Opinion: Training - Keep It Personal, Ongoing

By Tom Nitza

Owner

Your Company Resource

Prior to entering the trucking industry, drivers receive mandated training. However, the driving and operation portion doesn’t have a definitive answer for how much and how long. There’s an effort underway to quantify not only the duration of new-entrant driving training but also the measurement metric that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will use to craft a rulemaking.

Although the contents will be of prime importance to the industry, new-entrant training is only the beginning of what should become a careerlong learning process.

All too often, we tend to think that if a driver has a valid commercial driver license they know how to handle any trucking situation:

• The best routes to take to make a delivery in Chicago.

• The hundreds of pages of hazardous material regulations and exceptions applying to a particular shipment.

• The fact that a customer doesn’t have on-site parking and won’t accept the delivery more than 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

• How to best operate the new refrigerated trailers you just bought.

• Trip planning such as, “What is the best route to take from Indianapolis to Raleigh, North Carolina?

New-entrant training does exactly that; it prepares the person for entry into this industry. Essentially, that means that they’ve mastered the basics and are ready to concentrate on learning the many details of daily operation. Think for a moment about how diverse this industry is. We operate many different types of equipment, hauling various commodities through every type of terrain and traffic that this country offers. In an industry this diverse, no new-entrant program could possibly prepare a driver for the nearly unlimited number of possibilities.

Given that diversity, even a veteran driver may need to come up to speed on your particular operation. What if you are a tank carrier and you find an excellent driver without tank experience? Would you consider hiring that driver? If you did, how and when would that person receive training? If you decide to offer training, it would be best to consider developing a written curriculum, a skills-assessment testing process and written documentation for attendance and completion.

Why not simply have the new driver ride along with “Joe” for a few days to get acclimated to things? A ride-along is not a bad idea because the skills learned happen in the real world in actual situations. However, don’t overlook the benefits of developing a written standard so that the trainer is prompted to cover key points and ensure that each trainee receives comparable training. Also, don’t forget to document the results.

There are times when a formal scheduled training session is the best solution. A new-hire driver orientation program is a good example.

However, given the demanding work and lifestyles of drivers, it is somewhat problematic to make that happen on a regular basis. The question then becomes, “How do we structure training, and how do we deliver it to the right person at the right time?” In order to maximize the benefits, training must be thought of as an ongoing process that takes many forms.

A day at the office often begins with a morning meeting to sort through yesterday’s difficulties and identify today’s key tasks. This type of scenario encourages the flow of information, the discussion of ideas and helps the group arrive at workable solutions.

The driver’s day begins at the truck stop breakfast counter followed by a pre-trip inspection. There isn’t much of an information flow unless you count the expected number of rumors and tall tales. But does the average driver want or need a daily briefing? I once heard someone say, “Drivers want to be supervised; they just don’t want to know that you’re doing it.”

The challenge is to ensure that drivers are receiving mission-critical information in a timely manner, not necessarily every day, but at certain key points such as initial dispatch or just prior to pickup or delivery. Each segment of this industry can come up with key waypoints where critical information should be shared about customers, equipment and routing.

Above all, keep the information flow two-way. Don’t fall into the role of supervisor and simply tick off the list of bullet points. Ask drivers to voice their ideas or to outline how they think the trip will go. You might be amazed to learn that the driver has a better grasp of what’s ahead than your dispatcher does. Reacting to this can easily avoid a situation where a backhaul load is planned that the driver cannot cover.

The title of this article suggests that this is about training, and now we’re talking about communication. Aren’t they really the same thing? This isn’t necessarily the same type of training that the driver received as a new entrant, but it’s every bit as important. It’s a way of communicating not only specific information but also the organization’s operating philosophy.

Finally, think of this as a scenario where both parties benefit and the driver develops a real feeling that they’re a valued part of the company — all without ever really “supervising” them.

Your Company Resource, located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, produces customized truck-specific programs for safety meetings, orientations and e-newsletters.