Blasting around the Mercedes-Benz World skidpan in an AMG Mercedes sounds like a lot of fun – see the news story Driving for Business safety programme from Mercedes. I can see that being popular.
If you haven’t tried them, I suggest you do. Of course everybody thinks they’re the best driver out there. OK, that might be the case, but a bit of driver training makes you an even better one.
I’ve been a couple times to the Audi Driving Experience, which is now hosted at Silverstone. They were brilliant. It’s where I learned about car balance, and anticipation – the thinking and looking ahead bit.
Some might argue that a race track is the wrong place for this. It’s not. You need a controlled space to do this sort of training. But what’s important is that you take new skills and apply them to your every day driving.
I managed to meet up with Geoffrey Bray last week. Geoffrey is the chairman of the Fleet Support Group. The company manages the vehicles and driver training for much larger companies. But what Geoffrey had to say holds true for small businesses.
Trained drivers actually reduce business costs. “No matter how many business cars you have, the 80/20 rule applies: 20% of the drivers account for 80% of the costs,” Geoffrey explained.
“Why do we allow a person to abuse their car and get away with it? Why do we allow it? We wouldn’t do that with any other business equipment. So, when you challenge that assumption, the change is immediate – we see a 50% drop in the crash rate.”
I explained to Geoffrey that I had been on Audi driver training programmes and had benefited enormously. I was particularly keen to put my son who is coming up to driving age, and later my daughter when she’s older, through driver training. Geoffrey agreed. “I think it would be very beneficial. I play games with my youngest when we’re in the car – such as, if a tree had fallen over around that corner, do you think we could stop in time? It helps start a natural assessment of the risks.”
Young drivers remain the most vulnerable. There are six injury accidents per 1000 licence holders over the age of 25. But the rate leaps to 16 for those between 17 and 21. Reducing that vulnerability has to be a priority for any parent.
Doesn’t it?
Improve safety, and improve your bottom line
