Driving ambition boosted by test

With new government figures revealing that failure to pay attention is the main cause of road crashes in the UK, one company has found the solution to finding the safest drivers.

Hogrefe Ltd has a breakthrough test that differentiates between good and poor motorists, which it says is useful for any company whose staff do high business mileage. Originally developed by the Institute of Safety in Mining, Industry and Transportation in Germany ëThe d2 Test of Attentioní is now being used with huge success by Nottingham City Transport in its bid to attract and retain higher numbers of skilled drivers.

Wendy Lord, Chief Psychologist and Director of Development at Hogrefe Ltd explained what the test can do: ìThroughout Europe the ëd2í has become one of the most widely used measures of visual attention in a number of industry sectors. However it was originally designed with motorists in mind. The difference it has made for Nottingham City Transport supports this application. Weíre now recommending the use of this test to any business which requires safe drivers.î

The ëd2í is particularly effective because rather than testing how attentive someone is on any one day, it highlights an ingrained trait for poor or good attention.

Nottingham City Transport runs a modern fleet of 386 buses, driven by a team of more than 800 drivers, responsible for 50 million passengers and 12.5 million miles each year.

ìIn the past, making sure that we have enough capable drivers was a real headache.î says Mike Lee, Training and Development Manager. ìTo cover retirements, attrition and growth we need to produce around 140 new, fully trained drivers each year,î added Mike.

There are high costs involved: ìAs youíd expect we have a very rigorous training programme for our new drivers,î continues Mike. ìIt takes around six weeks and costs over 3,000 to train each driver. That means that every trainee we put through the programme who doesnít finish, represents a sizeable loss of money. With a drop-out rate of one-in-three it was an area that I really wanted to improve.î

The results have shown a resounding success story. ìIn the six months from January 2006 we assessed over 250 candidates, recruiting and training around 100 of them,î says Mike. ìThe results have been brilliant and far exceeded our expectations. Our drop-out rate has fallen from one-in-three to one-in-ten. Itís made a huge financial difference to the company already.î

However, itís the bottom line that other companies can sit up and take notice of. With the six week driver training course costing 3,100 per trainee, the reduced drop-out rate has already saved the company at least 72,000 after just six months of operation.

Wendy Lord concludes ìWith failure to pay attention now the main cause of road traffic accidents, itís good to know thereís an objective way of testing for this. Hopefully as more and more companies use ëd2í, we will help companies cut the number of accidents their drivers have and reduce costs in the long term.î