Making Your Driver Training Fun and Flexible

Continuing education is an important aspect of maintaining a healthy and vibrant commercial trucking fleet. For drivers, it means more fulfilling work, more expertise in company tools and technology, increased opportunities for career advancement, and safer routes thanks to continually reinforced skills. 

For managers, it means a better bottom line as a result of safer drivers, better compliance, and more informed driving habits regarding issues like fuel efficiency. Additionally, flexible educational tools can drive down the cost of orientation and training by allowing you to choose the best training approach for your fleet.

Training that Meets Drivers Where They Are

While truck drivers do have a significant amount of required downtime, they often have limited control over where it occurs. They may be at a loading dock, a service center, or a truck stop waiting out their required rest period. The ability to complete job training when and where they prefer makes the task more enjoyable and effective, giving them more control over their ongoing education experience. 

Historically, the trucking industry has struggled with its employee education efforts, as removing drivers from their routes even for a short time meant business disruption and lost revenue. Fleets, therefore, tried to limit in-person training to the shortest amounts of time possible, resulting in sessions that were jam-packed with information that was often dry, overwhelming, and hard to retain. Frequently, training was planned for weekends or in conjunction with company meetings or conducted only in response to a serious mistake or infraction. This caused drivers to develop negative attitudes towards employee training efforts.

Learning Companies Making a Difference

However, new educational approaches present training in a completely different way. Building off educational research and best practices on how adults learn, learning companies are utilizing science-backed programs to deliver educational programs that are engaging, easy to consume and retain, and even gamified for more fun.

As part of its robust partner ecosystem, Platform Science has teamed up with Luma Brighter Learning to offer their innovative driver training tools as an add-on to the Platform Science fleet management software suite. Members of the Virtual Vehicle ecosystem provide thoroughly vetted and approved apps to integrate seamlessly into the Platform Science environment.

Luma Brighter Learning

Luma bases its learning program on several key benefits:

• Advanced customization: This platform is more than just uploading videos, PDFs, and forms. Luma works with fleets to create content plans that best suit their needs and goals.
• Individualized learning:  Luma differentiates instruction through individualized coaching programs that draw on multiple ways of training adults. 
• Rapid form tools: Luma can convert company paper forms into digital in 24-48 hours, embedding them into your learning program.
• Data-driven learning: Real-time analytics and feedback are collected to make changes to the content and system to support driver preferences, such as language translation options.
• eNuggets: Gamified learning breaks down the most essential content to grab drivers’ attention and keep it, helping them retain what they’ve learned.

Luma Brighter Learning offers two add-on options for Platform Science customers:

LUMA ENUGGET® LEARNING

This award-winning learning platform offers fleets the ability to serve their entire organization with customizable learning, forms, and compliance tools. It includes Luma’s complete content library. Luma recommends identifying a dedicated program champion to utilize all this product’s features.

LUMA EMERGE®

This award-winning learning platform offers those fleets without a dedicated resource person access to learning, video messages, and reporting for their entire organization. This product affords these fleets access to scientific-based content without the needed resources for customization. It includes the Luma content library without forms.

Fleet efforts to make driver education more enjoyable and easier to complete can result in better attitudes toward training, improved performance, and optimized operations. It benefits both the driver and the bottom line, making it a very worthwhile endeavor for fleets. Using technology, an improved employee education program is easier to implement than ever.

Learn more about the Luma Brighter Learning add-ons for Platform Science software.

‍View the full Platform Science partner application ecosystem.