What is defensive driving training?
Defensive driving means driving in a way that prevents a crash despite other people's mistakes and poor conditions: looking far ahead, keeping space, slowing for the conditions and leaving yourself a way out. Use it to train new drivers, refresh current ones, or prepare drivers before they work on a client's site.
This pack gives a fleet supervisor or safety officer what they need to run that training in house: a one-hour course in PowerPoint and a road test in Excel. The course teaches techniques. For company rules such as phone use, fatigue and what to do after an accident, use the Driver Safety Training Deck.
Defensive driving course slides
- Title and session plan: nine topics and suggested minutes, 60 in total.
- What defensive driving is: six principles, from looking far ahead to leaving a way out.
- Following distance: at least two seconds on high-speed roads, at least double on wet roads, and your company rule for heavy vehicles.
- Mirrors and observation: mirrors, signal, maneuver, and looking round for blind spots before moving off.
- Speed for the conditions: stopping within the distance you can see, and why the limit is not a target.
- Junctions and roundabouts: six steps, including the extra room a long vehicle needs to turn.
- Overtaking: what to check before you overtake and where not to overtake.
- Blind spots and reversing: a diagram of the blind areas around a large vehicle, and five reversing rules.
- Night, dust and fog: lights, speed and gap, and your company rule for delaying a trip.
- Case, quiz, road test, effect and attendance: a near-miss to discuss, five questions, how the test works, a RAG chart and the sheet to sign.
Every slide has trainer notes. Text in [square brackets] is a field you fill from your company rules, shown in a different color.
How the defensive driving road test works
The road test is a commentary drive: while driving, the driver describes what they see and what they are doing about it. The assessor rides along on a fixed 30 to 45 minute route with junctions, a fast road and traffic, and scores 12 sections from 1 (unsafe) to 4 (good):
- pre-trip check, seat and mirrors, moving off and observation;
- speed for the conditions, following distance, hazard perception and commentary;
- junctions and roundabouts, overtaking and lane changes, road position;
- signals and signs, smooth braking and acceleration, reversing and parking.
Automatic-fail items end the test with a Fail whatever the score. The examples in the file are no seatbelt, hand-held phone use, a red light or stop sign not obeyed, speed over the limit, and the assessor having to intervene. You can change them on the Settings sheet.
How the road test result is calculated
Example: a driver scores 3 in nine sections and 2 in three. The total is 33 of 48, or 69%. That is below the 75% pass mark and above the 60% re-train mark, so the result is Re-train and the re-test falls three months later. The pass marks, intervals and the 30-day warning are company rules you set, not values from a standard.
Measuring the training's effect with tracking data
A road test shows how someone drives with an assessor in the seat. Tracking data shows how they drive the rest of the month. The log has columns for each driver's RAG color and score in the month before training and two or three months after, and the summary compares the averages. Use the same formula and color limits both times: in Safee's RAG report, Formula A gives a lower score for better driving and Formula B a higher one.
To keep track of every course and its due date across all your drivers, add the session to the Driver Training Matrix, and follow monthly driving scores in the Monthly Driver Scorecard.
Where the rules in the pack come from
- Driving techniques: the UK Highway Code on gov.uk, quoted by rule number on each slide: rule 126 (two-second gap, doubled on wet roads; stopping within the distance you can see), 146 (the limit is not a target), 159 and 161 (mirrors, blind spots), 162 to 168 (overtaking), 170 and 184 to 186 (junctions and roundabouts), 202 and 203 (reversing), 113 to 115 and 125 (lights, night, fog).
- Commentary drive: IOGP land transport safety guidance note 365-11, "Commentary drive assessment".
- Assessment sections: adapted from the Transaid "Practical Driving Assessment" criteria.
- RAG score: the RAG report section of the Safee user guide.
The Highway Code is a UK document. Speed limits, lights and overtaking rules differ between countries, so check the local rule with your authority before the training.
What the pack does not do
It is an internal company course and test. It does not replace a driving license, a certified defensive driving course, or any training or testing your authority or client requires. If a client asks for a course from an approved provider, the pack helps you prepare drivers and keep records, but it is not that course.