The Human Factor
Drawing from his experience, Russell found that a vast majority of fleet drivers need to work on their technique. Interestingly, he pointed out that biology plays a significant role in a driver’ s technique and driver training should take human factors into account.
Driving, much like furniture, has ergonomic factors that come into play. Russell’ s biggest tip for drivers is to relax the body for the waist down, as tension will not only move the car unnecessarily but also tighten one’ s grip on the steering wheel.
“ If you’ re not connected to the car from the waist down, the whole vehicle starts to move,” he said. He explained that when the waist is tense, the human body will feel out of balance and grab onto something to anchor itself – in this case, the steering wheel. This tension in the hand activates the body’ s fight or flight response. The tighter the grip on the wheel, the more the driver and car will be unstable.
Furthermore, this tension can easily narrow a driver’ s field of vision, eliminating the driver’ s peripheral vision. This can be dangerous as peripheral vision makes up most of a person’ s
vision. Compromising a driver’ s peripheral vision leads to parallax, a phenomenon where the position of an object differs when viewed. Parallax can account for around 8 feet in difference between someone’ s vision and the actual position of an object. This is especially dangerous when two vehicles are about to approach each other.
In short, it’ s all about relaxing the waist down to lessen the tension from the waist up.
The Importance of Driver’ s Ed
When it comes to training, some companies to conduct driver training once and never follow up. But proper driver’ s education is not limited to one session.“ Think of it like going to the gym. It’ s not just one hit; you’ ve got to constantly keep at it,” Russell advised.
An effective training program entails consistency as organisational structures change frequently as well. A team won’ t have the same number of people in the same positions over the course of a few years. Furthermore, trends and policies change just as much – it’ s important for organisations to keep its members updated, informed, and prepared throughout its operations.
30 ISSUE 54 AUGUST 2025 / WWW. AFMA. ORG. AU