Within transport operations, many factors must be controlled to reduce costs and increase profits. The most challenging factors to control are also the ones that have the potential to increase profits most dramatically. That is because these factors are associated with the greatest costs in transportation; specifically, fuel consumption, vehicle repair & maintenance, and crash liabilities. Yes, as the title indicates, I'm referring to factors the driver has direct control over.

What can be done to improve driver performance and behaviour? Are in-truck technologies, GPS and wireless monitoring the panacea that will turn anyone into a competent and safe professional driver? If you believe this is true, then you need not read any further.

However, under any scenario known to date, a necessary part of the total solution to consistently improving driver safety and lowering operating costs involves some form of driver screening, training, and retraining.

In relation to driver training, the formula “results = expectations + knowledge X by effort and persistence” may partially explain the generally poor results and low estimation of traditional driver training programs. How many traditional programs honestly expect to produce competent and safe drivers? How many know what needs to be done and make consistent efforts to execute their plans? Repeating a traditional approach with the usual low expectations and commitments of time and energy will most likely produce the usual expenses with few appreciable benefits. On the other hand, investing in a “Total Improvement Plan”, with a special focus on the driver, promises to yield major benefits.

What's included in a “Total Improvement Plan”? Over the years, fleet managers have implemented several good ideas, from performance incentives to apprenticeships. Selecting one or two of these ideas may produce good partial results, but will not maximize the potential of a coherent, consistent approach. Most importantly, a key ingredient is often missing in the traditional approaches.

What is that key ingredient? In a word, standards. Incentives reward better performance but they fail to define it or help every driver understand what they need to do. Apprenticeships can help, but they can also perpetuate variable and contradictory approaches to similar driving tasks and situations.

Now that I've lain out the factors that limit a carrier's ability to improve and sustain driver performance, my next blog entry will lay out my SMART approach to driver training.