When Does It Make Sense to Outsource Safety Training?

Do you spend time and energy creating your own in-house driver safety training materials? Or have you outsourced safety training?

No matter which way you cut it, safety training either costs you time, money, or both. You can spend your time or employee wages researching and creating safety training for your company, or you can spend money on off-the-shelf professional training products. It can be a difficult choice for some companies to make. That’s why we wanted to make a guide to help you through this important decision.

What is The Most Important Factor in Picking Safety Training?

When weighing your options between doing it in-house and investing in off-the-shelf training, most people think of cost first. Cost is of course an important factor to consider, but it’s not the best place to start. Training outcomes should always be your first consideration.

Whether it’s your time, an employee’s time, or part of your budget, you want to make sure your resources are spent wisely. The training needs to change employee behavior, reduce your accident numbers, save you money on cost of loss, and protect your people. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Investing in off-the-shelf safety training is the easiest way to ensure you’re getting the results you need.

Off-the-shelf programs, like our light-duty vehicle safety training, The Fleet Safety Course:

• Saves you time
• Has professional instructional design with proven learning outcomes
• Has professional videos, graphics, animations, and supporting materials
• Leads to real behavioral change leading to fewer accidents and injuries
• Comes with access to a Learning Management System for easy organization 

Without professionally-made training, there’s no guarantee that your training will be effective. However, even taking all of that into consideration, investing in off-the-shelf training doesn’t necessarily make sense for everyone. Let’s take a look at four example companies and discuss whether or not off-the-shelf safety training is the right choice for them.

Company 1

Company 1 is a medium-sized landscaping company. They have several locations spread out in a 100 mile radius with over 50 employees who drive to work-sites in company-owned pick-up trucks and vans. Managers are responsible for creating safety training, dispersing it to their employees, and tracking training metrics. They have many minor accidents each year - broken tail-lights, knocked-off mirrors, etc. - and occasionally have accidents that result in someone getting hurt.

Should This Company Outsource Their Safety Training?

This company would benefit greatly from outsourcing their safety training. A program like The Fleet Safety Course would be guaranteed to reduce the amount of accidents the companies’ employees suffer. Additionally, utilizing the learning management system would save their managers time otherwise spent tracking training metrics and communicating back and forth with employees.

By investing in off-the-shelf training, Company 1 would:

• Bring uniformity to their safety training process
• Protect their people
• Save money
• Save time

Company 2

Company 2 is a medium-sized furniture manufacturer with just under 100 drivers regularly making deliveries. None of their drivers require a CDL. They have one or two minor accidents per year, but otherwise have a nearly spotless safety record. Company 2 has a full-time safety trainer who travels to each location to meet with employees. This trainer creates their own materials, hosts work-shops, and conducts follow-up training.

Should This Company Outsource Their Safety Training?

What this company is currently doing seems to be working. They have very few accidents thanks to the hard work of a dedicated employee. However, Company 2 has a high-risk exposure. With that many drivers on the road, and with no formal safety training programs, it’s only a matter of time before there’s a serious accident. Despite their current success, Company 2 could still benefit from investing in professionally-made safety training.

An off-the-shelf safety training program would accomplish two crucial things:

• Help guarantee their spotless safety record will continue
• Free-up the time of their trainer by taking away the responsibility of creating the materials

Company 3

Company 3 is a small tow-truck company with less than ten drivers on staff. They have never had a serious accident before, but they still care about the safety of their employees, so the owner puts together in-house training programs for all company drivers.

Should This Company Outsource Their Safety Training?

Company 3 faces low exposure-risk with only a handful of drivers on the road. Plus, it appears that what they’re doing is working. Their people and the folks on the road with them are relatively safe from serious accidents. Hosting safety training for a small number of drivers is quite manageable on your own, plus an off-the-shelf training program may not provide a huge return on investment for them. 

Company 3 could comfortably continue doing what they’re doing, but a formal off-the-shelf training program would save them time and help guarantee that the big accident never happens. They just need to weigh the benefits and costs. An extremely cost-effective training program like The Fleet Safety Course would probably be worth the investment.

Company 4

Company 4 is a large construction company with many locations spread out across several states. They have nearly 1,000 drivers, face a tremendous amount of risk, and have a high amount of accidents. They do nothing beyond an MVR check for their drivers upon hire.

Should This Company Outsource Their Safety Training?

This is a resounding yes! Company 4 could change the landscape of their company with an off-the-shelf safety training program. With the risk they face and the amount of drivers they have on the road, a driver safety training program would drastically increase their profits each year. Not only that, but protecting your safety-sensitive positions is the right thing to do.

Without a professionally-made safety training program, it’s only a matter of time before Company 4 finds themselves in a million-dollar lawsuit.

Any Company Can Benefit From an Effective Safety Training Program

Choosing between in-house training and an off-the-shelf driver safety training program can be challenging. There are many costs and benefits to balance. However, it’s important to keep in mind that the best safety training programs easily pay for themselves.

A program like The Fleet Safety Course will:

• Reduce accidents
• Reduce your cost-of-loss
• Save you hours upon hours each week
• Get your people home safe every night

These powerful benefits could be a game-changer for any company.