Brown Trucking uses online training to stay connected with drivers

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Updated Nov 25, 2013

subBannerImg_trucking_634x194Once a week, all of the fleet managers, dispatchers and personnel who interact with drivers at Brown Integrated Logistics are required to watch a short, online training video. Each clip only lasts about three minutes and is followed by a short test. This weekly routine will last a full year.

The purpose of the training is to improve driver relations and retention, explains Brian Kinsey, president and chief executive officer of Brown Integrated Logistics. The training gives the office staff a better understanding of where their checks come from.

This Dan Baker dispatcher training series is included in the company’s subscription to the Infiniti-i web-based training system from the Vertical Alliance Group. Dan Baker is a well-known speaker and consultant in the trucking industry on driver retention and communications.

Brown Integrated Logistics has been using Infiniti-i for two years. It has 155 safety and compliance training modules to choose from, Kinsey says, most of which are used for drivers. Some are also assigned to warehouse and dock workers for generic training on how to operate dollies and forklifts, for example.

The company is also using the online Pro-Tread training videos from Instructional Technologies, Inc. It primarily assigns Pro-Tread modules to drivers following violations and problems they have had with safety and compliance.

Both of these online training modules are readily available to drivers at each terminal location where a computer station, or kiosk, is dedicated for that purpose. Whether drivers login in the office or from their own connected devices, they immediately see the modules they have been assigned.

The return on investment from online training technology is hard to measure, Kinsey says. The company has always had a good safety record and has received the top safety prize in its mileage category from the Georgia and North Carolina trucking associations the last four years.

Where Kinsey believes the technology has made a difference is with driver retention by improving safety performance.

“I think it is noticed by drivers,” he says. “If they have a problem, instead of cutting them off we work with them. If they are willing to go through training we recertify them.”

Brown Integrated Logistics is also able to conduct new-driver orientation meetings online. If drivers are unable to drive to the home office in Lithonia, Ga., they can attend an orientation meeting in Oklahoma City, for example, and follow right along with the drivers attending in Lithonia through online video and conferencing applications.

By using Web-based training systems, Brown Integrated Logistics and many other fleets are able to reach everyone in the company with easy-to-access and convenient training modules. To learn about other technology developments in this arena, check out “hooked on e-learning,” part 2 of the recent CCJ series on next-generation technology for training.