All councils have staff members that are required to drive as part of their job, but how do you track the quality of their driving?
Poor driving could not only result in injury to the staff member, but could result in expensive damage to fleet vehicles either through large or many minor repairs.
IPWEA has launched its new Online Driver Training Program to help councils identify which of their staff members are high-risk drivers.
Senior instructor with Zero Crash Training, Dave Shirley was asked to evaluate XDrive’s online driver training program on behalf of Uniqco and IPWEA.
Shirley brought with him extensive experience as a driving instructor and trainer as well as his insight as a former pilot where procedures and safety are paramount.
He believes the course, which has been around since 1998, is both a time and cost effective way to evaluate drivers’ skills.
“What I really like about it is it’s a fast, accurate method of identifying high-risk drivers,” he said.
“You can let your drivers carry out the initial on line computer based training anywhere, anytime. Initially no in vehicle driver training is required, they can train in an office.”
According to Shirley, the online course allows managers to identify the driving skills of their staff, particularly their defensive driving skills.
If there are any areas of concern, the staff member will be assigned additional online theory training. If there are still areas of concern, the staff member can be sent to complete practical driver training.
The course is designed to evaluate both new and experienced drivers. Bad habits can develop over time and this is a quick and easy way to identify them.
“The practical [drive] is always the best way to see if someone has any bad driving habits, but it’s not always possible due to time constraints in this day and age,” said Shirley. “This is a good starting point to see if any drivers have any bad habits or any shortcomings with their driving performance.”
Once enrolled, each participant has 12 months’ unlimited access to up to 24 driver-training modules. Each module should take a matter of minutes to complete. The interactive videos require drivers to identify hazards as they develop, as if they were driving in typical everyday driving scenarios. Drivers that do not identify hazards will be assigned additional online training and possibly in-car driver training at some stage.
“It’s a fast, accurate, initial method of identifying high risk drivers, which is great.
More importantly, the training regularly re-enforces safe driving procedures and theory, which is so often forgotten; we all need regular reminders.”
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