You’re sick of dealing with accidents, cost of loss, inefficiencies in operation, passenger complaints, and your operators getting hurt. So, you implement a safety training program to solve these issues.

The only problem is, your bus operators don’t care. They aren’t invested in learning from your program which means you don’t see results. You’re right back where you started, minus the cost of the program.

This is a frustrating situation, but you’re not helpless. You can implement these five simple strategies to make your program more engaging. If you do, you’ll enjoy lower cost of loss and a safe operation that protects people from getting hurt.

1. Use Modern Videos

The most common component of a bus driver safety training program is videos. The problem is, many companies use videos that look like they’re from the 80s. The quality is bad, the music is worse, and it’s hard to take them seriously.

If you’re using out-of-date safety training videos, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Your operators won’t engage with the content. What’s worse, your operators will think you don’t value safety training, so they won’t either.

You don’t have to accept low-quality solutions. There are highly-effective, modern safety training courses that nearly any busing company could afford.

If you’re looking for an upgrade, you should consider something like The Bus Safety Course. The Bus Safety Course is online safety training made specifically for transit and motorcoach operators. It allows you to:

• Give your employees access to world-class training from any computer, laptop tablet, or smart device
• Track employee progress and run reports
• Implement engaging training in just a few clicks of a button

You can try The Bus Safety Course for free at this link.

2. Use More Than Just Videos

As crucial as up-to-date videos are, they aren’t a training program on their own.

Adults don’t learn only from sitting and watching videos, and they don’t want to. An effective safety training program involves:

• Video-based training
• Presentations
• Activities/exercises
• Exams
• Hands-on practice

Videos are a cost effective way to disperse a consistent message to your operators. However, if you want your operators to fully engage with your program, you need to do more.

3. Start with WIIFM

WIIFM (pronounced wiif-em) is a theory used in sales, marketing, and instructional design. It stands for “What’s In It For Me”. It’s the subconscious question we ask ourselves before we put forth effort to learn something new. More importantly, it’s the question your operators ask themselves before they participate in your safety program.

If your operators think your safety program is just another chore to get through, they won’t pay attention. They won’t engage with the material. Thus, they won’t put anything you teach them into practice.

You need to highlight what’s in it for them when you first introduce your training program. It needs to be at the very front of the conversation to get them excited and eager to participate.

So, what’s in it for your operators to participate in your safety program? You might be tempted to say something like, “It will save the company money,” “it will improve customer service”, or “our busses will be in better shape.” These are all benefits for the company, but not direct benefits for your operators.

When pitching your operators on safety training, lead with phrases like:

• This job is dangerous. You could get seriously hurt or even killed. But if you pay attention to this training program, you can have a long and safe career.
• Accidents are a big hassle for you. If you implement safe driving practices, you can have a smooth, stress-free ride.
• Unsafe driving results in angry customers who might take their frustrations out on you. If you’re a safe driver, you’re more likely to have pleasant experiences with our customers.

When you lead with WIIFM, your operators will be more willing to dedicate themselves to safety.

4. Safety-Based Compensation

Our next tip falls right in line with WIIFM. You should financially reward your operators for going through safety training.

Safety-based compensation can have various forms. You could give bonuses to operators who complete non-mandatory training or you could reward operators for accident-free miles driven.

Regardless, you should financially compensate your bus operators for being safe drivers.

Your first thought might be, how can I afford this?!

My question would be, how can you afford to have operators who don’t care about safety?

According to the FMCSA, the average cost of a transit or motorcoach bus accident is over $32,000. If you have two accidents a month, you’re spending around $768,000 on cost of loss per year.

If you can reduce accidents by 20%, you’ve saved yourself $153,000.

Therefore, if you increase company-wide operator pay by $50,000/year in order to achieve a 20% reduction in accidents, you’re still making over $100,000 in profit.

Financially rewarding your operators for safe, defensive driving is almost always worth the investment.

5. Collect Feedback

This much should be clear: if your operators don’t like your safety training, they won’t want to engage with it. The best way to ensure they like it is by collecting feedback.

You should collect feedback on various aspects of your training program such as:

• Content
• Schedule
• Presentation
• Time per subject

Not only does feedback allow you to fix aspects of your program that your operators don’t like, but it shows you value their opinions and that you’re willing to meet them halfway.

However, we have two words of caution. First, don’t collect feedback if you’re not willing to implement it. You’ll come across as disingenuous and break the trust between operators and management. Second, don’t “throw the baby out with the bathwater.” That is to say, don’t change something that is giving you good results. If something is necessary, it needs to be a part of training even if your operators don’t like it.