There are ordinary driving lessons and then there are OHSA focused driving lessons. The latter could provide workplaces with safer drivers.
Workplaces throughout the Brooklyn area may require their drivers to take extra safety measures. The Occupational Health and Safety department offer several resources to help drivers to stay safe on the roads. As well as placing strict standards of safety over the motor vehicle industry to begin with, they offer advice on workplace vehicle safety and specific advice on construction vehicles.
What is OHSA Driver Training?
There are different types of driving instructor out there. You might want to learn to drive to get the groceries just as equally as you might want to learn to drive so that you can rush your mother to hospital if she needs it. You could be a police officer in need of advanced driving skills, or an army driver who needs to pass assault courses in their vehicle. Everyone has different reasons for learning to drive, and so there are many courses you can take to suit your needs.
OHSA focused driver training simply covers extra safety information regarding driving. Mainly, this is aimed at those driving work vehicles, or operating vehicles within that workplace. If you do neither of these things, you may never need it.
If you are an employer, on the other hand, you might benefit from cheaper insurance premiums on the warehouse floor or out in the yard by putting your employees through this training course. OHSA training can help meet regulatory compliance with local authorities. It is an excellent way to lower overheads long-term.
Why OHSA Training is Preferable in the Workplace
As head of recruitment in any firm, hiring an OHSA trained driver has the advantage since these workers are easier to insure due to the correct training. Having a qualification in driving to a safe degree and within or for your place of work requires different skills to those learning to drive their own vehicles. Commercial vehicles could be larger, heavier, and do more damage if things go wrong.
OHSA trained employees will have a greater awareness of the space they are operating within. In the example of a warehouse forklift driver, OHSA training will prevent workplace accidents and reinforce the safety guidelines related to this piece of equipment. It gives you peace of mind, minimizes the possibility of damage to your building and furniture, and keeps other employees safe.
If you want to set standards in safety for others in your field to use as a benchmark, then using OHSA trained drivers will do the trick.
On the other hand, if you wish to learn to drive for social reasons, it can still benefit you to take this kind of driver training. The roads are a dangerous place and especially so to new drivers. Take the extra help at the start of your driving training and you could be a safer vehicle operator all round.
What are the Benefits of the OHSA Safety Training Course for Drivers?
If you were to study driving to this extra safe level, you and your company would earn certain benefits. These benefits might include the following:
- Your business will pay less in insurance costs for onsite vehicles.
- Employers become qualified, certified vehicle drivers of heavy goods vehicles, light vehicles, or farm vehicles.
- As an employee, you gain new knowledge and experience which you can take forward into future workplaces. This could even increase your earning potential for the rest of your working life.
- Both parties gain a safer workplace.
- Both employees and employers will protect themselves further from accidents or the resultant legal battles which may ensue.
These benefits clearly indicate that obtaining driver training certificates for your workplace vehicles is beneficial for everyone involved.
Minimizing Accidents
The best possible reason to engage with an OHSA driver safety course has to do with minimizing accidents. Each year in the USA, The Bureau of Labor Statistics report transportation incidents account for nearly 2,000 of the 5,125 annual workplace deaths in the US. At 11.5%, deaths due to moving material and transportation account for the highest workplace fatality category in the whole country.
What’s Covered in OHSA Vehicle Training?
There are several items covered in the training course which will help you use a vehicle in the workplace safely. OHSA work hand in hand with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to create regulations focused on improving the rate of accidents in the workplace by implementing safety measures taken elsewhere. For example, all federal employees driving workplace vehicles are required by law to wear a safety belt.
Other training tips include:
- Reviewing different scenarios within the workplace which could cause vehicular accidents and examining what could have prevented them.
- It covers non-drivers, passengers, and employees not driving, and how the workplace itself can keep the two safe.
- Brush up on safe driving skills.
- Learn about the regulations you need to follow to keep your insurance valid and your place of business up to date.
- Teaches the importance of the pre-drive inspection.
- Learn about driving vehicles with an obstructed view in the back.
- The paperwork part of this set of lessons covers the protection and separation of foot traffic and vehicular traffic within the workplace. This covers the associated instructions for barricades, right of way, and floor markings.
- Will teach your drivers the best ways to protect the workers while they operate in your space.
Besides all else, OHSA driver safety training teaches employees to respect vehicles and the other workers. In the case of vehicles at work, slow and steady wins the race.
Where to Study for OHSA Driver Training?
There is not enough OHSA driver training schools out there. Try the Ferrari Driving School Brooklyn NY if you live in New York. Their excellent reputation will help your business expand its own. Ordinary driving schools might not teach this extra safety-based course. When you drive a Ferrari – long since touted as the Greatest Automobile Company in History – you want to be as safe as you can.
