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GAINING THROUGH TRAINING

22nd October 2009
Page 39
Page 39, 22nd October 2009 — GAINING THROUGH TRAINING
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Keywords : Hawksworth

All Widdowson drivers go through a yearly assessment, including a health and safety update, and annual 'test', reveals commercial director John Hawksworth. New drivers also get a week-long induction with the business.

'We've also been using a sat-nay system with Masternaut's 'green fleet' program and can track the drivers in real time and analyse their performance. From that, we've produced league tables, which work on a traffic-light system — the best performing drivers being In the green and so on."

The firm is looking at setting up a fuel bonus scheme based on performance 'in the round' as logged by the Masternaut software. "It's not in yet," Hawksworth says, "because we've concentrated initially on the front end trading. But now we've started to attack the greener fleet side."

He acknowledges the difficulties in creating a scheme that's fair for drivers working on different routes and vehicles. "These are all things to consider, that's what the system monitors, a different number of parameters including harsh braking, acceleration and idling... rather than just fuel."

In addition to tracking individual driver performances through the Masternaut program, Widdowson also runs a separate fuel monitoring system, producing monthly fuel reports for each vehicle.

"We cross-check that against Masternaut with tank-to-tank actuals," says Harry Hawksworth. "If we do find a problem with an underperforming truck, nine times out of 10 it's not the vehicle."

Along with its own Training Academy, the group is also setting up an in-house Driver CPC qualification centre. John Hawksworth concludes: "Whenever we take a new job, we do a risk assessment at the depot we're going to be delivering to. We assess the risks to see if we need to put new procedures in place."

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Organisations: Training Academy

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