Any citizen who has completed a driving school, successfully passed a theoretical and practical exam, passed the necessary medical examination and received a VU, acquires a new profession - the “driver”. As in any other employment, it is important to constantly improve their skills and professional development. To a greater extent, this does not apply to drivers "for themselves", but for persons who are engaged in such activities professionally, use it as a source of income.
Consider the current driver development programs. As well as regulation of this issue by the state.
State plan
The driver development plan was approved by the Russian government in 2016. In accordance with it, all drivers working at ATP (motor transport enterprises) must receive appropriate additional education. And also every 5 years or confirm the existing category, or undergo advanced training of drivers.
This approach is applied, in particular, to drivers of buses and heavy vehicles. This is due to an imperfect system of monitoring the activities of these employees, their state of health. The fact is that most ATPs for pre-trip examinations turn to virtual medical services. Therefore, the mark in the waybill on the driver’s health status, his sobriety is done without a direct medical examination. A post-trip check is conducted in a similar manner.
Inspection of vehicles before embarking on a flight is also in most cases purely symbolic - visual. Only tires, headlights, wheels are inspected.
According to the government, the introduction of mandatory advanced training for professional drivers will allow them to take a more responsible approach to their work, periodically refresh important knowledge and gain new knowledge necessary in their activities. But it did not take much time to establish whether this is actually an effective method, or a measure that will only lead to additional costs for chauffeurs and their ATP employers.
Important concepts
Thus, the order to improve the skills of drivers in the organization is not aimed at owners of personal vehicles, namely, professional drivers, carriers.
Thus, an automobile carrier is an individual, legal entity engaged in entrepreneurial, commercial activity, which is expressed in the carriage of passengers or certain goods on a vehicle. At the same time, the driver can either act as an employee of a transport company or be an individual entrepreneur working only for himself.
Statutory regulations
What do motor vehicle advanced training programs designed exclusively for professionals mean?
The heads of organizations, enterprises associated with the provision of motor services to the population and organizations, undertakes to organize advanced training of drivers working in their staff at least once every 5 years.
Additionally, professional drivers who are employees of such enterprises are required to regularly, at least once every 3 years, take advanced training courses aimed at:
- Studying the safety of transportation of people and goods.
- Repeat fire safety regulations.
- Study of labor protection standards.
Thus, the advanced training of drivers at an enterprise in the Russian Federation today is such an important functional task, as is maintaining the proper competence of employees of state institutions.
Note that a rather important element of such programs are special 20-hour courses designed for carriers and legal entities that own vehicles. At such courses, they directly test their professional skills and qualities, identify career counseling, use the software package for professional selection. The final stage of the program is devoted to certification of its students.
The methods for organizing advanced training courses for drivers are different. They depend on the specifics of the program. Popular courses for today are as follows:
- Training of car instructors.
- Proof of qualifications of driving instructors.
- Teaching staff training in driving schools.
Let's consider these programs in more detail.
Training of car instructors
Such a training program can be used by citizens with a driver’s license of any category who plan to work in the specialty “Driving Instructor”. The training time is 2 weeks.
Upon successful completion of the program, its students acquire the right to engage in instructor activities in various driving schools, ATP and other interested employers in their activities.
Instructor qualification confirmation
As for car instructors, every 3 years they (under domestic law) are required to confirm their qualifications. Accordingly, training programs are chosen to achieve these goals. The hearing period is 2 weeks.
According to the results of training, students receive relevant documents, certificates that extend the validity period of their instructor licenses in the field of driving vehicles for a certain period.
Driving teacher training
This program is designed for citizens who either currently apply for a teaching position in a driving school or already occupy it in a similar organization. Studying in this course, its students can receive initial training on topics of interest to them, undergo a periodic update of existing skills.
As for training, it is not universal. Training is conducted in several disciplines. For example, "Mental, physiological components of a professional driver." Or "First Aid After an Accident". The term of study here is 3 weeks.
Now let's talk in more detail about improving specifically driving skills.
The specifics of retraining professional drivers
What is important to highlight here? Similar programs have several important learning vectors:
- Re-acquaintance with the Federal Law "On Road Safety".
- Features of working with specific cargoes that require special modes of transportation and maintenance: dangerous, poisonous, explosive, fire hazardous, hypersensitive, fragile, etc.
- The implementation of international passenger traffic.
- Retraining professional drivers from one category to another. For example, from B to C.
- Extreme driving courses (non-professional drivers are interested in such programs in Moscow and a number of large cities).
- Driving instruction for special vehicles, as well as official vehicles of special categories. Somehow: fire and rescue vehicles, public transport, medical vehicles, special transporters of large, non-standard cargoes and so on.
Common driver programs
Extreme driving courses in Moscow is not the only area for retraining professional drivers. The most popular here are the following continuing education or retraining programs:
- Management of warehouse and agricultural machinery.
- Upgrade from B to C.
- Training in the management of urban electric vehicles.
We will get acquainted in more detail with each of the named training, retraining programs.
Retraining from B to C
Studying the provisions, repeating the requirements of the Federal Law "On Road Traffic Safety" is mandatory both for drivers of personal vehicles and for professional drivers.
For the latter, one of the most popular continuing education programs is retraining from category B to category C. As a rule, for the most part, training takes place on foreign cars. Instructors try to conduct training of the wards on machines with both automatic transmission and mechanical.
Particular attention is paid here to practical exercises precisely in the conditions of real road traffic in a village. In addition, special training sites are equipped on the territory of the driving school to perform specific tasks on driving. This simplifies the learning process, allows you to successfully combine its theoretical and practical parts.
Management of special equipment
An annual advanced training of drivers in the Russian Federation is not yet required. Recall that it is carried out only once every 5 years for professional drivers. Moreover, every 3 years they are required to update their knowledge on labor protection, fire safety in transport, as well as the safe transportation of passengers.
As for courses for warehouse and agricultural vehicle drivers, citizens are taught how to manage stackers and loaders of all common types. In parallel, students are studying the structure of modern types of such vehicles.
The following are the rules for the safe use of various forklifts, stackers, combines, tractors. Students are taught to provide PHC to people who have received work injuries while operating the equipment studied during the course.
Successful completion of the program ends with the receipt of a tractor driver's license, a document defining the right of admission to the management of the studied vehicles, a certificate of qualification of the loader driver.
City Electric Vehicle Management
Another common area of ​​professional development for professional drivers. Trainees learn to operate the rolling stock of ground-based urban electric vehicles, while ensuring the safe transportation of passengers and the high quality of their service.
We also study modern means of mechanization of automation of work in the depot and on the line, traffic rules, work with travel and technological documents in the framework of urban transport organizations - state, commercial and municipal.
Further training is a voluntary matter for the owner of a personal vehicle. As for professional drivers, both individual entrepreneurs and ATP employees, retraining and confirmation of the driver category are strictly required every 5 years for them.