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Fleet & HGV Driver Training

Training of your drivers is a fundamental ingredient for ensuring that the requirements placed upon your company with regard to Road Safety go some way to being met. It is all very well that your drivers should understand the legislation that governs their working lives, but it is the responsibility of every employer to ensure that its driver workforce is continually kept abreast of any changes that take effect during their employment with you. This means an ongoing, systematic regime of training covering all aspects of the driver’s daily duties. 

The Company/Management responsibility here is to ensure that any risk to their employees or the general public through the actions of their employees is minimised as far as is humanly possible. The risk will never totally be eradicated from anyone’s daily activities.  

However, it is the duty of all employers to assess the risks associated with their employee's daily actions and through effective training/education, direct their employees to act safely and responsibly. 

Induction Training 

The Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974 requires you to ensure - as far as is reasonably practicable - the health and safety of employees whilst at work. Employers have a responsibility to manage health and safety effectively.  

As an employer, you need to carry out an assessment of the risks to the health and safety of your employees while they are at work, and to other people who may be affected by their work activities, which also includes work-related driving activities. 

The old adage of 'Start as you mean to go on' is particularly poignant here, as the finest opportunity you will have to set correct standards is from the start date of every one of your employees - their induction training. 

Induction training is not merely a walk around of the home base, it should also include every aspect of their working role including:

  • Key personnel
  • All procedures 
  • H&S training 
  • Safe loading 
  • Daily walk-around checks 
  • Working Time Directive 
  • Tachographs 
  • Drivers hours rules 

Whereas some of the above points should already be known by your new employee (especially drivers), this isn't always the case. A new driver may hold the relevant license, but in many cases, they have little idea of the basic practices that go with their role. 

Training of any description can be viewed as an expensive commodity. Not only is there a cost born out of the training itself, but equally so there is a cost element from the loss of use of the staff member(s) in question. However, in our view, this is a cost well spent, as well as trained staff, are an asset and should not be under-valued. The benefits of having well-trained drivers can include: 

  • Improved fuel consumption 
  • Reduced risk of accidents 
  • Less vehicle damage 
  • Lower insurance premiums 
  • Greatly reduced risk to your Operators License 
  • Enhanced company image 
  • Invariably drivers stay with a company that looks after and respects them 

Thorough induction training at the outset of your employee’s relationship with you and your company may take several days, but you'll reap the benefit from having done so many times over in the years ahead. 

What else can I do? 

There is a spotlight on the issue of thorough driver training because of many factors. More so than ever, with the introduction of the Road Safety Act (2006) and the Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act (2007), it is imperative that as an employer you expedite your responsibilities in a professional manner. The Government has clearly indicated that it intends to pursue a policy of reducing road traffic accidents through the introduction of legislation and its enforcement body - DVSA. 

There is no mystery here, individuals driving on company business are more likely than other road users to be involved in an accident resulting in death or serious injury. Therefore there is an increasing focus by the authorities on work-related driving, and through the legislative Acts mentioned above, companies are now more likely to be investigated by the police and HSE in the wake of a serious road traffic accident. 

So what can you do as an employer to improve the standards of your driver workforce and subsequently endorse your company’s position as being one that takes its responsibilities seriously? Well in simple terms, you should have a safety management system for your driver workforce in all their activities at work just as you would for any other work-related activity. Any system you put in place needn't be complicated, but should include:

  • Comprehensive road safety policies supported by top management 
  • Road safety management procedures, including risk assessments for drivers and specific driving tasks 

Driver Risk Assessments & Training from RoadRiskManager.com

  • Maintain and review accident statistics - look for common trends and risks 
  • Implement safe practices that eradicate or minimise identified driving risks 
  • Ensure managers understand their role and responsibilities for managing road risk and are able to apply company policy 
  • Ensure drivers are given relevant information, training, and supervision to be safe on the road 
  • Regularly audit the safety of journeys and amend policies and procedures accordingly if new risks are identified 
  • Carry out repeat training at scheduled times in the year - you may be aware of changes to the law, but are your drivers? 

Other things that should be considered here are to always leave your door open to your staff, being approachable to discuss things that they may not understand is a plus for your staff, and certainly won't hurt you either. 

External Training Providers 

There are many training organisations that will train your drivers. However, if you're going to spend a substantial amount of money having your drivers trained, we recommend that you shop around and find the best possible provider. 

External Driver Training Issues 

The biggest gripes from an operator's perspective concern 3 issues that usually arise after a driver has returned from external driver training and upgraded their license, having moved up from an ordinary car license to a category C1 or from C1 to C.  

Although these issues are not universal among driver training companies, they are not uncommon. Equally so, they are annoying and unnecessary and where apparent require the employer to have to re-train the driver(s) in question, which consumes unnecessary time and money. The issues in question are: - 

  1. in the case of a car license to C1, the trained driver has had little or no tuition on digital tachographs or EU Hours Rules 
  2. the vehicle used for the training is invariably old, bearing no resemblance to those used within the company fleet 
  3. the driver is taught to drive on his brakes
  4. as a result of a change in the law, those training for their C and CE can now train and take their test on an auto gearbox and get a manual licence (as long as you hold a fully manual car licence) …… really………… 

Regarding point 3, we are fully aware that there is a tendency to train in this manner, but when a TM is suddenly faced with a 7.5-tonne truck having braking components replaced long before they're due and the driver explaining that he was taught that way because if he used the gears to slow down he'd break the gearbox defies all logic. A driver using only the brakes to slow a fully loaded 7.5-tonne truck (or any other LGV) is nothing more than a recipe for disaster. 

In our view, the driver training of a commercial vehicle should include: 

  • Daily walk round check 
  • Defect reporting and systems 
  • Digital tachograph use 
  • Drivers hours rules  
  • Highway code refresher 
  • Defensive driving and use of the gearbox 
  • Safe loading 

In view of the fact that any driver has control of a deadly weapon, it makes a great deal of sense to train on all aspects of the vehicle type that he/she is going to be using. 

Training isn’t just about driving a truck, there’s the boring bit in the classroom or toolbox talks (TBT’s) carried out in-house. Subjects covered here include, but are not limited to:

  • Driver Standards 
  • Driver Responsibilities 
  • Drugs and Alcohol 
  • Weather Conditions 
  • Breakdowns 

An important part of training for ALL drivers happens when you start work for any employer – induction training. This should comprise of the following:

  • A driving assessment 
  • Issue and discussion of a drivers handbook 
  • Issue and discussion of a staff handbook 
  • Health & Safety Policy  
  • Risk Assessments and Method Statements 
  • Background of your employer 
  • Medical Conditions checks 
  • RTD Declaration  
  • EU Hours Declaration 
  • Driving licence mandate and all licence checks 

The list above only scratches the surface, there’s a ‘shed load’ more here that could be discussed. Induction training isn’t a 5-minute affair, in our view, it can take 2 – 3 days or more to cover everything properly, and for a newly qualified driver, you need to allow a week. 

The following should assist in giving guidance and further information, please use the links below. 

Health & Safety Executive - HSE 
https://www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetransport/personnel/initialtraining.htm 

https://www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetransport/ 

ROSPA  
https://www.rospa.com/safety-training/on-road/driver-training