ON THE DEFEI YE
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Rising operating costs are forcing many hauliers to consider sending staff on defensive driving courses. Commercial Motor looks at the benefits.
Ni Hauliers are known for their aversion to staff training, but the Gulf crisis and rising overheads are forcing many of them to look at defensive driving schools as a means of reducing operating costs.
"A year ago I was very depressed because I thought the downturn in the economy would affect the training school," says one defensive driving instructor. "But at the moment business is at least 25% up."
So what sort of savings can hauliers expect from sending their drivers on a defensive driving course?
One Binningham-based transport firm trimmed about 27,000 off its insurance bill after sending its 23 drivers for training, which cost 2.3,500.
As well as cheaper insurance, operators find their accident rate drops considerably.
Oil company Conoco began investigating its accident record in 1973. Its drivers were averaging 22.5 accidents per 160,000km. In 1978 the company began a defensive driving programme for its staff which is still operating today. The latest accident figures have slumped to 0.7 accidents per 160,000km.
Most defensive driving schools claim they can cut a driver's accident rate by as much as 60%. Paul Beresford, sales and marketing director of Defensive Driver Training, says these figures can even per
suade an insurance firm to take on an operator which has been refused insurance cover.
"Once a driver has been through a defensive driving course, all those silly bumps disappear — the sort nobody gets hurt in, but are bloody expensive," he says.
IMPRESSIVE RESULTS
Schools can achieve such impressive results because 90% of all road accidents are caused by driver error. West Hertfordshire Transport Training defines the most common mistakes:
El poor concentration; LI misjudging speed/distance; LI driving too fast; LI incorrect positioning; LI inadequate observation.
But it is not only accident rates which improve with defensive driver training. Many operators find their maintenance bills drop as drivers are kinder to clutches and tyres, and fuel consumption can improve by up to 10%.
West Hertfordshire Transport Training's chief executive Peter Hodgson says it is not uncommon for drivers to improve fuel consumption by 2mpg following an advanced HGV course.
If all the drivers in a 28-strong fleet improved their fuel consumption from 9.5mpg to 11.5mpg the saving could be worth more than £40,000, says Hodgson.
Most training schools find that bad driving is caused by bad attitudes, rather than inadequate skills. "All drivers go too close, too fast. The British disease is tailgateing," says Beresford.
General Accident adds: "Even in dry conditions on a good surface, some heavyladen HGVs require twice the braking distance achieved by the best of cars. Many drivers ignore this rule."
BRAKING DISTANCE
One of the major problems tackled by a defensive driving course is reversing. More than 15% of HGV insurance claims are related to reversing, says General Accident, compared with 1% cars.
Beresford says: "There is a macho image problem with reversing a heavy goods vehicle. Most drivers feel they ought to be able to do it in one — even though sometimes this is impossible."
The dramatic results achieved by schools in curbing bad habits such as poor reversing, has prompted several other organisations to look to the benefits of defensive HGV driving.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has a team of UK instructors who give on-site training to transport companies round the UK including Christian Salvesen, Some Training Enterprise Councils, such as Hertfordshire TEC, are helping to fund courses. General Accident is even subsidising training; it contributes £25 for each driver — about one third of the cost of a one-day course.