Financial Advantages of Simulation-Based Training: Part 1
Today’s fleet operations are assaulted on two fronts: first, driver training is a time consuming and expensive ongoing effort and, secondly according to CFO Magazine, motor vehicle operation is one of the least accounted for risks in most industries. Companies struggling with how to manage all of the costs and risks can enjoy dramatic improvements by adopting new technology-based training strategies. These strategies can reduce the costs of delivering the training while improving driver competency. Fleet organizations are asking how they can:
- Decrease the time and cost of delivering driver safety training
- Reduce crash rates and limit liability exposure
- Reduce employee injuries and lost work productivity.
Why is Behind The Wheel Training Less Viable Now?
Balancing an optimal solution will vary from company to company depending on the size of your workforce, nature of your business and a wide variety of other factors. But all fleets are concerned about the operational and financial drawbacks of behind the wheel training:
- P&L oriented senior management is demanding less “off the job” training costs.
- New employees need to be trained right away versus waiting to schedule or travel to a class while poor drivers need immediate intervention.
- Every driver needs to be evaluated consistently and fairly without supervisor bias.
With new technologies come new business models.
Historically driver training options were limited to either mind-numbing classroom lectures or costly instructor led behind-the-wheel coaching. With either of these, the high hourly training costs required for paying multiple employees for multiple hours added up quickly – not to mention the loss of productivity and downtime. In fact, the cost of training time is often more expensive than the cost of the training itself.
Training Delivery Cost Models Comparison
| Instructor-Led Behind the Wheel Training | Simulation Delivered Training |
| 1) 4 hrs+ of a Supervisor’s Time | 1) Initial System (estimated at $14K); 4 year life $291/mo |
| 2) 4 hrs+ of Employee’s Time | 2) 1 hr of Employee Time at Their Location |
| 3) Multiple Days for Certification of Supervisor | |
| 4) Re-certification of Supervisor (multiple days) | |
| 5) License Cost of Training Course Per Person @ $250 – $1,000 | |
| 6) Refresh Licensing Cost to Repeat After 3 Years | |
| 7) Using Fleet Vehicle for Training vs. On the Job |
Corporations wanting to cut training costs while also protecting their employees should enlist the current capabilities of today’s driving simulators. While offering web training to your drivers, allows you to ‘check the box’ next to driver training, does it actually train your fleet and reduce risk? Alternatively, driving simulators have been proven to successfully train fleets as well as keep the costs down. According to the NTSB, “Simulator training can prepare drivers to respond appropriately to hazardous conditions and thus avoid accidents.”
Part 2 Coming Soon: Reduce Crash Rates & Limit Liability Exposure
by Bob Davis & Pam LeFevre, VDI