use reflectors, and behave near heavy vehicles. One part is dedicated to truck visibility and blind spots – children are explained why a large vehicle moves and maneuvers differently than a passenger car and why a pedestrian or cyclist next to it is not always well visible to the driver. To ensure the session does not become just a list of rules, games and prizes for the whole class have also been prepared.
Not only the lesson content itself is important. When familiar people talk to children about their work experience and road safety, the topic becomes closer and more personal.
“Children are always interested to know what their parents do. And when the story about professions and daily work becomes a road safety lesson, the topic gains another emotional weight – after all, it is not an anonymous lecturer speaking, but a classmate’s dad or mom. Ultimately, this way we can reach many more children than the Road Safety Caravan could physically visit alone,” comments M. Paulauskas.
See the benefits with your own eyes
The theme of safe visibility was also chosen for this year’s September 1st gifts for Girteka employees’ children. Among them are reflective spray and stencils, which help practically verify why it is important to be visible on the road, especially as the darker season approaches. Although these tools do not replace a regular reflector, they become an additional way to interest the child in the topic of visibility and encourage family discussions about safety.
“We would like road safety education for children not to be just a reminder heard at the beginning of the school year. We achieve the most when we talk about safe behavior in different environments – at school, at home, in the community. By involving our employees, we want exactly that: for the road safety topic to move from a single lesson or campaign into everyday family conversations and eventually become a natural habit,” summarizes Mindaugas Paulauskas, Director of Girteka Transport.
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