The last thing a commercial driver wants is someone looking
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over shoulder and commenting on his driving technique. But there a positive aspects to the exercise and safety is top of the list.
If you've been driving trucks for the last 25 years, sat in traffic jams on every motorway in the country, and hung around waiting to tip at every drop from Plymouth to Perth, the last thing you want is some so-called trainer squatting in the passenger seat wittering on about defensive driving and trying to tell you how to do your jolo.
For all you know, he's a stooge the boss has planted as part of a cunningly-laid plan to get rid of you on the grounds that you're not Up to it any more.
"There's always a little brick wall between the instructor and the driver," concedes Stewart Gemmel', customer services manager at Ellesmere Port-based Driving Services. But it's one that can be quickly dismantled once the man at the wheel realises that the trainer is there to help, not hinder, and understands and appreciates the problems drivers face daily.
"All our instructors are former drivers who know what it's like to have to unload trucks at 3am in the freezing cold," says Gemmell. And he insists the exercise isn't about selecting employees for the dole queue.
"Our guys don't just sit there and tick boxes."
Where possible, Driving Services likes to get a company's union representatives involved at an early stage in the exercise. "We approach it from a health and safety angle," adds Gemmell. Bob Smalley, head of driver training services at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), observes: 'There have been occasions when companies have mistakenly tried to use us as some sort of big stick. So we always say 'speak to the union people, and get them to come on the course first'. That way, we've always overcome suspicions that we are a management tool." Terry Loveridge, manager of Training Force, says that ideally, all the drivers in a company should be 'Drought together in advance so that the instructors can explain what is going to happen: "If they can meet the assessors first, we can get them to understand that we're their friends, not their enemies."
Defensive driver training specialists such as Driving Services (clients include BOC Distribution Services and United Biscuits), Training Force — part of the Lane Group — and New Driving Initiatives aim to improve a driver's mental approach to driving rather than try to teach him new skills. RosPA and the Freight Transport Association also offer courses with this goal in mind.
Their aims are to cut accidents, reduce the likelihood of injury, improve fuel consumption, and minimise wear and tear on the vehicle. Fewer bumps and bangs mean fewer insurance claims, so, not surprisingly, most insurance companies and bro kers wholeheartedly support the concept. "Remember that 65% of accidents are down to human error," says David Chatterton, LGV project manager at NDI, "and that a driver typically spends 45 minutes of every hour at the wheel on autopilot. "He spends only 15 minutes really concentrating on what he's doing. The rest of the time he might say, thinking about what he's going to when he gets home. "Nor does an exemplary accident rec excuse a driver from course attenda Sometimes drivers who have gone two y without having an accident feel they are let-proof. They start taking chances, they don't even realise that that's what t are doing." Training Force's Loveridge adds: "Bec trucks are so much more comfortable t they were 30 years ago, it can become tie like sitting in an armchair watching Now I'm not saying driving a truck isn't h work, but days you hay work ment rather physically." Defensive ving is, in ef risk man ment, says Chattert "We're tal about things keeping pl of space between your vehicle and o road users, making sure that you are cle visible, and signalling your intentions cl ly and in good time."
According to Driving Services' Gem truck driving is "all about anticipating is going to happen, being aware of wh going on around you, and interpretin information you are receiving; it's consi ing things like changes in the road surf and how that might affect you if y halfway round a bend and the surfa wet".
Ro5PA's Smalley adds: "It's concentr on observation, and looking into the middle and for distance. It's planning you are going to drive through haz thinking about how other drivers are lik behave, and giving yourself time to rea you don't get involved in incidents." Good drivers know all this, but ma always put it into practice, says Loveri "We're trying to wake them up and jog memories. The problem is that most drivers have received no training since passed their test, and that could have years ago. But traffic conditions changed, and technology has change "For example, in the past when a d
An exemplary accident record does not excuse a driver from course attendance
down, he doubledeclutched and blipped the throttle. These days there's no need to blip the throttle, but many drivers still do: and that adversely affects fuel consumption. "Also, too many drivers are driving in the way they did before speed limiters were fitted, There's no point in trying to overtake another truck if it's going to take you two or three minutes."
Rood conditions
Training Force offers a programme called Quality on the Road, which kicks off with a two to three-hour seminar attended by all drivers. The trainer runs through everything changing road conditions to legal -vers' hours legislation,
the driver when the course is completed. 'So for as we are concerned, it's not couched in terms of 'he's good at this' or 'he's bad at that'," says Chatterton. 'We're not talking about passing and failing here." Costs vary. Driving Services, for example, charges £235 per trainer per day, while RosPA charges £250. Large transport companies have the option of setting up their own in-house training operation, and here Centrex can help by training in-house trainers. It takes a week to train a driving assessor at a cost of about £1,000,
Business Express, a 48-hour parcel deliv' ecialist, has appointed two advanced u rade the skills of its anage
expires, and again a £25 rebate as an incentive to stay with Norwich General Accident offers two f on driver training courses with des, and a £50 premium renewal of the policy for all complete the course. Broker CE Heath has put tog age with NDI and insurer AG fleets to recoup the cost of through lower premiums. Smith says it is aimed primar cis, but it should be possibl a similar package with re truck insurers such as Nor Eagle Star,