We generally go through this process every 2 years and it’s absolutely worth it. It gives me time to cut in camber on the corners and crown the straight.  Our double apex bend now has a nice positive camber; not quite the “wall of death” but getting there! And the main training corner has a definite negative camber to it.

The Skills Area

The skills area also went through the same upgrade and the course has been redesigned to include different corners and reversing sections. Those of you who have gone through it and revisit will find it a bit tougher than before as it’s tighter and requires extreme precision to get the 3 consecutive clear runs.

We recently had some students sail through our Protective Driving course of which the skills area is a major part. You know who you are. Get back here and try this one!!

For those who have completed the Protective Driving module successfully stand by for Part 2.  This will address the refresh and renew skills philosophy we have on driver training.

The Low Range Area

Next on the list is working on our Low Range.  We have already worked on the Sudan Pot Hole.  For those of you who were a bit disappointed that it was unusable due to the amount of rain we had; it is now open. We had to do some major clearing work but again worth it as I think it’s now going to be usable whatever the weather conditions.

Plans are afoot to work on the ascent and descent areas and the wadi crossing section. Watch this space.

The Congo Highway self recovery area has also been upgraded but you can still get stuck!! We are going to include this section in our advanced bush (Low Range) driving course.  You must have already successfully gone through our Low Range and self recovery course to qualify to participate in this one day module.  For those of you who have it’s a great way to renew and refresh your bush diving skills.

This new module will be described and advertised on our web site (which has also been upgraded and looks great) within the next few weeks.

Other Plans

Next on the list is to get our left hand drive training vehicles into shape. At the moment they are still going through some upgrades but should be ready in a few months.

By the end of the year we will have 2 fully functioning and equipped to deal with all our training modules.

We started off by doing some in house training, free of charge, to our customers who noticed results straight away. The word got out. We got requests from other organizations for training and had to think about where to go from there.

We invested time and considerable resources into developing a capacity to be able to carry out what has turned out to be driver training with a difference. Research had told us that driver training in some quarters was getting negative reviews and it was being said that drivers were coming out the other end of the process with poor driving attitudes = poor driving!

When we first started to carry out training as a service industry, if you like, there was resistance to the rates that we set. Even though they were well on a par with similar types of schools in the more developed countries. There was this view that if the service was available in Africa then it should be cheaper!

We went through a struggle period trying to convince organizations of the benefits of our type of training. Small groups, maximum amount of time hands on and the practical side of the training backing up / reinforcing the theory. As in any service industry … “you get what you pay for” …

Saying that, the struggle has never really disappeared and it’s not likely to. It’s more in the background than it used to be.

This is mainly down to organizations who have taken training with us realizing the benefits in relationship to cost; and investing more in a human resource that, in the end, has control over the security of the human asset and, what is possibly, one of the most expensive physical assets, in the third most dangerous working environment globally; the roads.

The message has then been passed onto the other organizations through our best marketing tool. Our customers.

More and more it seems that organizations are realising that the correct type of driver training does reap rewards even though the initial outlay may seem expensive. And what is more they are going on to making this available to their staff as continuance training. Realizing that safe defensive driving is a life and lifetime skill that has to be continually updated to keep training effective.

We have been up on our soap box for the last ten years shouting out that driver training has to be an integral part of any successful fleet management programme and to have a positive effect on global road safety. And we applaud the organisations out there for bringing this message home.

My only hope is that the level of driver training is not compromised. There is no cheap solution to effective driver training. You can’t learn about driving, driving a desk with 30 others in the jam with you!

A big THANK-YOU to all our customers / students, who have stuck with us and passed on our details, over the last ten years.

We would be on the back roads without you.

Mick.