Industry Outlook: Safety Dance

Wanna know what's going on within the expedite industry, or with trucking overall? Then tune in to Industry Outlook, presented by Expediters Online and Expediter Services. Join our host, Brandon Baxter, as he engages with folks-in-the-know who will bring their knowledge, ideas, and expertise to the forefront of the trucking industry in 2024 and beyond.

Join Host Brandon Baxter and Infinit-I Workforce Solutions' Randy Sturdivant as they discuss what's so important about proper safety training.
Is your company doing their own safety dance? Do you wonder if your drivers are turning into men (or women) without hardhats? Well, they can dance if they want to, but please don't leave any trucker behind. Tune in for more on today's installment ?? of Industry Outlook!

Transcript

Brandon Baxter
Welcome to Industry Outlook presented by Expediters Online Expediter Services and Infinit-I Workforce Solutions. I'm your host, Brandon Baxter.
My guest today is the Executive Vice President of Business Development for Infinit-I Workforce Solutions.
Randy Sturdivant. Randy, thank you so much for joining me today.

Randy Sturdivant
It's great to be here. Thank you for having me.

BB
Most definitely.
I appreciate you jumping in and, this is gonna be something I think that we can take a discussion forward to inform, you know, our audience, your audience exactly who you are, what you do and what you do to help out the trucking industry.
So, Randy, if you don't mind, let's dive right into today's topic.
And that is how does Infinit-I Workforce Solutions and its online safety training benefit the overall trucking industry as a whole.

RS
Well, Brandon creating a culture of safety that prevents accidents and CSA violations is difficult for all companies that have commercial vehicles.
Our training solution allows clients to deliver effective training frequently and consistently without disrupting workflow.

BB
And what are some of the biggest challenges that you might face in creating a culture of safety within the industry?

RS
Well, there's been a paradigm shift in the way people train today, and I would say that the two challenges that come to mind are a low participation in training and also the lack of frequency of training.
There's one thing for certain, if you have a safety program that doesn't enable the driver to easily participate in training, then you have a very difficult time in being successful in reducing accidents.

BB
How frequent would you suggest would that training take place?

RS
Well, it, you know, we have a lot of insurance partners that recommend us and it's a really good question because when people say how much training is enough, the real answer is there's never enough, but a good practice is really more than you think; at least once a month for a particular initiative that you're trying to reduce and speaking with insurance partners, training 2, 3, and sometimes four times a month would be even better than what they call weekly. But that's a real big challenge, you know, without disrupting workflow.

BB
Can you maybe give our audience of a bit of an overview of how Infinit-I is beneficial to maybe an owner operator or a carrier or a fleet owner?

RS
Absolutely. Just let me start with, we've been a leader in online training in the trucking industry for almost two decades.
And just to give you a little memory on that is, is you remember what the internet sounded like 20 years ago when you logged on

BB
The dial-up sound?

RS
Yeah, that, that wonderful little high pitched screeching sound.
So, but we, you know, that's how long we've been helping trucking companies reducing accidents and operate more safely.
And again, it's kind of like a paradigm shift because it was usually done once a quarter and again, it was difficult to get sometimes even 50% of your people to show up.
So there's a lot of exposure around not training and actually getting in an accident and having no proof that, that you do your training.
Micro training is the first thing we talk about because our videos are 3 to 7 minutes, there are actual people and vehicles and things in the training.
But those short videos lead to better comprehension.
The second thing I would talk about is system access. You've got to have a training program that actually your drivers have access to if they're on the road, you know, they can't just come in for training all the time. So being able to access it whenever and wherever 24/7 makes it possible.
And the last thing I'll mention, Brandon, is training automation.
We're able to help clients set up a training schedule that automatically delivers and tracks training each and every month.
So they have this wonderful machine behind the scenes making sure that training is being delivered and keeping safety top of mind and insurance providers have validated that this reduces the amount of accidents

BB
If you don't mind me backtracking just a second on something that you said Randy, and it kind of jumped into my frame of mind only because I think we actually talked about this, you and I, the other day in preparation for this was that the idea of, almost like the attention span, right?
You mentioned the three to four minute videos that are number one, they're beneficial for the drivers to, you know, take just that little bit of time out of their day to watch these videos, to incorporate that training.
But kind of goes along with what you and I were talking about in terms of I don't and I'm not accusing drivers or anybody really of having short attention span, but we live in that TikTok age, right?
Where, where you gotta grab them, you gotta grab them quickly, talk a little bit about that if you don't mind.

RS
Well, there's actually a science to it be that basically, when in the learning process, a more effective learning process will be to actually deliver a short amount of training, validate the comprehension and then not reduce the... you don't want to dilute it by continuing to add more and more information in the same training session.
So, breaking it into small sections is an effective way to get that valid point taken to keep that valid point top of mind.
The other thing I've shared with you though is, you know, when you, we talked about, the participation, you, you have to, if, if they think that they've got to schedule the time and they don't have enough time already doing something that takes 30 minutes or an hour or even a couple of hours is, is very difficult, but being able to know that, that they can jump in, get their training done you know, have that top of mind, the benefits and the actual behavioral change is, better delivered,
When you think about the process of underwriting a risk for a company and let's say a trucking company, the goal of the underwriter is to write that policy as inexpensively as possible while still being profitable, but to make sure that, that it's written in a way it will cover the actual risk.
And so when you, when you have a structured training program that you have documentation and that you can prove that you're delivering training frequently, your insurance providers will see that as a commitment to safety culture.
And in addition to that, because your insurance company is, is one that's settling the claims a lot is it can reduce the amount of the claim.
if the plaintiff attorney is trying to find that you got a deficit in the way you're trying to keep the, motoring public safe.

