Commercial Vehicles

How training can drive down the bottom line

How training can drive down the bottom line

15th September 2011

Email: richard.maynard@newburynews.co.uk

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Richard Maynard undergoes Bayer’s eco-driving programme

We are all more conscious of the need to save fuel these days, and for businesses it is even more important, both for their bottom line and the reduction of the carbon footprint.
Typical of those businesses is Newbury-based Bayer, the healthcare, material science and crop science company.
The company has long been involved in providing driver safety training to its employees through its DriveWise programme, along with a programme to reduce its carbon footprint.
The latest element of this is Ecowise, a scheme in which people who drive for work purposes are required to attend a practical training course.  
The idea is to provide safe and defensive driving skills that minimise the risk of being involved in a collision and also teach the driver skills which can provide a tangible reduction in fuel consumption. According to Bayer, the sound economic facts about reducing the risks to drivers speak for themselves.  Accidents and the consequences can have far-reaching effects for the business and the employee.
I took part in the scheme, undergoing half a day’s training with driver trainer Ronnie Mapes, from Peak Performance, one of the companies delivering the training for Bayer.
We began with a briefing session in  the office, in which Ronnie gauged my understanding of certain aspects of driving and what I understood by phrases such as ‘hurry to wait’ and ‘accellerbrake’. I scored five out of five in each section, so I was feeling pretty buoyed up when we moved outside.
The next stage saw a thorough check of the car – in this case my own SEAT Ibiza, paying particular attention to lights, fluid levels and, of course, the condition of the tyres, which can have a huge affect on fuel consumption. This was both to ascertain the safety of the vehicle – no trainer wants to ride in a dangerous car – and to test my own knowledge of basic vehicle maintenance. An awful lot of drivers never venture under the bonnet, but I think Ronnie was genuinely impressed by my supply of disposable gloves for the task.
Then it was on the road for what would turn out to be a demanding and varied couple of hours, which would see us on a variety of roads – everything from busy town centres to motorways.
Let’s be perfectly honest – we all think that we are good drivers. I am as guilty as anyone else. I was keen to tell Ronnie about my Institute of Advanced Motorists qualification, which I have had since I was 18, and even the new-found knowledge from the Speed Awareness Course I recently attended. But it is a great truism in driving that you never stop learning. And it was not long before it became apparent that there was an aspect of my driving that Ronnie wasn’t happy with.
In short, Ronnie felt that I was braking too late and using the gearbox too much to slow the car down before traffic lights, junctions and roundabouts. As he put it in his report on my driving: “Initially, slightly late braking did not make best use of this valuable technique to conserve fuel, but with earlier, smoother and more progressive braking, there was a big improvement, allowing momentum to be used to avoid stopping where possible. This approach also controls following traffic very effectively.”
When you have been driving for nearly 30 years, certain things become a habit and it is difficult to break them but after guidance from Ronnie and a session in which he took the wheel of my car, it started to feel more natural to brake earlier.
Drivers taking part in the scheme have their performance graded Gold, Silver, Bronze or ‘Retrain’. I’m pleased to say that I scored Gold. More important that any certificate, though, is the effect that it has had on my fuel consumption.
Before the training, I was averaging 360 miles from a full tank of fuel on my daily 50-mile round trip, plus other journeys. Since the training with Peak Performance, I have getting between 410 and 460 miles from a tankful and have seen my average fuel consumption drop from around 40mpg to between 45 and 50mpg on my daily commute. That represents a considerable financial saving both to me and, when I am driving for business, my employer.
The training has proved beneficial for Bayer. Company spokeswoman Andrea Postles said:  “Bayer takes the safety and risks associated with driving a vehicle for work very seriously, and has had a driver training programme in place for many years.  We have recently taken the opportunity to review our driver training portfolio and are excited that the new EcoWise sessions provide safe and defensive driving skills and can provide a tangible reduction in fuel consumption too.
“To date, over 50 per cent of our drivers have booked or taken the training and the feedback from them has been really positive.  Driving safely is a skill for life and the course is not a test, instead something that employees can benefit from with even the most experienced drivers learning or updating skills.”