Graham Hurdle's blog: 26 August 2010 - How good is your driving?

Date: 26 August 2010

Graham Hurdle is managing director of E-Training World

If you listen to any group of drivers you would be forgiven for wondering just who is having all the accidents on the roads, because everyone in the group believes he or she is either very good or an excellent driver. In fact try asking a group of people in your office how they rate themselves on a scale of 1 - 10 (10 = excellent) and I bet everyone says 7 or above!

The problem is that we don't notice good driving, we only see bad examples and because we all think that we would never cut anyone up like the idiot you saw on the way to work this morning, you must be a good driver.

Most drivers after experiencing a demonstration drive from a fleet trainer would down grade their score to about a 5, but was the trainer driving as well as he or she should be? There are many things which affect our driving, including fatigue, mood, distractions etc. and so 'Yes' I will say that the ability of the trainer will vary.

As we emerge from the recession and more companies start to wake up to the benefits of managing drivers, fleet training companies are going to find it hard to provide the level of service and quality of trainers that they enjoyed before the collapse in the economy. If you speak to trainers as I do, you will hear them saying that many of their colleagues have found other work as they couldn't survive on fleet training; this isn't all bad news because the trainers who have managed to survive through the recession are the better trainers. All companies look after their best staff first. However, as we all get busier, trainers will need to be found.

So if we wind the clock forward six months to a year, driver training starts to go back on the agenda and we begin to return to post recession levels of business, where are the extra trainers going to come from? Possibly from those people who were employed in other industries until they were made redundant and used whatever money they had to qualify as an Approved Driving Instructor. The adverts make it look so easy and so worthwhile and you can earn "£30,000 plus". The harsh reality is that after a year of learners damaging your car, not turning up for lessons and not forgetting the wonderful DSA, those ADI's who don't give up could end up as fleet trainers.

E-Training World does not provide on road training so I think I can say this; I believe the fleet trainer provides a first class service to companies and, compared with other professional trainers, those who are fleet trainers are not paid what they are worth. If you, like me, believe driver training saves money and lives let's not allow the fleet driver training industry to die. There is a place for companies like E-Training World with their online systems, but there is also a need for in vehicle training particularly for high risk drivers.

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