Our Head of Research Dr Isler is also an Associate Professor at Waikato University, and founding director of their prestigious TARS (Traffic and Road Safety) Group. He’s got decades of road safety research under his belt, and has combined everything he’s researched, learned, seen and discovered, into Fleetcoach, a training product that helps train safer drivers.
We caught up with him to hear about the five insights he’s gained about driver safety, over the last few decades of research. Here they are:
1). We steer in the direction we look: A lot of our work has been around where people look when they drive. It’s been proven that risky drivers aren’t great at scanning for hazards, and that safer, more skilled drivers know to look well ahead of the car and keep their eyes moving. We also discovered that people steer in the direction they look in, which of course is essential information for driver training!”
2). Most drivers are poorly calibrated: “That means that people think they’re much better than they actually are at driving. They’re overconfident, and that’s not a good thing!”
3). Training needs to use a coaching approach: “Coaching works. Top-down, instructional, patronising instructing, doesn’t.”
4). Almost everyone can improve: “That means that no matter what your skills are like behind the wheel, you can be a better, smoother, safer and more skillful driver.”
5). The way people drive is directly related to how they live their lives and how they do their work: “If they’re an aggressive and risky driver, they’ll likely be like this in this work and home life too. That’s why it’s so important to look at overall factors when you try to change behaviour.”
So there you have it, our summary of the top points of driving research, and all incorporated into the Fleetcoach programme. There's a lot of risk that surrounds driving, and we have put the very best science into making sure
If you have any questions about the science that’s gone into Fleetcoach, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us and ask away!
