Improving Profitability in Transport

The introduction of the Driver CPC programme has removed any objection a company might have had to train and develop their drivers. Now training is compulsory managers need to ask themselves the question 'What can I get in return for this investment?’ The simple answer is increased profits through an intelligent application of training that is targeted to reduce operating costs.

The hard part is 'joining the dots’. What we mean by this is taking into account all areas within the business that can benefit from a training intervention. As an example let’s take fuel efficiency. This is now a popular choice for the first year of the Driver CPC programme. Some companies are simply putting their drivers through a SAFED or similar driver training course. That joins only two dots in our thinking. The company will get some fuel savings and will have ticked the Driver CPC box for 7 hours Driver CPC training. However, from our experience and as case studies have shown the initial fuel savings will start to drop off after a few months and eventually return to similar levels that were being recorded before training interventions took place.

So what else should be done to maximise the benefit to a company from such an initiative as the delivery of SAFED to all drivers? Let’s ‘join the dots’ and see what can be done. First of all stand back and look at the bigger picture and see which other stakeholders should be involved in this initiative and what other areas of the business can benefit. The objectives below are areas that are all interlinked and need to be brought into the thinking to get maximum return from this investment.

     Bring about behavioural change

     Support legal compliance

     Improve fuel efficiency

     Reduce numbers of accidents and incidents

     Reduce damage costs and claims

     Reduce operational costs

     Improve staff morale and retention

     Improve carbon footprint

     Deliver Driver CPC solution

Let’s look at these in order and identify what we are doing and how these objectives can be achieved.

Bringing about behavioural change

This is the key to achieving all the other objectives. Without a substantial behavioural change the other objectives will be virtually impossible to achieve and will certainly not become achievable year on year. Training drivers to drive differently from the way they drive now is about changing behaviour. Behavioural change is not an event it is a process. So a single 1 day training intervention will not get you to where you want to be. Communicating to drivers is essential - they need to be aware of the aims and objectives of the programme. Do not forget the managers and supervisors who control and interact with the drivers. They can support or destroy what you are trying to achieve through lack of understanding. Educate the managers and supervisors through short workshops relating to the programme and the objectives that you are wanting to achieve. Simply get their buy in.

Communicate to the drivers in advance of any training what is going to happen, what objectives you are wanting to achieve and why, along with what the company expects of them. We have now started the behavioural journey. The next stage is to deliver the training programme. As the drivers know what to expect they will prepare themselves for the training day as it is human nature to want to perform when placed in an assessment or training situation. They will be receptive to what is being delivered by the trainers and they will have the support of management. The time from when they are initially communicated with to the training day may be a few weeks or even a couple of months. This does not matter as their colleagues who are attending training are feeding positive messages about the training course and passing on tips that will mean they are better prepared.

Once the driver has attended the training course and has seen first hand the evidence that he can drive using SAFED principles that result in a fuel saving, less gear changes and still get round a set course at least as quick as his previous driving style and in a more relaxed and less stressful manner then he will be convinced that these principles work. The next step is to ensure this new driving behaviour continues on the job and becomes normal behaviour. Follow up the training with short on job driving assessments and coaching, have fuel saving tables of say the top 10 or 20 drivers in a depot, produce leaflets that recap on the principals being taught or possibly a ‘Driver of the Year’ competition. Monitor the driver’s fuel performance and be prepared to retrain poor performing drivers. Think about next year and deliver a theory course that includes SAFED principals so the message is re-enforced. In essence keep to the behavioural journey and continue to look for improvements. Do not forget new drivers and start them as you mean to go on by delivering SAFED as part of their induction process.

Support Legal Compliance

The SAFED programme contains elements that will support compliance such as a comprehensive pre-start vehicle check, a driver risk assessment as well as satisfying 7 hours DCPC. A physical driving licence check is also carried out. System has found drivers who have been driving for many years that do not have full licences for the vehicles they are driving. The last place you want to find this out is when that particular driver is involved in an accident or is subject to a VOSA roadside check.

