The company is now on track to further improve the average miles-per-gallon of the fleet, potentially increasing its savings to almost £60,000, all while rolling out RTITB Driver CPC Periodic Training to its 700 LGV drivers in the UK.
Bidvest Logistics had established a business objective of increasing efficiency in the transport department and improving the miles-per-gallon of the fleet.After reviewing its existing training programme, the company established that training focused on safe and economic driving could be used to decrease fuel consumption, while also helping to improve driving technique and reduce accidents.
To fulfil this training need, the business approached RTITB to provide a driving course based on an RTITB Driver CPC periodic training module. Following the training, one Bidvest Logistics depot increased its average fuel economy by 0.9 mpg, resulting in the £25,000 saving. The business is on target to extend this to 2.1 mpg in the near future, which will equate to a £58,500 fuel cost saving.
“We originally started working with RTITB to equip Instructors with a course to promote safe and economical LGV driving,” explained Pete Thornton, Operations, Learning and Development Manager, Bidvest Logistics. “It’s been great to use this bespoke SAFED [Safety Assessment Federation] course to help maintain our standards, and the fact that this training can also form part of our Driver CPC Periodic Training is even better,” he added.
Delivering driver training in-house, rather than outsourcing, has also provided Bidvest Logistics with another way to potentially make cost savings.Working with the RTITB Instructor Academy, the company has doubled its number of trained instructors delivering in-house driver training courses. All instructors have received a formal RTITB qualification, equipping them with the skills to deliver RTITB Driver CPC periodic training at different Bidvest Logistics depots across the UK.
“Instructors provided such good feedback on their training that other parts of the business are now looking at whether they could also bring training in-house and reduce costs by following our example of best practice,” explains Pete Thornton.
Bidvest Logistics is now a member of the RTITB Master Driver CPC Consortium, which enables access to the full library of Driver CPC training modules available through RTITB. To help achieve maximum driver engagement, these innovative training modules can be delivered through quizzes, case studies, workshops, games and discussions, all in manageable 35-minute topics.
“Investing in high quality training tells your instructors and your drivers that you believe investing in them is worthwhile,” Pete Thornton adds. “We would absolutely recommend RTITB to other food service and logistics companies.”
In other news, concrete and aggregates supplier Cemex has chosen road transport training firm Fleet Source to provide its drivers with CPC training.
Until 2015, Cemex was using two in-house trainers to carry out all of its driver training. But as a FORS gold status company, the requirement for its drivers to carry out Vulnerable Road User CPC training meant that it needed to look for an external provider for not only that but also refresher courses on tacho legislation and health and wellbeing. Additionally, it needed a provider that was able to train more than 340 drivers on the first few working days of the year, which was impossible to do with its in-house team.
To meet the customer requirement, Fleet Source ran 18 courses on Safe Urban Driving. This focuses on understanding how vulnerable road users behave and allows drivers to have a first-hand experience of being a vulnerable road user. It meets training requirements of the Construction Logistics and Community Safety (CLOCS) Standard and Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) Silver level.