Old habits

One of the big drawbacks of driver training is the tendency of many trainees to revert to their bad old habits during the months following completion of the course.

‘It appears logical to assume that better-trained drivers will have fewer collisions but this is not the case,’ says Zurich Australia. That is the conclusion it has come to after examining evidence from customers who have introduced driver-training programmes as the main means of reducing a fleet’s exposure to risk.

‘They often enjoy an initial reduction in the claim rate but after 12 to 18 months it is usually back to exactly where it was before the training was implemented,’ the company says.

On-road safety culture

The challenge therefore for fleets is to monitor the behaviour of their drivers to ensure this does not happen and to find ways of continually reinforcing the message the course they attended tried to impart. What operators must do at the same time however is develop an on-road safety culture that permeates their business; and that’s not easy says Zurich Australia.

‘It can take years to introduce, even in organisations that have a well-developed safety culture in their factories and offices,’ it observes. ‘But if you don’t have the appropriate safety/operational balance then you’ll have better-trained drivers operating in an unsafe working environment who are still likely to be involved in collisions.’

Such a safety culture needs to address issues such as fatigue management, placing company limits on maximum continuous driving times and obliging drivers to take a 15 to 20 minute break after, say, two hours of continuous driving.

In some countries of course legislation places strict limits on how long individuals may remain at the wheel without a break and on the length of their working day, especially if they are driving heavy trucks. The same countries are likely to have laws in place that impose a general duty of care on employers to provide a safe working environment; New Zealand’s Health and Safety in Employment Amendment Act 2002 is a good example.

Telematics monitoring

One route pursued by a growing number of fleets worldwide is to install an onboard telematics-based package that allows them to see if drivers are, for example, speeding or constantly braking or accelerating too harshly. Such on-highway conduct is likely to lead to an accident sooner or later but if managers are aware of what is happening then they can take the matter up with the individuals concerned; and possibly arrange some remedial training.

It is a route that is being pursued in Oman by PAEW, the Public Authority for Electricity and Water.

With some 400 vehicles and serving a population of more than 1.5m, PAEW was becoming increasingly concerned about the number of accidents its drivers were having thanks in many cases to their irresponsible behaviour behind the wheel.

It turned to MiX Telematics and Fleet Management Systems International to help it deal with the problem. As a consequence a programme to install FM Tracer and FM Communicator was started in mid-2013.

Drivers who speed, constantly hit the brake pedal too hard and forget to put their seat belts on can now be identified and subsequently coached to improve their behaviour. Satellite tracking means PAEW knows where they are and the technology used means it can communicate with them all the time.

The package that has been installed and the management follow-up that has accompanied it has undoubtedly resulted in a fall in the number of accidents, says PAEW; something that was clearly seen within the first three months after the rollout began. There have been other benefits too including falls in maintenance costs and fuel consumption.

Driver feedback

Several thousand miles away in the USA, LeFleur Transportation has teamed up with GreenRoad to help ensure that its drivers always drive smoothly and safely.

The nature of the Ridgeland, Mississippi-based fleet’s work makes this particularly important. It operates around 450 cars, people carriers and minibuses in order to provide non-emergency transport to people who may have mobility difficulties on behalf of a variety of government agencies and private organisations US-wide.

Clients include the Texas Health and Human Services Commission which has recently selected LeFleur to manage the non-emergency transport needs of Medicaid clients across 71 counties. Medicaid is a means-tested health care programme for people with low incomes jointly funded by the USA’s States and Federal government.

LeFleur has opted for a dashboard-mounted unit from GreenRoad that shows a green light if the driver is driving sensibly, a yellow one if he or she is starting to take a few risks and a red one if the driving is potentially dangerous.

The unit’s findings are recorded and can be downloaded and analysed by the management team. Areas that require improvement can then be discussed with the driver.

Measurable improvements

LeFleur began having the system installed in 2008. It has subsequently seen 75% of drivers show a measurable improvement in on-the-road behaviour, reducing the fleet’s exposure to risk by 77%.

There has been a 71% fall in drivers showing a yellow safety score and a 100% switch away from red safety scores to either yellow or green.

