Red Corporate Driver Training on its plans to go green

The days of simply handing over a set of car keys to a company driver should be coming to an end as a growing number opt for electric vehicles (EVs).

Such is the difference between a traditional petrol or diesel-powered car and an EV that fleet bosses must ensure every driver is given the relevant training on how to use the vehicle before they take to the road.

You might expect such advice from Seb Goldin (left), the CEO of Red Corporate Driver Training, as he has been tasked with growing the company’s driver training and risk management business and fleet operations. But Goldin says the vast amount of state-of-the-art technology fitted into new vehicles should be a genuine area of concern for fleets, particularly if company policy – rather than individual choice  – dictates a driver has an electric vehicle.

He says: “As more and more technology is fitted into vehicles, drivers don’t really know the vehicle’s limit point. Chassis control systems are so good today, but every vehicle can be affected by adverse weather conditions – floods or ice for example – and that’s when they need to be properly driven to correct any errors, such as oversteer. The vehicle will mostly do all that for you, but only if conditions allow.

“A lot of drivers get chucked the keys and have no idea what all the buttons do. My advice to fleets is to think about what your drivers need to understand about their vehicles. Think about what does semi-autonomous technology does for the driver but also what it doesn’t do.

"I hugely welcome such technology, but I also welcome people understanding what its limitations are.”

Goldin says it could be that automatic headlights are switched off by a technician servicing the car in a garage. Would drivers know how to immediately switch them back on when the need arises?