Tag Archive for: truckers

New Safety Training Released This Quarter

a transparent picture of a truck - new training

If you haven’t heard, we are adding another vital component to our content library, and we’re excited to share about our new training offerings this quarter. 

All videos we release from this point forward will be in English and Spanish! We’re currently updating the HAZMAT portion of our library to reflect this new commitment to bilingual training.  

CHECK OUT OUR LIBRARY

Why Are We Going Bilingual?

We work hard to stay on the cutting edge of efficiency and industry leadership so we can bring you here, too. We currently release a new training video every month, adding to the 850+ videos in our training resources library. We add videos to cover new technologies, stay ahead of the curve on new and developing industry regulations, and just to keep our videos fresh and culturally relevant. (Ex. If a safety video is talking about current safety regulations, it won’t feature a guy wearing a windbreaker suit or driving a cabover!)

With an evolving and highly-multicultural workforce, we’re providing new bilingual training videos to help maximize safety and meet the needs of all your drivers.

Don’t Drivers Need to Know English Anyway?

Absolutely. But if you’ve ever tried to learn another language, you know there are different levels to it. What the law requires is not always what you need to stay ahead.

In the trucking industry, all truckers need to have a working ability to speak and comprehend spoken English, as well as read road signs. But speaking to an officer and reading road signs isn’t the same as technical learning or taking in more complex information. It’s like the difference between having a routine conversation and listening to a complex news program. You’re more likely to miss something unless you go beyond what the law requires.

Plenty of bad and careless drivers speak English flawlessly. Give all your drivers the chance to excel and contribute to your company.

Bilingual Training Builds a Superior Culture of Safety. 

You help drivers move beyond bare legal requirements by giving them opportunities for excellence. Conversations and basic reading can be enough to perform the everyday tasks of a job that keeps a roof over your head and food on the table. Give all drivers a chance to develop professionally while improving your safety scores and covering your bases. Be an industry leader. Equip ALL drivers to be excellent.

Remember, it’s not a matter of drivers being unable to process complex information and perform at a superior level. For drivers who speak Spanish as their primary language, it’s a matter of whether their English is at a level where they can comprehend the words used to describe the complex information. Hearing something in your own language makes it click faster and better, and helps it stick.

CHECK OUT OUR LIBRARY

It’s about meeting ALL your drivers where they are and giving them what they need to be at their best.

Train and Test en Español for Top Performance.

This is the reality of the trucking industry today. To be a commercial driver in the U.S., you’re required to communicate in English. You need to demonstrate competency. But offering content in Spanish ensures Spanish-speaking drivers can learn without a hitch.  

English competency, combined with training in Spanish, will make sure that your Spanish-speaking drivers are equipped to perform at their top levels. There’s no need to worry about missed communication or whether some of your drivers are pretending to understand the more complex English instruction. We all pretend to “get it” when we’re not at 100%, out of embarrassment or a desire to hurry and get the job done. Is that acceptable when road safety is at stake? Be as thorough as you can so all your drivers can do the same.

At Infinit-I Workforce Solutions, we now offer 170+ training videos and test questions in Spanish. From now on, we will offer all our new videos and training in both languages. 

This is just a sample of the topics we already cover:

  • • Safer driving practices
  • • What to do in accidents/incidents
  • • First aid
  • • Driver mental/physical health and safety
  • • Maintenance, inspections, and safety checks
  • • Communication
  • • Driving scenarios in various conditions
  • • Driving with HAZMAT

For example, our “HAZMAT Packing/Paquetes de Materiales Peligrosos” video, covering DOT requirements for packaging hazardous materials, helps ensure none of these vital safety points slip through the cracks:

  • • Packages and packaging
  • • Packages and their contents
    • – Bulk
    • – Non-bulk
  • • General requirements for packaging and packages
  • • Hazardous materials packaging requirements
  • • Mixed contents
  • • Specification packaging
  • • Specification marking performance levels
  • • Performance testing for non-bulk packages
  • • Additional requirements

Imagine if 100% of your drivers had this level of thoroughness in their regular training schedule. Our clients have seen amazing results.

We release new content every month. We’ve done that without fail. Whenever there’s a chance to train on new laws, techniques, or rules, we’re there to implement them as fast as possible. Don’t stay still or get behind. Stay on top of things that change in the industry so you can inform employees and keep everything up to speed. We want to help you make that easy!

We currently have over 50 million views of our 850+ videos. The videos have all been used along the way by our clients, and most have been viewed many, many times. The whole spectrum of our training materials has been found useful by a number of transport businesses, and a variety of other businesses. 

We invite you to see for yourself. Infinit-I Workforce Solutions brings efficiency and effectiveness to the transportation workforce in a way that works for drivers. Our system onboards quickly, saves our clients money on accidents, litigation, and hiring/training, and integrates perfectly into a variety of businesses. Try a free demo and judge for yourself!

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New Training Features Released

new training features

Change is inevitable in the trucking industry. Can you do more than keep up? Here’s on update on our new training features.

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Marijuana Legalization: DOT to Audit Drug-Testing Policies

Marijuana Legalization

The U.S. Department of Transportation is reviewing its drug policies in light of marijuana legalization. And it looks as if the policies are about to get tougher.

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Infinit-I Workforce Solutions: New Features and State-of-the-Art User Interface

Infinit-I Workforce Solutions: New Features and State-of-the-Art User Interface

We’re listening. The Infinit-I Workforce Solutions team is always working hard to make sure the training technology your company needs is the technology we provide. We are excited to announce that we’ve recently added a few things to our system that we think you’re really going to love.

