Heavy Duty Trucking, February 2018

across a company and does so smartly not by shots in the dark says Laura McMillan vice president of training program development for Instructional Technologies Inc which provides Pro Tread online training as well as safety consulting services She says ITIs Pro Tread online offering for safety and compliance training is deviceagnostic Drivers can access it on a computer laptop smartphone or tablet or by downloading our iOS or Android app For example a driver can start a course on their smartphone and finish it on a laptop without losing their place Pro Tread programming is based on mastery based training which uses quizzes and repetition of key points to foster retention The idea is that by illustrating an idea visually verbally and through interactions different types of learners will grasp it This type of training can also be highly customized McMillan points out Setting up training is a collaborative effort with clients We spend time with them up front to identify their top 10 safety incidents and then set up the content lesson for performance improvement We help them understand using their data to identify what content to push out to drivers at which time The fleet controls all time frames for training such as quarterly or bimonthly for refresher units with the content automatically launched But remedial training can be pushed out after an incident or accident has occurred McMillan cautions that technology cannot be viewed in a vacuum She points out that managers should be aware that a liability gap can exist between all the data a fleet can now capture and the training they may actually provide drivers Its incumbent on them to do something with that data which is discoverable Otherwise it could end up a liability risk If the data is used to set up preventive training and remediation for certain drivers that would show they took action based on the data collected The idea is to close the gap with training that is defensible Brandon Folck Ryder Systems director of safety standards says the company wants as much face to face time with drivers as possible but when we cant do that going online lets us deliver training that satisfies compliance requirements and our own safety philosophy which is ensuring everyone goes home the way they arrived at work Ryder which employs just over 7000 full time CDL drivers has been using ITIs Pro Tread system for 13 years primarily to distribute newhire safety orientation and remedial training along with any specialized company training He notes that at Ryder remedial refers to retraining or updating education on certain issues Folck says that obviously with a large fleet like ours spread out across the U S and abroad you need a way to communicate with them consistently across the system The online approach also works in areas where we cant have day to day contact with drivers Despite leveraging such technology Folck says its important to keep communications on a human level We certainly want to keep an interest in training going One way we do that is to have messages from our leadership team posted where drivers log in for training And when they log in they see our Drivers of the Month on the screen That helps foster buy in for the training and keeping communications going HDT FEBRUARY 2018 68 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM better says Ed McCarthy vice president of operations and customer success for Vnomics The firm provides the True Fuel standalone system that combines vehicle monitoring fuel use analytics and real time driver coaching to help lower fuel consumption Our True Fuel in cab tool provides gentle coaching on how to drive in the most fuel efficient manner And it does so by focusing only on what the driver can influence not what he cant control like loads and roads The system coaches by sounding tones when the driver gets outside the most fuel efficient range of operation Because we use machine learning we can adapt to the specifics of each truck such as engine model and year and transmission type explains McCarthy So we can coach on how the driver performs with those given specs He says the most successful Vnomics customers use the technology fully For example by isolating the impact of idling allowed for powering hotel loads The idea is to coach them on what they are doing right and what must be worked on while taking into account any differences That way theres a fair assessment of the drivers performance Weve seen incredible results when companies incentivize drivers to save fuel and empower them with this tool to achieve it No shots in the dark Technology comes into its own for training when its used to deliver consistent content Halvor Lines which boasts a driver turnover rate of 385 and low CSA scores has evolved its training approach by going beyond hands on instruction to incorporate online learning technology This is the second installment in HDTs driver series View additional installments and related content online at www truckinginfo com Driver2018 BONUS PHOTO HALVOR LINES DRIVER SERIES TRAINING