Driver Education and Training: Why it’s More Important Than Ever

Whether your fleet drivers deliver packages, provide services, or simply use company-provided vehicles to visit clients and customers, every driver is important. Keeping your fleet drivers safe on the road is one of the most important directives in fleet. Managing driver behavior can be tricky: each driver brings their own individual experience to driving a vehicle. With newer vehicles introducing a variety of robust safety-related capabilities, knowing how to operate them effectively is more important than ever before.

Understanding New Fleet Vehicles

Understanding how to use fleet vehicles correctly, safely, and in line with your company’s fleet policy is of premium importance. We want to make sure every driver is properly trained and equipped for success.

The National Safety Council has partnered with the University of Iowa on a project called, “My Car Does What?” In every new vehicle paperwork package, Wheels provides an insert directing drivers to the “My Car Does What” website. There, they can look up the make and model of an exact vehicle to learn about all of its safety features.

The site’s main purpose and focus is on improving driver safety:

“MyCarDoesWhat.org is a national campaign to help educate drivers on new vehicle safety technologies designed to help prevent crashes. These technologies range from increasing the stability and control of cars to providing warnings about crash threats to automatically intervening to avoid or reduce the severity of a crash.” – MyCarDoesWhat.org

Leveraging the Power of Training

Training drivers on how to fully understand and correctly use these features can lead to fewer incidents and accidents.  Behind-the-wheel and online training for fleet drivers is designed to make sure they fully understand all the capabilities and proper ways to use their vehicle. Modern vehicles have a ton of built-in safety features that drivers may not fully understand or properly utilize—especially if they are hybrids or EVs (electric vehicles), which involve their own learning curve.

For example, Wheels recently announced six new driver training modules that focus on Advanced Driver Assist Systems (ADAS). Be sure to incorporate these new modules, and others, into your safety program.

Safety is Priority One at Wheels

While driver education and training are very important, they are select pieces in the overall safety puzzle. Wheels’ driver safety services are end-to-end, beginning with helping you build a fleet policy to create a safety culture and including the latest in helpful technology like vehicle telematics, mobile applications and MVR (Motor Vehicle Record) Monitoring, which helps reduce risk and increase compliance.

To learn more about Wheels’ safety program, contact a member of your Wheels Account Team or email me directly at [email protected]. In the meantime, safe driving!