The first step to improving the safety of your fleet is to implement a motor vehicle review (MVR) program to rate the skills of your drivers. Divide your drivers into three categories: excellent, average and poor and customize a training strategy for each. Step two is to periodically evaluate the training program and identify ways to improve it.

Update Your Training Programs

Take a good hard look at your training program. Is it meaningful? Does it help drivers improve their driving skills? Do drivers retain what you teach them? Be honest now. So many driver training programs are canned programs that have been customized and, in the process, watered down. These programs tend to be ineffective and result in very little retention. Even well designed programs have flaws and can be improved. Here are two suggestions to improve your own driver training programs:

1. Use the Latest Education Training Techniques

Ensure that you’re using the latest adult education training techniques that are based on studies of the brain and how it learns. For example:

• Chunk your information into manageable bites of information. These chunks are more easily and readily assimilated by the learner;
• Deliver these chunks of information using the 90, 20 and 8 rule. This means, you take a break every 90 minutes, talk to a maximum of 20 minutes and every 8 minutes test and reinforce learning with exercises;
• Conduct frequent reviews and vary what you review to maintain interest and, thus, enhance retention; and
• Tie the learning into something memorable, such as a story, a concrete example, humor or an emotion.

These are just a few techniques that make learning “sticky” and enhances retention.

2. Use the Latest Technology

Have students witness actual company motor vehicle accidents and/or near misses using in-cab monitoring technology. These incidents can be simulated or real, and can be customized to each driver. (Just be sure you obtain the driver’s permission for use to prevent embarrassment and to meet privacy/confidentiality requirements.)

By capturing simulated or real incidents with in-cab monitoring, you can have students:

• Judge whether the incident is preventable and non-preventable; and
• Practice what the driver could have done to prevent or avoid the incident.

In-cab monitoring technology also allows you to identify risky, aggressive and illegal behaviors, as well as good driving practices. It’s hard for drivers to argue when their behaviors have been caught on camera. The lessons they learn from watching themselves will certainly be retained.

Keep in mind, though, any training using in-cab monitoring should be conducted as individual coaching sessions. You want to preserve privacy and avoid any unnecessary embarrassment.

Conclusion

By using these suggestions, in essence, you’re applying principles of behavior-based safety to driving and targeting at-risk behaviors, such as unsafe and/or aggressive driving habits. Through positive coaching and reinforcement, these at-risk behaviors can be driven down to extinction. This means great savings in property damage, insurance costs and incident costs. It’s win-win. It worked for BP Petroleum and it can work for you. Safe driving is safety in motion.

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