BB
Which I'm sure is huge, specifically for, fleet owners or carriers in particular, right?

RS
It really involves, everybody because what happens is, with the dot Number is, you're, you're held accountable for a certain amount of standards.
And again, I'll give you a stat that, that will amaze you that, that 80% of accidents are actually not caused by the trucking company or the truck driver, but actually the motoring public.
But when, when they go to... when they go to the court, the actual numbers are, that 70% of the time the plaintiff wins, and the challenge with this is, you can be right and it still costs you a lot of money, but the better you have followed your policy and procedures and the better that you've documented your commitment to training and having a safety culture, the better outcome you're going to have.
And again, I think we talked earlier is, your insurance premium covers at least $750,000 worth of liability and the plaintiff attorneys are going after that,

BB
So how does Infinit-I Workforce Solutions protect a fleet in a court of law like that?

RS
Well, so what happens is the first thing they're going to look at is whether you, whether you follow your policy and procedures, and again, a lot of our clients will deliver the policy and procedure through our system.
But the second thing is in a world where the standard for training was, was quarterly and half the people showed up, you know, that, that there was a lot of lawsuits lost because it, there's a lot of gaps in making sure that their safety is top of mind.
But when you're able to show that you train more than, more than the standard, you know, even once and twice a month, delivering training and then you can actually show there's not only participation but, but comprehension, it makes it very difficult to, for a, plaintiff attorney to paint you as, as somebody who doesn't care.
In fact, we've had, many, many of our clients, speak to us about being in a deposition.
I don't know if, if any of our listeners have, have been in a deposition or know somebody that has, but nobody walks out and thinking, oh, I'd like to do that again.

BB
Just put me on the schedule again for next week.

RS
Yeah, it's tough.
But what happens is our clients have told us that when they, and there's no guarantee in the court of law, let's just get that out there, you know what's going to happen.
But historically, they said when they look at their record keeping and they show that the third party time date stamp, digital documentation of what has happened, which is the training, they virtually, go look for something else because they can see that you're not an easy target

BB
And that really paints the picture that this isn't just about risk management. it's being proactive right, in an effort to try and curtail any of that. If at all.

RS
You know, something that comes to mind on that is, is that it's not just the trucking company, but it's also the driver because a driver can actually, get too many CSA violations where they're almost unhireable.
So they put themselves out of business, right?
And they're also lawyers are going after the drivers and the companies, you know, the big money is obviously in the companies.
But, but there, you know, there's, there's situations where where drivers have gone to jail for making poor decisions.
One last thing I'd say is, is think about a football team, football team practices all week, play on Sunday, right?
And, and, and they're instinctively gonna know what to do in their position. Right?
So, a driver, let's say you're driving down the road and you've got an accident that happened in front of you and you've had some recent lane change training... if you haven't had training, there's a chance you could make a poor decision by moving over too quickly without following your specific rules about lane change.
But if you've had training, you're gonna be able to more likely stay within the realm of that and make a safer decision.

BB
Partnering along lines with Expediter Services, can you kind of give us an idea what's the relationship between Infinit-I Workforce Solutions and Expediter Services?

RS
It's been a great relationship but basically, we, we got together a little over two years ago now and they were looking for a more effective training solution that that's actually executable, which means how do we get participation, how do we get fleet owners to to execute training properly?
And so we got to put our heads together and found some of the most common things that that will happen as far as risk goes with the driver.
And so we created an automated plan, which it sets up a two year program where there's two micro training sessions per month.
And again, that because our videos for 3 to 7 minutes, as we mentioned earlier, that's only 15 minutes of training a month and we're not disrupting workflow, but that automation allows it to happen no matter what else is going on, all we have to do is get the drivers to participate in all that behavioral change and protection from litigation, goes into play.

BB
I mean, it sounds like in, you know, adding Infinit-I Workforce Solutions to the mix is just nothing but a positive for everybody across the board.

RS
Absolutely, like I said, it's been a great relationship and that there are a lot, a lot of the members have taken advantage of it and seen good success with it.
And, and, you know, we, we're more than just a vendor, we're a partner because, we can save lives and people's ability to work out there by creating a safer environment.

BB
Well, Randy, is there anything else that you'd like to address or add before we wrap up our little episode here?

RS
Keep it short.
I just wanna let, let everybody know that, you know, connecting the dots between training and behavioral change is important. Your drivers will make better decisions if they've had recent training.
And if you, you can search internet that all you want to and every one of the search engine responses from, "if I train more often will I have better results", every one of them say that you absolutely will.

BB
This has been industry outlook presented by Expediters Online, Expediter Services and Infinit-I Workforce Solutions.
I've been your host, Brandon Baxter until next time.