Research shows that two thirds of us give up on our New Year’s resolutions within the first month.[1] So, if you’re struggling to keep up with an ambitious gym regime or restrictive eating plan, you’re not alone. Instead, turn your attention to 2025 goals that are easier to stick to.
Someone is killed or seriously injured on UK roads every 16 minutes, so now’s the time to make a commitment to boost your driver skills this year and help make our roads a safer place for all – read on for our top five tips.
Embrace advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS)
Modern vehicles are equipped with technologies designed to assist drivers, such as adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance, and automatic emergency braking. Understanding and effectively using these systems can significantly enhance driving safety and comfort. Drivetech offers comprehensive training programs to help drivers become proficient with ADAS, ensuring they can use these tools to their full potential.
Prioritise defensive driving techniques
Defensive driving is about anticipating potential hazards and making safe, well-informed decisions on the road. For example, maintaining safe following distances allows for swift reaction times in unexpected situations. Equally, staying focused on the road and your surroundings can give you more time to react to potential risks, such as sudden stops or erratic drivers. Drivers should also adjust their behaviour to match the weather and road surface conditions. Drivetech has a guide to winter driving available to help you brush up your skills alongside resources on a full range of defensive driving skills that help drivers anticipate and respond to potential hazards on the road.
Commit to continuous learning and assessment
The driving landscape is ever evolving, with new regulations, technologies, and best practices emerging regularly. Engaging in ongoing education ensures drivers remain competent and confident. Regular assessments can identify areas for improvement, allowing for targeted training. Drivetech provides a range of courses and assessments tailored to business needs or type of vehicle, ensuring drivers stay ahead of the curve.
Adopt, or enhance, eco-driving practices
Finding more sustainable ways of getting around is not a new topic of conversation. While the bigger talk often leans towards electric vehicles and fuel alternatives, such as hydrogen, there are ways that drivers of ICE vehicles (internal combustion engine) can reduce emissions. Eco-driving focuses on techniques that reduce fuel consumption and minimise environmental impact. Avoiding harsh acceleration and sudden braking can help to improve fuel efficiency, while shifting gears at the right time can maintain engine efficiency.
Equally, driving at steady speeds, particularly within the optimal fuel efficiency range can ultimately save money as well as helping to protect the environment. Drivetech’s highly popular Real World In-Vehicle course equips drivers with the skills to adopt these habits as part of their day-to-day driving for work, making each journey a little kinder on the environment.
Use telematics for performance monitoring
Boosting driver skills can also reap commercial benefits as well as improving driver safety and wellbeing and protecting other road users. Our final tip focuses on how they help an organisation’s bottom-line too. Telematics systems provide valuable insights into driving behaviour, vehicle performance, and route efficiency. By analysing data on aspects like speed, braking patterns, and idle times, drivers and businesses can identify areas for improvement.
Drivetech offers telematics solutions that help monitor and enhance driver performance, leading to safer and more efficient driving practices. Through our leading Halo Insights platform, Drivetech can even take this a step further and bring telematics data together with all other fleet costs including utilisation, incidents, fuel, maintenance and more, helping businesses to manage and report on driver risk in a whole new way. This visibility, combined with behaviour-led interventions, can deliver targeted training directly to individual drivers to support behaviour change to the benefit of the business and other road users.
In short, boosting driver skills in 2025 involves embracing technology, committing to continuous learning, and adopting safe and efficient driving practices. Drivetech is here to support drivers and organisations in achieving these goals through our comprehensive training and solutions.
[1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210325084851.htm
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