Driver Training for the Non-Driver

By: Chris Bamber VP and Chief Operating Officer, Technical Professionals Group

?Harnessing the Power of Experience.

Driver training, as its name suggests, is traditionally reserved for drivers. It makes sense - its primary goal is to ensure the driver operates a vehicle safely to avoid incidents and injuries. Additionally, driver training enhances driving skills and the understanding of vehicle dynamics. Leading to greater consistency and precision; a highly desirable skill in the automotive R&D environment. A comprehensive driver training program achieves both objectives, enhancing the student’s ability to control the vehicle safely and efficiently.

Why should you offer driver training to those not driving as part of their professional duties? To people like engineers, technicians, managers, and others within the automotive environment? It’s a valid question that can be met with internal skepticism. Driver training demands resources and time. The answer lies in the unexpected benefits that extend well beyond the driver’s seat - benefits that can be truly valuable for professionals across various roles and working groups within the automotive industry.

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Wax On, Wax Off: Learning Through Action – As the Karate Kid axiom goes - learning seemingly unrelated actions can impart a fundamental understanding of broader, more significant goals. While the immediate task is learning how to operate a vehicle safely and consistently; the deeper, underlying lesson is about understanding vehicle dynamics and driver reactions, which lays the foundation for skills that enhance their professional capabilities far beyond the driver’s seat.

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Putting Them in the Driver’s Seat, Literally – One of the primary goals of automotive engineering design is the creation of a user-centric environment that balances safety and drivability. Experiencing extreme safety scenarios, such as an uncontrolled skid or an ABS stop, in a controlled environment provides direct experience to those designing and improving features designed to mitigate them. This extends beyond basic understanding; it’s a direct testing and validation of engineering components, focusing on safely pushing the vehicle to its limits to observe how it and the driver react.

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Personal Safety – The primary benefit of driver training - avoiding accidents while operating a vehicle - is still relevant. For non-drivers, the benefits simply extend beyond the workplace into their personal driving habits. Most employees drive to work or operate vehicles outside of a professional environment. Driver training protects your most valuable asset - your people. From personal experience, I’ve become a safer, more alert, and attentive driver after participating in our training programs.

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When Done Correctly, It’s Fun – Internal professional training can be unengaging and tedious, directly impacting information retention and the return on training investment. Driver training on a closed proving ground is a unique learning environment where the content is directly relevant and engaging for anyone working within the automotive field. While the primary focus and desired outcome is safer, more controlled driving; a dynamic balance of classroom and drive modules is shown to improve skill retention.? Impactful training is fun, relevant, and engaging to its students.

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Driver training is central to Technical Professionals Group 's culture of safety and quality. Our team of professional driver trainers are dedicated to designing customized training experiences for drivers and non-drivers alike. Providing relevant and engaging training that accomplishes their varied developmental goals. Reach out to us today to learn more.

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