Every small fleet has a responsibility to maintain a safety training program. In the digital age that we are in, it is now easier than ever.
As a “one-man-band” of the operations department of my own small fleet, being the head of safety is yet another hat that I wear. That being said, I solely bear the responsibility of maintaining a safety program that adequately satisfies FMCSA requirements. Having previously used J.J. Keller‘s online DER certification course for my supervisor training in regards to my company’s drug and alcohol program, I decided to revisit their digital library of courses to see if they had something to aid in my incorporation of a regularly scheduled safety program.
In this day and age, I figured there must be a simpler way to outsource some of this in a uniform digital manner, rather than constantly having to come up with my own safety ideas every month. I was delighted to find a monthly safety newsletter subscription through J.J. Keller, complete with an overview knowledge assessment quiz that I could utilize. To top it off, my online access portal included a monthly hard-copy mailed subscription with safety posters related to that month’s topic.
Besides helping me maintain an easy to use monthly safety training regimen, I can now add points to my account that enables me to use many of their online training videos on various subjects. I can then send these to my drivers, and I receive notifications once they have been successfully completed. Before I was able to utilize this digital online platform, it was very time consuming and tedious to develop my own PowerPoint presentations or newsletters and then to follow up on them.
It is no surprise to anyone that has followed my Team Run Smart articles in the past, that I am a big fan of embracing digital technology to streamline cumbersome tasks. Having found a vast digital library of training modules like this, on everything from winter driving to substance-abuse, makes maintaining a safety training program as easy as the click of a mouse! Though it may cost me a little bit more in the short term when compared to coming up with my own training, the time it saves me overall is well worth the few additional costs.