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Pro's and con's of accredited driver-training

<b> FOCUSED DRIVERS: </b> Accredited driver training organisations have professional, experienced and certified instructors. <i> Image:Supplied </i>
<b> FOCUSED DRIVERS: </b> Accredited driver training organisations have professional, experienced and certified instructors. <i> Image:Supplied </i>

South African businesses stand to benefit in many ways by undertaking employee training. Yet, with the many options the difficulty may be in choosing a course.

Businesses that depend on fleets for their daily operation should give serious consideration to accredited driver training.

We take a comprehensive look at this training to assess all you have to gain and lose by making use of it.

The Pros:

1.       Access to comprehensive training
Your drivers will gain experience to handle every driving situation. Driver training business, MasterDrive, provides rollover prevention, awareness sessions and defensive driver training to name a few.

2.       Time-saving
Choose a school which provides trucks and cars during instruction so you do not lose valuable time using your own vehicles for training.

3.       Cost-savings
Driver training can save your business money by teaching employees to drive economically. It can also help you reduce accidents by up to 50%, saving your business millions. MasterDrive helped a manufacturing company save R80 million in one year with specialised heavy-duty vehicle training. 

4.       Social responsibility
Crashes like the Fields Hill accident in Pinetown and the accident on the N12 in Alberton, has created more demand for businesses to ensure truck drivers drive responsibly and have expertise to avoid collisions.

5.       Employee investment
By upskilling or improving employee skills your business will be more successful at retaining talent, reducing expenses of high employee turnover and building loyal and trustworthy fleets.

6.       Experienced instructors
Accredited driver training organisations have professional, experienced and certified instructors. MasterDrive have been providing training for up to 20 years and trainers regularly redo their advanced driving tests. They are also involved in train the trainer initiatives with international partners. 

7.       BEE Scorecard
With changing codes there are increasing incentives for companies to choose accredited organisations in order to benefit from strategic incentives. Under the new codes, organisations are obliged to increase spend on skills development which can only be recouped if the organisation and training is accredited.

The Cons:

1.       Time commitment
A time commitment is required. You need to weigh up the cost of taking drivers out the field for a day against the potential cost benefits.

2.       Dependent on organisational commitment
Driver training will have a limited benefit if you are merely using it to earn a tax rebate. Your commitment to responsible and educated drivers needs to filter throughout the organisation. You must take your own measures to ensure responsible driving is continually practiced. 

3.       Monetary investment
Driver training will require an initial financial investment, however, accredited organisations have a 10 to one return on investment on average.

4.       Unregulated industry
Driver trainers do not need to belong to an association nor receive a specific qualification to provide training. As a result you need to carefully select a training organisation which has taken its own steps to ensure they provide you with professional and experienced training. MasterDrive is an ISO9000 company which assures customers of their quality service.

While there can be cons to driver training these can be managed or reduced. Ultimately the pros far outweigh the cons. If you have a fleet in your organisation give MasterDrive a call, so you can start your beneficial training journey.

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