Summary
This is a classroom-based 1-day Canada Safety Council-certified course in professional driver improvement training. It is available from SCS when requested to suit your schedule, with a minimum of 5 student enrollments required.
What distinguishes a professional driver from anyone else with a driver’s license? Professional driver training! Safety Coordination Services offers Canada Safety Council’s Professional Driver Improvement Course (PDIC) to you as a worker in the transportation industry, allowing for safer driving, better driving skills, and an opportunity for demerit point reductions.
Course Content
Professional driving is much more than the ability to simply get a truck from Point A to Point B. Professionals of any trade require professional development, support, and training to excel in their vocations. Taking this professional driver improvement course will help make you become a better, safer, and more professional transport professional.
Course topics include the following:
- The fundamental elements of professional driver attitude, and strategies for mitigating and controlling “road rage” situations, encounters with hostile drivers, and points of best practice when interacting with traffic law enforcement.
- Road hazards, their nature, and strategies for their recognition and control. How to respond to road hazards, and what techniques are proven most effective in saving lives during emergency situations.
- Pre-trip inspections: How to properly plan, execute, and support a pre-trip inspection, and what to look for when performing the inspection. Also included are the legislational and regulatory requirements that govern pre-trip inspections on federally controlled highways.
- Load securing: How to safely and properly secure loads to a transport vehicle, ensuring the safety of the general public, the driver, and the cargo.
- Effects of driver fatigue: Techniques for recognizing driver fatigue, and strategies to avoid or minimize these effects. Driver exhaustion is a critical cause of driver-error collisions, and is investigated and prosecuted vigorously in post-accident investigations.
- Collision avoidance: The techniques for emergency stops, swerves, shunts, and regaining control in emergency situations. Our PDIC course will focus not only on collision avoidance, but also strategies for minimization of human casualty in the event of an unavoidable motor vehicle collision.
- Effects of prescription and non-prescription drugs: Many medications, prescribed or over-the-counter, can affect a driver in unexpected ways. While drowsiness is the most common concern, other side-effects that may hinder a professional driver include irritability, light sensitivity, dizziness, or loss of focus. Some may cause a driver to fail a drug test, and still others are prohibited entering or leaving the United States or Mexico, affecting cross-border trucking. This PDIC course will cover the most common chemical culprits, but will also explore research strategies for professional drivers to determine if new medications may interact or affect their ability to drive in a safe, focused manner.
Note that eligible drivers may provide their PDIC certification to Alberta Transport to receive up to 3 demerit points deducted from their driving record. Check with Alberta Transport to see if you are eligible for this benefit.
Prerequisites and PPE
You don’t need to complete any other courses or have any prior experience to enroll in this course. You also don’t need to bring along any personal protective equipment (PPE).
Note: All courses require you to have government-issued photo ID.