‘It’s given us the ability to identify our high-risk drivers and provide them with targeted training,’ says LeFleur director of safety and human resources, John Kubala. ‘As a consequence we’ve improved safety and the quality of the service we provide and reduced costs and fuel consumption at the same time.’

Valuable evidence

The evidence garnered could prove invaluable if a defence has to be mounted against subsequent legal action, and the mere presence of a camera could make it less likely that a staged accident will occur. A growing problem in some countries, it involves a vehicle deliberately pulling out in front of somebody to cause a collision that will then be the subject of a fraudulent injury claim. A fraudster is likely to think twice about such a manoeuvre if he fears it might be filmed.

While in-vehicle systems such as these have been implemented extensively worldwide by commercial vehicle and passenger transport fleets, they are not so widely seen in company cars.

Driver resistance

Many fleets have yet to overcome driver resistance, especially in circumstances where employees are allowed the private use of vehicles as part of their remuneration package. Few company car drivers are likely to be happy to have their activities scrutinised by a camera, no matter how many safeguards are built in; and workplace surveillance, however well meaning, can fall foul of privacy legislation in some countries.

In these circumstances one way of ensuring drivers keep observing the training mantra they have been taught is to use online courses.

Online training

Their potential has not been lost on Mount Laurel, New Jersey-based fleet services provider ARI.

Earlier this year it acquired Drivefleet, which offers a wide variety of web-based training modules covering everything from defensive driving to preventing distracted driving. Some of the newer ones use high-definition computer-generated imagery to simulate possible driving challenges.

‘We believe Drivefleet’s suite of products and its method of engaging and challenging drivers are both unique,’ says ARI president, Carl A Ortell.

Elsewhere, VVCR of Rijssen in the Netherlands is now owned by the UK’s Automobile Association. It too delivers online driver training.

But which modules should a driver study? Based in North America, AlertDriving offers Hazard Perception Evaluation, an online predictive behaviour analysis tool designed to identify driver risk in six core competency areas.

Drivers are evaluated on their ability to identify dangerous driving situations and correctly answer a series of questions on safe driving. They are then automatically assigned specific, targeted training modules to address any deficiencies.

AlertDriving has recently introduced a more advanced version called Hazard Perception 360 that can be employed on iPads, laptops and PCs. Said to be capable of pinpointing a driver’s deficiencies and risk rating more accurately thanks to an enhanced scoring algorithm, it was available in 9 countries at the time of writing.

They include Italy, the Czech Republic, Argentina, Brazil and Russia as well as the USA. More countries are in the pipeline.

‘Hazard Perception 360 can be used on mobile devices without the hassle of app stores or installations,’ says AlertDriving marketing vice president, Matthew Latreille.

Training through games?

Another way of delivering online training is being offered by Arval with Drive Challenge. A game that can be downloaded onto a smartphone, it is designed to show players how important responsible driving is and to encourage them to acquire good road habits.

A number of fleets have made online training a central plank of their ongoing training programme.

Among them is the Republic of Ireland’s Bord Gais Networks. In the process of changing its name to Gas Networks Ireland at the time of writing, it is responsible for developing, operating and maintaining a 13,500km-long natural gas pipeline network and serves over 657,000 customers.

Grey fleet training

It uses e-learning to address the training needs of grey-fleet drivers who do no more than 1,500 business miles annually and are therefore classed as low-risk. They are nonetheless expected to complete six online modules over 80 to 90 minutes that cover legal requirements, preparing a vehicle and themselves for a journey, advanced driving skills and what to do in the event of an accident or a breakdown.

What is more, they are tested to ensure they have understood and taken onboard everything they have seen and heard. Any ongoing use of online training has to be accompanied by some sort of mechanism to ensure that drivers view and complete the courses and learn something from them.

None of the foregoing should be taken to imply that physical on-the-road training for fleet drivers that involves them spending half a day or a day in the company of an experienced trainer is no longer necessary. It can be of value, but only as part of a structured package that involves the targeting of training needs; and only if it is supported by a fleet culture that genuinely makes road safety a top priority.