This week, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) released a white paper that analyzed the results of the Safety Impacts of Truck Driver Simulator Training. The ATRi report, investigated the effectiveness of using customized truck driving simulators to target specific driving behaviors that have been associated with increased crash risk.”
The study analyzed driving behaviors that ATRI previously identified in its Predicting Truck Crash Involvement report and developed a “series of ‘targeted’ training scenarios” to use in the driving simulators.
ATRI then partnered with carriers to collect and evaluate drivers safety and training data. Lastly, ATRI analyzed the driver’s differences after 6 and 12 months post-simulator training.
The results of the 6-month evaluation were promising– drivers who received targeted simulator training had fewer incidents. However, the 12-month evaluations showed that those effects had dissipated.
“Truck driving simulators provide carriers with the ability to offer a wide variety of training exercises to drivers from the safety and convenience of a classroom. By focusing training efforts on correcting behaviors that have a known correlation to crash risk, carriers can take a proactive step towards preventing future crashes,” ATRI states.
A copy of this report is available from ATRI by clicking here.