Company Business Activities:

Established in 1875, Bagnalls are industrial and commercial painting and decorating specialists with their HQ located in West Yorkshire

What were your reasons for driver training?

We wanted to increase the skill and safety of our drivers primarily, especially the higher-risk ones. A recent insurance review also raised awareness of how driver training can lower fleet insurance costs.

What elements were most important to you for the driver training?

Building confidence for new drivers, especially those new to driving vans.  We are very aware that vans can be hard to drive if you’re only used to driving a car. We wanted to make sure our drivers had the opportunity to improve their driving so they felt safe and confident driving a larger vehicle.

How did your team respond to the idea of doing driver training, and how was it communicated within the organisation?

This was generally very welcomed – it was communicated to new drivers as part of the company driver procedure.

How did your drivers find the training?

We have put through several new drivers with various levels of experience in driving vans, and all of them felt the benefit of driver training sessions.

Even those who are used to driving vans benefitted from good advice on fuel consumption, speed awareness, reversing, and gear controls, reinforcing existing or learning something new.

One chap was a complete novice, and he was nervous before the course, but the instructor was forewarned and provided the chap with an excellent training session which boosted the new driver’s confidence.

Overall, we have not had one negative comment back from any of our new drivers.

Notes from our tutors

All the drivers at Bagnalls were keen to get the most from the sessions, with a few that were apprehensive. As most were new to the company, they were generally keen and enthusiastic. All the vans provided for training were in very good condition and well-serviced – this made initial vehicle checks straightforward with no delays. As many of the drivers were young, a lot of the training focused on van dimensions (vs car) and getting used to reversing the vehicles and advanced mirror use.