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16th September

System Training’s safe and eco-driving techniques have helped parcel delivery firm Yodel save a significant amount of money and drastically reduce accidents over the last year - and in doing so they have collected the Department for Transport-supported Corporate Safety Award at last night’s National Courier Awards in London. The training programme was initiated in May last year with drivers from Home Delivery Network, now trading as Yodel, and has resulted in significant cost savings in fuel and accident damage and an incredible 48% reduction in the number of accidents.

System Training, the UK’s largest logistics training provider, is well known for its work to improve skill levels across the sector and to help drive down operating costs through innovative training schemes. In May 2009 it began a major programme to improve the standard of HDN drivers by employing 'Safe and Fuel Efficient Driving Techniques' (SAFED) in an effort to reduce fuel consumption and cut accident damage.

System up-skilled 13 current members of staff to become Driver Training Instructors (DTIs) - who then went on to deliver the SAFED training techniques to the other drivers within the fleet. With less than 10% of its drivers having undergone the SAFED course so far Yodel has calculated that over 12 months it saved £600,000 in fuel costs. That includes taking into account the winter period when the weather was poor and more stop/start driving was required, and the company expects even more impressive figures later in the year when more drivers are trained.

Furthermore the number of driving incidents and accidents involving its drivers has been reduced by 48% from May 2009 and the cost of damage due to bumps, dents and scratches has decreased from £3.4m to £1.8m per year.

The impressive benefits resulting from the training has led Yodel to also put its company car drivers through the same advanced and fuel-efficient driving course - meaning that eventually everyone who drives under the company's insurance will have received some form of fuel-efficient and safe driving training.

Yodel has also signed up to become a member of System Training's Driver CPC Consortium, which brings together leading firms such as Tesco, Bibby Distribution, MAN Trucks and TM Logistics with the aim of improving training standards across the UK Logistics industry.

System Training has recently merged with Hargreaves Training Services to form the UK’s largest training provider to the logistics industry and offers award-winning Driver CPC training, Apprenticeships and innovative ways to applying mandatory training to ensure logistics providers can reduce operating costs due to fuel, accidents and wear and tear.

Robin Brown, CEO of System Training, said:
"Our emphasis at System Training is to intelligently apply high quality training. We don’t believe in just training drivers or instructors and letting them get on with it, we want the development to actually provide a real and financial benefit to our clients – that’s why they choose us. Our partnership with Yodel has been an excellent example of how we’ve helped reduce fuel consumption, incidents and accidents through driver training and improving knowledge across all staff levels. It’s fantastic that our efforts, and their commitment to driver training and safety, have been recognised with this award.”

Brian Wheadon, Support Services Director at Yodel, said:
"We are extremely pleased that our driver training programmes have achieved such an accolade. The financial savings are outstanding – we knew that improving driving techniques and knowledge across our fleet would have benefits but we never thought it would be to this extent. System Training has integrated seamlessly with our business and training department and really gone that extra mile to ensure we, as a company, have received the best possible benefit from the training.”

National Courier Awards