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So 20 drivers from the firm returned to the classroom one Saturday for a day-long session. General driving and delivery problems were discussed and training videos used by British Airways to improve customer relations were shown.
"We saw how they handled customers when they were under stress'having to explain about the planes being late. It is similar to our drivers having to get there on time." explains Barker. He was so impressed with the effects of the course it was soon followed up with a British Standards Quality Assurance course. This explained how the firm would be moving towards getting BS5750. The drivers were told what the company would have to do and how important it was for R Barker and Sons (Transport) to get quality approval.
"The courses taught us how to treat each situation as it came along, and it taught me how to handle people," says R Barker driver Ken Hunt who has spent more than 30 years driving trucks. "I learnt just to be myself and to be tidy. We wear a uniform now with a collar and tie and have a smart appearance. I find we get treated with more respect."
Since that first lorry driver session, Skelmersdale College has found itself designing similar courses for several other hauliers. But it stresses that each one is tailor-made. "All organisations have people with different personalities and bosses with different objectives, so the courses depend very much on what the firms want," says Joan Carless, marketing manager for Skelmersdale.
She believes that each course encourages drivers to have a hand in the way the training takes shape: "What we do not do is go along and say 'you are a load of rubbish, we know hest'.
"What we are saying is that you, as drivers, are quite well practised in customer care and what we want you to do is to share your experience with eachother. It is a kind of quality circle where everyone has their say about what they do well and how they think the company can be Unproved," she says.
LI by Tanya Cordrey