Every organisation has them: the colleague who always seems to be in a rush, the new starter who’s barely driven outside their hometown, the experienced driver who’s slipped into bad habits, and the competent employee who’s quietly terrified of motorways. We know. We have provided driver training to tens of thousands of these.
The mistake many employers make is treating these people as problem drivers, when in reality they’re often different risk profiles showing up for different reasons: time pressure, confidence gaps, limited experience, poor observation habits, weak vehicle familiarisation, or simple complacency, and because driving for work is a work activity, it’s not just their problem. The UK’s Health & Safety Executive (HSE) is clear that employers must manage health and safety risks for workers who drive for work, including company vehicles and grey fleet. Risk assessments should consider the journey, the driver, and the vehicle, including hazards such as fatigue, distraction, time pressure, and weather.
Step 1: Fix the system before you blame the driver
Before you take action, look at the environment you’ve created. Are schedules realistic? Time pressure is a known risk factor in driving for work. Are drivers encouraged to rush to meet KPIs? Do managers model the right behaviour? Is vehicle allocation sensible? New vans / EVs / unfamiliar vehicles are a classic trigger for incidents. What about your grey fleet? Is this managed properly?
Driver training works best when the organisation also removes the pressures that cause poor driving.
Step 2: Move from opinions to evidence
When someone is labelled a bad driver at work, it’s often based on vague complaints (“they’re too fast”, “they’re nervous”) rather than observable behaviours.
A better approach is:
a. Collect signals
b. Incident history (bumps, near misses, claims)
c. Customer complaints
d. Telematics trends (if used)
e. Manager ride‑alongs (structured, not informal judgement)
f. Assess risk in a consistent way
We recommend assessing driving competence and attitudes at recruitment, during induction, and regularly afterwards, prioritising those at higher risk (e.g., young drivers, high mileage, crash history, new vehicle type). Use these results to target interventions. The point is not to catch people out; it’s to identify what support will reduce risk first.
Step 3: Have the right conversation to identify the common problem driver types:
A constructive conversation has four parts:
a. What you’ve observed (specific behaviours, not personality labels)
b. Why it matters (safety, duty of care, reputational risk)
c. What “good” looks like (clear standards)
d. What support looks like (coaching/training + follow‑up)
How to handle common problem driver types:
1) The “too fast” driver (including the one who isn’t technically speeding)
This is the most common category, and the easiest to misunderstand.
Two key truths:
Speed limits are maximums, not targets; it may sometimes be unsafe to drive at the posted limit. This is very relevant on many rural roads, where reaching the limit even in perfect conditions would usually not be safe.
Driving too fast doesn’t always mean breaking the limit. Speed can be inappropriate even below the posted limit, and true speed awareness is driving to the conditions while acknowledging the speed limit.
What to do at work
a. Check if the driver is under time pressure (often the root cause).
b. Use a non‑negotiable standard: safe speed selection for conditions, and compliance with speed limits.
c. Don’t just say “slow down”. Give a reason. Despite its good meaning, “slow down” is vague and frustrating.
How training helps
An advanced/defensive driving course doesn’t just lecture about speed; it teaches drivers how to manage it through planning and observation, which reduces last‑second reactions. It also tackles the underlying mindset: some drivers need help developing a more positive attitude to safer driving, especially if they dismiss training or rationalise speeding.
2) The inexperienced driver (newly qualified, lack of experience)
Inexperience at work often isn’t about basic car control; it’s about exposure:
a. Motorways and fast A‑roads
b. Urban delivery environments
c. Vans / larger vehicles
d. Night driving, bad weather
Building driver assessment into induction, not when something goes wrong, is a step more companies are now taking.
How training helps
On‑road training is often used specifically for new drivers/onboarding and young drivers, with the goal of establishing safe habits early, before bad ones form. It’s also very useful as the employer can see what they’re like as a driver before they drive a company car or van.
3) The low‑confidence driver (nervous, anxious, avoids certain roads)
Low confidence shows up in predictable workplace driving patterns:
a. Avoiding motorways
b. Over‑hesitation at roundabouts/junctions
c. Driving significantly under the flow of traffic
d. White-knuckle fatigue after short trips
What to do at work
Separate competence from confidence. Some drivers know what to do but can’t execute calmly under pressure. Offer support without stigma. Temporarily adjust duties if needed, for example, avoid peak motorway hours at first, or avoid driving a van if a driver has no experience in driving such a vehicle.
How training helps
Confidence‑focused training we offer uses practical tools that reduce cognitive load and panic, such as:
a. Using sat nav to reduce fear of getting lost (especially on motorways).
b. Commentary driving (talking through what you see) to stay engaged with the driving task and reduce anxious rumination.
c. Positive self‑talk/coaching strategies to manage spikes of anxiety (used as part of building confidence).
d. Helping with manoeuvres, which is an essential part of our van driver training for nervous drivers.
This is where training can be transformative: the driver learns a repeatable process, practices it with expert support, and stops dreading driving.
4) The experienced but complacent driver
These drivers often have:
a. Few incidents (until they suddenly do)
b. A casual attitude to observation
c. Habitual shortcuts (following too close, rolling stops, late signals)
What to do at work
Treat this as a refresher and standards issue, not a disciplinary one, unless there are serious breaches.
How training helps
Our advanced driving frameworks retrain drivers to work systematically instead of on autopilot. For example, the System of Car Control is presented as a structured way of approaching hazards, originally designed by the British Police, and it starts with information gathering (TUG – take/use/give information), then position, speed, gears, and acceleration.
This kind of structure is powerful for fostering complacency because it gives a driver a mental checklist and makes coaching feedback more objective.
5) The road‑rage / aggressive driver
Aggression is a safety problem and a reputational problem, especially in branded vehicles. Our advanced/defensive course content addresses road rage, focusing on understanding root causes and defusing or preventing encounters through better planning and anticipation. We also offer a very bespoke road rage course too.
What to do at work
Don’t normalise it. Look for triggers: time pressure, workload, general stress, and poor sleep. Set a clear behavioural standard aligned to safety and brand.
How training helps
Training can help identify triggers that cause road rage and put in place mechanisms that can help a driver.
What “good” driver training looks like in a workplace context
Not all driver training is equal. Effective courses share five characteristics:
1) It’s tailored, not generic
Course content should adapt to the driver’s real issues, speed, confidence, attitude, manoeuvres, motorway competence, van control, etc.
2) It’s on-road, in the driver’s actual vehicle
Many courses, including ours, run on-road, often in the employee’s own car/van, which makes the learning immediately transferable to day‑to‑day driving.
3) There’s an initial assessment drive, then coaching
A structured format often includes:
a. An initial drive with minimal input to identify habits
b. Targeted coaching based on what’s observed
c. This helps keep the training objective and driver‑specific
4) It produces documented outcomes
All our on-road courses come complete with a post-course driving report (example). All driving courses should provide documentation as proof that driver training has taken place. The documentation also provides useful hints and tips.
5) Instructors are properly qualified for full‑licence holders
Workplace driver coaching is not the same as teaching learner drivers. All our tutors are experienced, full licence holder driver trainers and come from a range of professional backgrounds. Check the credentials of any provider you wish to use.
Discover our range of bespoke driving courses here.