By Ed Pierce, Fleet Management Weekly Contributing Editor
Driver safety is the top priority of any fleet manager. With so many drivers on the road operating a variety of vehicles, it can be a challenge for companies to ensure all of their drivers have the knowledge and skill required to drive safely at all times, especially for those with drivers in multiple locations across the US or spanning the globe.
A burgeoning fleet driver training company, SKILLS is based at the Texas Motor Speedway outside of Dallas-Fort Worth, but is focused on making it easy to educate fleet drivers anywhere in the world. Learning safe driving techniques, becoming a defensive driver, reducing preventable incidents, SKILLS can help any business with fleet vehicles reduce the company’s liability exposure and insurance costs while keeping its drivers safe.
SKILLS Driving began with a simple goal: to reduce the number of teenage drivers killed in motor vehicle related incidents. Formed in 2004 by owner and CEO Dawn Stokes, an avid lover of driving and racing, Stokes was determined to start a school that gave hands-on driving skills to young adults. She started out teaching new drivers behind-the-wheel accident-avoidance techniques at Texas Motor Speedway. She soon wanted to expand the driving instruction audience, so there needed to be a next step. Defying the long odds of succeeding in a challenging field, Stokes cashed in her 401k and bought 10 yellow, Z06 Corvettes to open a racing school.
The company began as Texas Driving Experience, a Dallas-based racing academy and safe driving school that taught both teens and corporate executives how to drive fast and drive safely at the same time.
As the company grew, Stokes expanded the company’s business model by starting a fleet safety program called ‘Skills Driving’. This program grew exponentially in terms of new business and global coverage. Today, SKILLS brings unsurpassed training and global coverage to the non-CDL fleet industry.
SKILLS Driving
Dawn points out that a key to SKILLS’ success is its custom design of driver training programs: “Not every company has the same needs in regards to workplace safety training, types of vehicles and fleet driver safety. We noticed there was a large gap in non-CDL driver instruction. We work with each company to create a tailor-made solution that meets the exact needs, defines specific goals, and delivers measurable results through in-person, behind-the-wheel and online training.”
After training, both the fleet managers and the drivers themselves receive detailed, easy-to-use reports that show how each driver progressed through the day. Drivers of all skill levels can become better and safer drivers, lessening their probability of a preventable incident and reducing the company’s liability exposure.
Behind-the-Wheel Training
SKILLS Driving offers a customized mix of training at a location of the client’s choosing. Fleets can choose either a full-day or half-day curriculum that covers emergency braking, quick lane change, distracted driving awareness, close-quarter backing and can include specialized modules such as ‘Trailer 101’, winter driving, fatigue, off-road, and more. The curriculum addresses factors like risk level, industry, job, and geography to ensure that training resembles the driver’s real-world experience as much as possible.
SKILLS specializes in non-CDL fleet vehicles. A full day of training can involve vehicle types 1-6, with 6 being is the highest risk group of drivers. SKILLS instructors take students through a variety of exercises that encompass accident avoidance, distracted driving, and awareness techniques in their daily driver.
At the end of the class, each student completes a quiz and survey focusing on the curriculum, instructors, and overall quality of the training.
Measurement, Reporting and Actionable Results
The company also receives a detailed critique e-card summary for each training day and location. This will assign each student a technical score examining their success in each exercise and a behavioral score examining their attitude/behavior in the class. It will also include a paragraph addressing what they did well and where they can improve.
Companies are encouraged to use these results to educate drivers on where they can improve. If a student scores below the agreed-upon metrics, then SKILLS will recommend a follow-up plan for additional training.
Half-Day Training
If a company is unable to spare drivers for a full day of training, half-day training offers more specific and targeted training in all classes of vehicles. SKILLS instructors provide an automated report for each driver with a technical and behavioral score.
Online Global Training That’s Policy Driven
SKILLS’ e-learning program offers highly interactive online driver training. Drivers will use their smartphone or tablet to be “virtually” behind the wheel, operating all classes of vehicles – 1 through 8, filmed ‘in-country’ in over 90 languages. Fleets can choose from over 25,000 global defensive driver training titles to create custom programs that target specific improvement areas.
According to Dawn, SKILLS Driving can take a company’s existing policies and turn them into a custom-built training lesson. This can be used for both new drivers and existing ones to ensure they understand all company expectations and procedures.
Featured online programs include Hazard Perception 360 Analysis and 12 MotorMind modules that combine elements of gamification with visual, auditory, and tactile exercises to provide learners with a greater understanding of dangerous driving behaviors.
Once online training is completed, companies receive compliance reports on each of their drivers, using the data to assess areas of risk with the help of SKILLS’ Analytics team and Client Care specialists.
Team Building
Although SKILLS has shifted since its initial concept, it still maintains one of the features that first attracted Dawn Stokes the most: the love of racecars. SKILLS Driving offers several teambuilding experiences for companies to bond over the love of driving racecars.
Dawn is proud of the world-class team she has built at SKILLS and the company’s progress in delivering a global training program that can help even the largest companies keep drivers safe: “Whether a company requires behind-the-wheel training or prefers our online e-learning program, we make it simpler than ever to avoid preventable incidents and lessen the company’s liability exposure. Building a safe driving culture within an organization is a continual journey. SKILLS offers numerous strategies and methods that will fit into both time and budgets. Our shared goal, with our partners, is to get everyone home safely, every night.”
