There are several components to driver safety training to consider when developing your company’s specific program. These include initial training for new hires, refresher training for all drivers, risk-level change training, training for authorized non-employee drivers and manager training for employee observation rides.

New employee drivers should receive formal safety training as soon as possible and preferably before being issued a vehicle, including program requirements, the company fleet service program and behind the wheel instruction. There may be extenuating circumstances where this preferred timing is not possible. If that is the case, the new hires manager should provide some form of documentation.

Annual Refresher Training
Refresher safety training should be provided to each employee driver at least annually. Ideally, it should be either behind the wheel training or another type, which allows the driver to experience the same types of situations that they will find themselves in during the course of both normal and emergency driving situations.

There are several types of non-traditional, hands-on training programs available. These include web-based, desktop and driver simulation training. Of the three, the recent emergence of commercial driver safety simulation training clearly offers the most realistic options and scenarios.
The leading company in this industry is Virtual Driver Interactive (www.dri

verinteractive.com). Its product includes the latest in technology and graphics, an un-bi-ased instructor, a low stress environment, and it only reinforces “good” driving habits, and is not a criticism of “bad” driving habits.

The technology includes immersive graphics, realism and relativistic clues for accelerated learning. A multitude of dri­ving scenarios offer a variety of weather conditions, various types of road condi­tions, a mixture of rural and urban envi­ronments, and numerous unexpected hazards and emergency situations.

Further, the virtual trainer uses actual car parts and components to lend an­other dimension of practicality, and the iPASS assessment system offers accu­rate and documented training records. Most importantly, course completion in­cludes a certification of completion of the National Safety Council’s DDC 6/8 Defensive Driving Course.

Risk-Level Changes

Drivers whose driving record has re­sulted in a higher risk-level (RL) change should receive additional training as soon as possible. This supplemental training should be at the driver’s expense and not used as a substitute for regularly sched­uled training. Either traditional behind the wheel training or simulation training is ideal for this type of requirement. Gener­ally, this should also include a docu­mented Manager’s Observation Ride prior to returning to normal job duties.  

Communications

On-going safe driving communications are an important part of the overall fleet safety program. Driver safety materials for this element can include DVDs, videos, audiocassettes, Web-based infor­mation via the company intranet, e-mails, specially produced booklets and newslet­ters. Specific information might include the company policy on seat belt usage, cellular phones and other types of dis­tractions while driving. All drivers should be required to familiarize themselves with the company fleet safety communication materials.

There are several keys to success for driver safety training and communications: employee buy-in, conducting the training at the right time and place, pro­viding hands-on options in a non-threat-ening environment, and including all the critical teaching points specific to your company—these can typically be best identified through a detail loss analysis with your provider or carrier.

 The Financial Impact

It is estimated that motor vehicle crashes cost employers more than $60 bil­lion annually in medical care, legal ex­penses, property damage and lost productivity. They also have an adverse impact on the cost of benefits such as workers’ compensation, social security benefits, and private health and disability insurance. In addition, they can also in­crease a company’s overhead involved in administering these programs.

resulted in an injury, the cost to the com­pany increased to an average of $74,000. Costs can exceed $500,000 when a fatality is involved. Off-the-job motor vehicle ac­cidents are costly to employers as well.

Looking Ahead

On February 15, 2006 the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) ap­proved its guideline document, ANSI Z15.1. Safe Practices for Motor Vehicle Operations. The effective date was April 28, 2006. This non-prescriptive guideline document contains seven primary ele­ments and several appendixes.

The elements include the Scope, Ter­minology, Leadership Responsibilities, Operational Issues, Driver Management, Vehicle Selection and Recordkeeping. The appendixes include a sample proce­dure and various sample accident policies.

While this is a breakthrough in fleet safety management and considered a na­tional consensus standard, it is not civil law and there are no penalties for non­compliance.

Needless to say, responsible companies should embrace this standard and use it as a model to enhance their fleet safety pro­gram and protect their employees and as­sets. Other regulatory related activities to be aware of and include in your fleet safety program are the mandatory use of seat belts in most states and the various state laws on the use of cellular phones. An effective fleet safety program should include all of the various state and local regulations in the geographic areas that your company is involved in.

Work related motor vehicle accidents are largely preventable. No company can afford to ignore a major program that has such serious impacts on both their per­sonnel and the company budget. When a company realizes the costs associated with motor vehicle accidents it will also realize that the costs associated with im­plementing a comprehensive fleet safety program are minimal compared to the cost of avoidable accidents. Developing a fleet safety program that includes ag­gressive driver selection and comprehen­sive training are key elements to success in preventing unnecessary—and costly— accidents.

A recent report by a major insurance company revealed that companies sur­veyed in its Executive Survey of Work­place Safety believe their companies receive a return-on-investment (ROI) of $3.00 or more for every $1.00 they spend on improving workplace safety. Those are numbers all companies can re­late to when it comes to protecting their employees. FSM

Jack Fearing, CPEA, is a senior con­sultant with Aon Risk Services in the Greater New York Region and based in Parsippany, NJ. He has more than 25 years of experience in occupational safety & health and fleet safety. Jack is a professional member of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers and Assistant Adminis­trator of the ASSE International Practice Specialty. He is also an Advisory Board member of Virtual Driver Interactive and a retired military pilot with more than 20 years of simulator training experience. Jack can be contacted at (973) 463-6240 or jack_fearing@ars.aon.com.