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Driver Safety Tips for the Summer

summer driver safety

Welcome to July, folks! Fleet safety directors know what summer means. And we’re all preparing for hot, hot summers and crazier weather than usual. Our driver safety tips will help you prepare for this summer’s hottest weather and keep your drivers healthy and happy.

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4 Ways to Reduce Accidents

Reduce accidents

Reducing accidents in the trucking business is an easy decision — not in how you’re going to do it, but in the fact that you need to. Four ways to reduce accidents now begin with keeping the urgency of the task in front of you.

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Spotted Lanternfly Threat: Survival Guide for Trucking Companies

Spotted Lanternfly Threat

You may have heard of the spotted lanternfly epidemic in the eastern U.S. You may have also heard that it’s affecting trucking fleets. The invasive species is hitting hard, and trucking companies that ship through affected areas have been put on alert with new regulations and a required permit. Those who cannot show a permit upon inspection can be fined up to $20,300 per violation.  

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Why Branding & Marketing Matter in Attracting Quality Drivers

With more trucking jobs than drivers, you’ve got to stand out. What’s your strategy? You can’t always offer the most money, the best hours, and benefits that beat the rest. So what makes you stand out?

Branding and marketing can help you find the right truckers.

You may not be convinced! The fact is, truck drivers are not attuned to a sell. They are way more interested in a great gig and a company that understands their needs than they are in a slick website, your signage, or your search engine savvy.

So how do branding and marketing matter in attracting quality drivers?

Maybe you’re eager to experiment. Maybe you’re thinking: Logo on letterhead is as far as I go, pal! I’m about substantial business, not frills.

If you don’t think branding and marketing really matter that much, or you think they might but aren’t sure how to read on. It’s way more practical than you might think. And it integrates with what you’ve already got going…

Applications: “Dress your best”

Get creative and up the ante on how you reach out to people who apply for jobs with your company.

From emails to PDFs to supplementary materials (and more on those below!), when these materials are all branded with the company logo, match corporate colors, and look like a direct extension of the company itself, truckers are getting a full-on, seamless response from you, right away.

Truckers aren’t sitting there analyzing your tactics—your brand is working on the level of the subconscious. It’s like “dressing your best” for an interview. And in this job market, the pressure is on. It’s up to you to make the first best impression.

First Contact: Screen truckers with on-brand material

Imagine applying for twenty trucking jobs online. From most of them, you’ll get an immediate response thanking you for your interest and asking for next steps. But what if, from one company, you also got a custom video module, testing your knowledge of the job you’re applying for? What if you also received a custom-made “Day in the Life of” video or documents showing exactly what you can expect from day-to-day in this job?

What are you thinking?

This business isn’t messing around.

They’re professional. They follow-up.

They don’t want just anyone. They’re trying to get the right person.

And then, you might either continue the interview process or not, depending on whether you can tell you’re suited for this job at this point.

But wait — I don’t want to turn people away from an interview! I’m short enough on drivers as it is.

Yes. But the fact is, you do not want to hire the wrong drivers for the job, ever. What you think you’re saving yourself in understaffing, you will easily lose in negotiating the problems that come with an unsuitable employee, including quitting, firing, and more frequent re-hires. That’s time and thousands of dollars that could be better spent.

Onboarding: Attract drivers by standing out

Where do drivers first interact with your brand?

There’s a psychological principle that says when you need something, your eyes are only tuned in to those things that are going to help you get what you need. When drivers encounter your brand on Indeed.com, they’re looking for salaries, hours, job descriptions, locations—the absolute basics.

Now, if your company’s a total mess and your brand can’t provide a cohesive, basic impression that you know what you’re doing, that may turn prospective truckers down. But that’s going to be the rare case.

The better question is: where do drivers first interact with your brand where it makes an actual difference?

The answer: onboarding.

Even though it’s not the first stage in the game, you know how quickly recruiting goes. Onboarding is still a very early stage in a trucker’s relationship with you. A mistake here can cost you. But a branded onboarding process can really help you find and keep the right people. Orientation starts within just a few days (or less!) of that first application, and you’re still making your first impressions. Drivers want to know they’ve made the right choice.

In onboarding and training, you respect your new drivers by not wasting their time. And don’t waste yours! A truck parked is lost revenue and a client waiting on freight. You want to get new employees onboarded as soon as possible, but:

Are you just jumping through the hoops? Or are you taking time to see that they have as high quality an experience you can offer?

Marketing is working for you during onboarding and training if:

  • On-brand materials are consistent, complete, and clear
  • Your whole process is quick and professional
  • Training methods and requirements are all relevant
  • No unnecessary in-person meetings, no needless repetition, and no overlap

Branded materials unify a driver’s first experiences with you. They professionalize them. And, if the content is good and worthwhile, they reinforce a good feeling about your company. Don’t just get it done. Seek to impress!

Brand identity: Get clear on what you’re offering

Finally, when drivers are clear on who you are, they’re clear on what kind of job(s) you’re offering. Branding weaves hiring and training into your marketing strategy and less room for guessing what kind of company and job this is. It looks great. It shows your safety training is sophisticated. It shows you care about meeting drivers where they are, making sure the success of your business relies on their confidence in working for you.

Infinit-I training modules change the way trucking does business. We move the majority of your safety training and onboarding online, and all our videos and resources that go to employees will match your logo and corporate colors for a seamless connection between training and branding. Take initiative. Stand out. Try a free demo!

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Dealing with Non-Tech Savvy Drivers

Trucking is multi-generational. Drivers in their 60s and 70s are seasoned, have navigated hundreds of thousands of miles of road, and have a lot to teach. But a common issue facing trucking companies today is introducing new tech to older drivers. Why is this important, and how do you change minds successfully? Read more

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