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Accreditation Scheme for Driver Risk Assessments and Training Could Save Fleets a Fortune

A senior figure in the driver training industry is calling on all the major driver training companies to seek a national accreditation scheme which could save fleet operators a fortune.

Graham Hurdle, managing director of E-Training World says that without an accredited scheme fleets could end up wasting thousands of pounds on duplicated risk assessments and training, simply because they have no ‘official’ evidence under their duty of care obligations that a driver has been assessed and trained to the correct standard.

“If a company vehicle driver is risk assessed by his current employers and requires driver training”, said Hurdle, “the risk assessment data is recorded by his current employer and the driver will receive relevant training. With this usually comes some form of certificate of completion.

“If they then move jobs to another company, we’re finding that their new employer is following the same process – even though that individual has already been risk assessed and trained. On our online risk assessment system we ask the question as to what ‘post test’ training a driver has received and we’re seeing an increasing number of drivers who state that they have had defensive driver training already.

“However, there is no current method of being able to officially use any previous risk assessment or driver training and apply it to their new employer. This means a driver could be risk assessed and trained by a reputable company with no method of carrying that forwards to their next company resulting in the whole process and resulting cost happening again.

“You might argue that if a driver had a certificate of completion from some of the major driver training brands, this might stack up as evidence if a driver’s new employer came under scrutiny following an accident. However this discriminates against some of the smaller, but equally proficient driver training companies, whose training is just as good however their name is less recognised on the certificate of completion.

“If the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) set up a process to accredit the training provided by each driver training company, which meant all driver training companies had to have their courses assessed and accredited, this would result in the training investment being genuinely transferable from employer to employer.

“As for the transfer of risk assessments, as long as there is an auditable record of a driver’s assessment the HSE should consider a similar accreditation ‘badge’ which certifies that a driver’s assessment remains valid for a year even if he or she changes company. Obviously if the driver vehicle or job role changes dramatically, then this element of the risk assessment will have to be redone.

“The result would be a much simpler approach and massive savings for the fleet sector”.

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