Ready, Set, KNOW! - Driver Safety Training
Does Driver Safety Training Really Make Us Streetwise?
You’ve probably heard the saying that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, but you probably didn’t know that a little knowledge can also be hazardous to your health. Unfortunately, highway accident statistics show us time and time again that ignorance can kill on the open road.
Many corporations have instituted safety training and driver policies that aim to protect their employees, as well as reduce the cost associated with collisions. These safety leaders are providing such tools and resources as classroom or online training, behind-the-wheel instruction, newsletters and vehicle monitoring to make their drivers more safety conscious.
Just a Little Class
Many people find themselves in classroom-based driver safety training as part of a high school drivers education program, a fleet refresher course or as a guest of the state. Since it is a highly effective and economical means of teaching many employees at the same time, classroom or online training is often the preferred safety training method of large corporations.
Classroom-based safety training can be taught by a professional instructor from inside or outside the organization, and the class work can be tailored to address specific company issues and concerns. The classroom or online environment often facilitates dynamic learning, and students become skilled at applying company safety policies and safe-driving techniques in realistic situations. Typical curricula can include case studies, team exercises and even role playing.
Theory vs. Practice
For many of us, the best way to learn is to do. That makes behind-the-wheel driver training another extremely effective form of safety training. Professional driving instructors generally agree that it takes somewhere between 25 and 50 hours of behind-the-wheel experience for the average novice driver to gain enough skills to function in basic traffic situations. That would also normally be enough to pass a basic driving test in most parts of the country. But there is much more to driving than that.
A comprehensive fleet safety training program for corporate drivers often includes behind-the-wheel training. Students go one-on-one with a professional driving instructor to master the correct application of control inputs, vehicle dynamics, emergency braking techniques/systems, collision avoidance and visual processing skills.
Newsletters
Since you are reading this blog (and we hope you’re not reading it behind the wheel), you are genuinely interested in safe driving issues. The fact is that laws, trends, safety equipment change. Newsletters are a good way to keep abreast of the latest developments in road safety and technology.
Just a little more than a decade ago, the term road rage had not even been coined and cellular phones were not an issue on the road. Today, they have changed the way we drive, the way we work and the way we communicate. Legislation has even been adopted to address these issues. Newsletters are a good source of timely information on new laws, technology and theory in the practice of safe driving.
