While everyone talks about the driver employment squeeze, who to recruit, and how to recruit them, driver training has been flying under the radar. But with average turnover coming in at a rate in excess of 90 percent, the transportation industry needs to quickly expand its pool of drivers while also minimizing risk.
This may sound like a tall order, but advances in video technology are creating powerful new options that increase the effectiveness and efficiency of truck driver training. Now it doesn’t matter whether someone is brand new or an experienced veteran, programs are available to get new-hires quickly up to speed.
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The Rise of Video
A lot of companies are utilizing new tools that wouldn’t have been available before the rise of the digital economy. Imagine truck driver training videos that are no longer shot in studios with narrators, actors and props. Rather, many new videos are coming directly from accident scenes and risky driving behaviors caught on tape.
A Minnesota-based carrier placed recording devices on all 600 of their company-owned tractors and trucks. They now use that video to coach and create competitive incentives for their truck drivers. When competition and coaching are paired with video evidence, it has a real impact on driver performance.
Much like professional coaches and sports athletes study their film to improve their skills and technique, company managers use video to teach drivers how to safely operate their vehicles. Some companies offer drive cams that trigger a recording mechanism when certain events happen. Software then compares performance across the fleet.
Video-based historical and real-time driver risk management systems comprise just one of a variety of technologies fleets are deploying in their customized training environments. Furthermore, there are several areas of focus where technology can have a real impact on tangible results.
Video as Effective Feedback
Numerous studies have shown that truck drivers are at their highest risk for accidents within the first six months of a new job. Fleets are now focusing less on static training programs and more on behavioral based evaluation systems.
When managers identify someone who might be in need of additional training, programs are initiated, regardless of their past experience. Once a behavior is outlined, clips of events, whether it’s speeding or a major accident, can be shown to the truck driver.
Video can be used as a real-time ride along. When the truck driver returns to classroom training, a real assessment can be given with video evidence to back it up. Video-based safety systems give fleets a form of new, immediate, and continual form of truck driver feedback and training.
For fleets that operate CDL licensing or truck driver finishing schools, video systems increase the effectiveness of on-the-road training. Being able to capture risky events in real-time provides feedback that can’t be replicated on a test page.
Nor is video just for constructive criticism. Fleets that are meeting the most success are using video to provide positive feedback and reinforce good behaviors. There’s an internal drive and sense of accountability that comes from seeing your own performance played back for you on video, especially when it’s positive.
Measuring for success, rather than failure, is important when the management environment is going through an intense technological change. And there’s a need for fleet managers to do this, as the idea of video surveillance in the cab is still something that truck drivers are getting used to.
Adoption Goes Nationwide
Government regulations are increasingly requiring carriers to keep a meticulous record of everything, from safety regulations to hours of service information. Devices like e-logs and data sensors are rapidly becoming the norm on today’s modern semi-trucks.
As it is with any new and potentially industry disrupting technology, there’s still some question in regards to how video logs will be rolled out. But the fact that video serves as an effective training, monitoring, and positive feedback tool cannot be denied.
As carriers continue to rely on new technologies to increase effectiveness and efficiency, truck drivers and fleet managers alike will be forced to adapt. As for how much penetration these devices see, and how fleets react, that depends on how much technological innovation we see in trucking.