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at the helm
Your drivers are in charge of an expensive piece of capital investment: teaching them defensive driving techniques is one way of protecting that investment while reducing driver stress and fatigue. Several training schools offer courses, and not all are on-road—you can pick up techniques driving a CD-ROM!
piloting a truck along Britain's choked highways is becoming more and more of a nightmare. Mums on the school run cut in front of you, not realising that it's a darn sight easier to stop a Renault Clio than a 38-tonner. Sales reps stick up two fingers and screech past at lunatic speeds. And little old ladies on push-bikes with baskets try to overtake on the inside when you're entering a roundabout. Naturally they all exhibit their suicidal tendencies when it's foggy or sheeting down with rain.
Any fleet manager worth his salt has to be aware of the conditions his drivers face day in, day out. But how can he help them cope with the lunatics they're bound to encounter?
The answer could be to send them on a course in defensive driving, suggests Peter Hodgson, chief executive of ILV driving school West Hens Training of St Albans, Herts. "It involves teaching them to look ahead, read the road properly and not put themselves into potentially dangerous situations," he says. "Very few drivers read the road ahead as well as they might."
What trainers ask them to do is to continually anticipate the passible actions of other road users and to travel at the sort of speed and distance that will give them enough leeway to avoid trouble. It involves intelligent observation, which leads to unflustered use of the gears and a reduction in the need for sudden, heavy, braking.
Training organised by EP Training Services of Great Bookham, Surrey for a major fleet operator formerly in the public sector led to a a5% reduction in accidents, says managing director Eddie Pargeter. But promotion of a smoother, more considered driving style can also lead to less wear and tear on the brakes, tyres, and other components, he adds, while reducing fuel costs at the same time.
"The fuel bill saving can be as high as L15,000-£20,000 on a 38-tonner doing 150,000km a year," claims Bill Wilford, managing director of Rochester, Kent-based trainer Kent Metro, although that is an extreme case. Jim Thomson of Creative Training in Hampshire says: "If you can get another 0.5mpg—and that's perfectly possible—then it has to be worthwhile."
"One way of looking at the fuel saving is to think about what your worst vehicle returns and the impact on your bottom line of bringing it and its drivers up to the fleet average," Hodgson suggests. A further benefit is that drivers are less tired and stressed, he says; and there's no evidence that a more considered driving style results in longer journey times.
"In the past all this has been very much the province of big fleet operators with training budgets, but we're seeing smaller fleets going for it now," says Hodgson. 'They're interested in it because their margins are getting squeezed and they've got to find ways of bringing their costs down."
Driver reaction
One potential obstacle is the reaction of drivers, who might resent outsiders trying to tell them how to do their jobs. They might also fear their employer is using such a scheme to select people for redundancy. Much depends on how the employer introduces the idea to his employees, says Hodgson. "The ideal approach is for him to tell them the firm has decided to invest some money in them," he believes.
The trainers have to be tactful too, says Eddie Pargeter. "But all our guys have driven LGVs for a living and appreciate the situation the people they are training are in," he says. "And the drivers are usually happy to take their advice." He charges £150 a day for an instructor who can coach two people during that time; most driving schools charge 1:1304200 a day for this service. He travels to the company's depot and uses the haulier's own vehicles, "The instructor will drive for half an hour and literally describe what he is doing as he is doing it," says Pargeter. "Then the driver will take the wheel for 45 minutes and our trainer will assess him. He'll advise him on ways in which he can improve his technique and the driver will then attempt to put his advice into practice under his tuition."
Tuition can be supported by talks on driving theory, says Hodgson. He prefers to use the haulier's own vehicles for tuition so the driver doesn't haven't to get used to an unfamiliar truck.
Employers who use his firm's courses receive a report on how the driver has benefited. This is shown to the driver and discussed with him before it is passed on.
Truck manufacturers are taking a lot of interest in driver training, reasoning that if you're going to supply an expensive item of capital equipment to a company, it makes sense to educate its employees in how to get the best out of it.
Volvo, for example, has three full-time trainers based at its UK headquarters in Warwick and their services are available free to Volvo customers. It's even talking about setting up a drivers' academy.
Fewer bumps and bangs mean fewer insurance claims, and the training schools are disappointed that more insurers don't do more to encourage defensive driving courses. However, Eagle Star is an exception: it's developed close ties with trainers NDI over the past two years. "We provide an up-front premium discount of up to £150 per vehicle insured with us for every driver a haulier sends on a course," says commercial motor manager Roger Thrift. This discount in effect pays for the training. "What's more, we offer a retrospective premium discount of up to 10% if our end of year claims experience turns out to be better than anticipated," he adds. "We're promoting this package to hauliers with five trucks or more. In our experience the number of accidents can fall by 16% and the average size of insurance claim per accident by 32%, because those that do occur tend to be less serious.
"We're also encouraging what we refer to as stage-two driver training," says Thrift. "The impact of the original course lasts for up to three years, so we suggest a programme of refresher courses at the policy's second renewal date."
Truck insurance rates are soft at the moment and a fleet operator can often achieve a hefty premium cut simply by threatening to switch to another insurer. "But they'll harden again at some point and it's then that hauliers will really start to feel the benefit," he predicts.
There are operators around with such a poor accident record that insurers will either load their rating or decline the risk, no matter how hungry they are for business. Bill Wilford knows of at least two incidents where defensive driver training has made a fleet risk more acceptable to underwriters Training doesn't have to be conducted on the public highway. Zurich Insurance has sponsored an interactive CD-ROM entitled
Advanced Driver 7'raining Your licence To Drive developed by driver training specialist Riva 4Di of Brighouse, West Yorkshire. It costs £250 (ex-VAT).
There's one for WV pilots and another for car and light CV drivers. Every fleet insuring more than 100 vehicles with Zurich's Commercial Division receives a free copy of both. They contain exercises designed to reinforce the behaviour required if you are to drive defensively, together with video footage which demonstrates best practice.
There's a self-test section at the end of each module which can be used to evaluate drivers and identify training needs.
"Each driver should work through the CDROM over, say, six months, followed by a meeting with their manager to discuss their performance," says Riva 4Di managing director Ed Dubens.
Although Riva 41)i carries out on-highway training (it offers an hour's assessment for £30) Dubens reckons that only 20-25% of drivers benefit from the traditional style of defensive driving course. And he believes strongly that transport companies should treat driver training as but one element of a much broader safety policy. "If a company has an accident problem, it may be the case that it needs to look at its routeing instead."
If trucks can be routed away from accident blackspots, that may reduce the number of incidents. "Accidents may also be closely linked with the company's own maintenance practices," he suggests.
Riva 41)i is working with the University of Huddersfield on computer software which hauliers will be able to use to analyse accidents, determine why they occur and identify patterns to help decide what action should be taken. "It's wrong simply to blame the driver," says Dubens. There is, it seems, a limit on how defensive your driving can be. L by Steve Banner