Improve fuel efficiency

Improving fuel efficiency is the golden chalice. In the short term any driver training programme worth its salt will return better fuel figures. As previously discussed the trick is to embed this behaviour and achieve fuel savings year on year. Fuel is a huge part of the operating cost and as such any reduction in consumption whilst still achieving operational excellence will immediately translate to an increase in profitability. Under training conditions savings can be as much as 14%. However this is unlikely to be achievable during everyday operations. What is more likely to be achievable and has been demonstrated in numerous case studies are savings of around 5% or 6%. A target of 7% or 8% is achievable when a properly planned long term behavioural change programme is implemented. It is important to have a system in place to accurately measure fuel consumption per driver and to set benchmarks prior to any programme implementation.

Reduce numbers of accidents and incidents/reduce damage costs and claims 

It has been documented and is accepted particularly by insurance companies that well trained drivers tend to have fewer accidents than drivers who are not trained. The severity of the accidents and costs are also less with well trained drivers. The SAFED style of driving engenders a better planned approach to hazards making the driver safer and able to better anticipate potential dangerous situations. Three key elements are linked together to make a driver safer. These are concentration, observation and anticipation. You can not have one without the others and are the hallmarks of a good driver of any vehicle not just trucks. Why not join this particular dot and negotiate further savings on insurance. Include your insurance company in your plan and show them exactly what you are aiming to achieve and how. Then ask them how much they are prepared to reduce your insurance costs as a result of you managing down the risk they bear. Do not be passive accepting that insurance is expensive and an inevitable spiralling cost. We have experienced insurance premium savings of 80% over 3 years and have even negotiated an up front 66% reduction based on a well planned programme by intelligently applying a training programme. Insurers understand the concept of reduced risk through a behavioural change programme and we have even seen significant sums of money given to companies to actually carry out training and risk reduction activities. The high value of vehicle damage costs are often buried in the maintenance budget. This is really turning a blind eye and accepting this level of cost. Experience tells us that around 50% of accident damage occurs whilst manoeuvring large vehicles. It is essential to build a training intervention into the programme in order to ensure that when manoeuvring the driver will take proper care.

Reduce operating costs

Heavy vehicles are very expensive to maintain particularly vehicles that are not being driven sympathetically. Some of the costs of replacing clutches, brake materials, gearbox components, etc. can often be attributed to poor driving. The costs described in the reduction of damage added together with excessive wear can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds of direct costs or if self insured even millions of pounds. Again this should be measured to identify cost savings that can and easily be achieved.

Improve staff morale and retention

This may not be at the top of your list of priorities. Discussion with your HR department will alert you to the true substantial cost of staff leaving and being replaced. Apart from the up front cost of recruitment the new recruit will require induction and training to bring them up to the standard of existing drivers. They may make operational mistakes until they become more experienced with your operation and expectations. A stable workforce is something to be cherished and a workforce that has had training and development have better morale and feel more valued which in turn leads to better retention. This again saves costs.

Improve carbon footprint

Ignore this at your peril. More and more the carbon issue is on the agenda. Government are committed to addressing our carbon footprint and as such industry is being brought into line to do their part.  Responsible organisations are demanding their suppliers, as part of their contractual obligations, have carbon reduction plans in place and are asking them to demonstrate how they are addressing this issue. Improving your carbon footprint and evidencing it through such a programme as described above not only helps the environment but makes financial sense too by taking waste out of the operation.

Deliver a Driver CPC solution

So the key motivating factor behind all the above was to deliver a Driver CPC solution. You have to do this so why not increase your profitability whilst carrying out your obligation to be compliant with this new EU Directive? The initial training will return 7 hours or 1 day Driver CPC.  The second follow up training session may be theory based in the classroom which will be less expensive to deliver but will re-enforce the principals and carry on with the embedding process.

Summary

Training is an investment and can be expensive therefore it must be planned and targeted in a correct way to obtain business benefits. You must seek to obtain a rate of return on your investment through an increase in profitability and enhancing your operations effectiveness and efficiency. It can be a tool for change and to introduce new behaviours. Bluntly applied training has some short term effect and may only tick the compliance box. Take the opportunity to transform your business through your people who are your greatest asset as well as being one of your greatest costs. Remember it is a cost with little proven return to just run bluntly applied training courses in the hope that you are compliant. By intelligently applying training and increasing profitability every stakeholder is a winner.