In the UK, one of the few growth sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic has been transportation services and in particular, food delivery.

By the end of March 2020, revenue in the UK online groceries delivery segment was up by 11.5 % compared to Jan-March in the previous year. Despite the amount of traffic on our roads falling to levels not seen since 1955 during the pandemic, the number of people driving for work to deliver food and other items has increased.

In the same month, Tesco added more than 200 new vans and hired another 2,500 drivers. Other supermarkets such as Morrisons followed suit and created an extra 3,500 temporary positions to help manage the increased demand during the pandemic, with many smaller food retailers and restaurants rapidly developing their capacity to do home deliveries.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought huge changes to the way we work, with record numbers of people working from home and an increased reliance on delivery drivers to help manage self-isolation. There is a good reason to believe that some of these changes may well be permanent.

What lessons does COVID-19 provide for safety and fleet managers?

In our globalized, interconnected world we cannot rule out a similar event to COVID-19 taking place in the future. So it’s vital that fleet managers build resilience in to their organization to help manage unforeseen situations like pandemics, which vastly alter the demand for their services.

One way they can do this is by investing in online driver training which would allow a business to rapidly scale-up their fleet and delivery operations whilst maintaining a commitment to the health and wellbeing of its employees.

The importance of online driving courses

RoSPA provides a suite of online driving courses that provide practical, flexible and convenient ways for drivers to be up-skilled quickly, affordably and without compromising on quality. Theses online driving courses are convenient, relatively quick to complete and are available 24/7 anywhere in the world.

This style of learning also means less disruption to workplace operations and time away from core duties, in addition to cost savings through faster delivery and no trainer fees. Moreover, they offer organizations a means of continuing to develop and up-skill their workforce whilst maintaining their advocacy for safer roads.

Driver Profiler

Driver Profiler is RoSPA’s innovative online driver risk assessment tool which predicts levels of driver safety and related risk by measuring psychometric, demographic and behavioral factors that influence driver behavior. These measures provide excellent insights into the risk posed by drivers, and allow managers to compare individuals and make decisions on the provision of appropriate training.

Online Driver Training

RoSPA’s Online Driver Training course offers fleet managers an additional training tool, which can be used as a preliminary measure to establish where in-vehicle training resources could be most effectively employed, or as refresher training for those who have already benefited from in-vehicle training .

Online Driver Safety Package

Our Online Driver Safety Package is an online driver assessment and training package which combines our popular Driver Profiler and Online Driver Training services. This online solution will allow you to fulfill your legal duty of care to risk assess your fleet of drivers and follow up with essential training to ensure all your drivers are equipped with key introductory knowledge and driving skills theory.

All of these online driving courses can help organizations ‘future-proof’ their training program should the ability to have face-to-face training become unavailable. For more information on our suite of online driving courses, please visit our website, call us on +44 (0)121 248 2233 or e-mail.

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