If your account has already been mostly set up by us, skim this article, then go to the list of what a company account owner can do.


Here are the six simple things to do to get your trainees and managers using DT Driver Training. Excluding collecting your trainees' details, it will take less than 15 minutes.


Other than you (the account holder), there are 2 types of users in your account:

Trainees - they can access all the training and store unlimited results, training records and qualifications.

Managers - they can access only the free training and have limited results storage. They can generate reports and see trainee activity. Each manager is free.

If you want a manager to access all the training, invite them as a trainee, too. There's more about manager permissions here.


1. Have you filled out your name and company details?

You have to do this before you can invite users otherwise they won't know who it's from. Some of the profile details appear in things like reports and certificates. You can also add a logo. The image file should be smaller than 400px x 70px. Click here to go to your profile and add your name and company name, or click on Hi there in the top menu. Once you've filled out your name, it should look like this:



This is under Account on a smartphone


2. Make a list of all your trainees and let them know what's happening

Importing trainees

There are two options here:


Communicating with trainees

Then you will need to communicate with the trainees before you send out the invitations otherwise you risk not getting buy-in from them. They need to know:

1) Why they are doing it

2) What they will need to do

3) How they will be evaluated (and any measures you will take if they don't do it).


Why

Pick from these reasons in your communication to them:

  • They're renewing an endorsement or certificate (e.g. D endorsement or forklift operator's certificate)
  • Government compliance under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 means you must provide ongoing training and information in the workplace for areas of risk, and driving is an area of substantial risk. Fines are usually five or six figures
  • It benefits them as trainees in their own time if they are transporting their kids to soccer practice or even just driving to the supermarket
  • It helps maintain a competitive edge by reducing insurance claims and costs
  • It's good for the environment by reducing fuel use through being more efficient trainees
  • With less accident risk there's less risk of harm to trainees, and there's less maintenance required on vehicles when trainees eliminate habits that cause extra wear and tear.


What they will need to do

  • What's the timeframe, e.g. have you booked a practical assessment on a certain date, so they need to finish the theory before then?
  • How many modules should they do over what time period?
  • What's their time commitment, e.g. a forklift course will take around 2 hours

How they will be evaluated, and how to change your policies

Set some KPIs for the trainees to achieve and some policy direction, for example:

  • Within [x] time period achieve [y]% across all available modules.
  • New trainees must complete [z] number of modules before they are allowed to drive or use the relevant equipment


3. Set up your groups

Computer: Manage > Groups

Smartphone: Account > Manage > Groups

Or click here.


If you have any more than a few trainees you might want to sort them into groups. For example, you could group by location (e.g. Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga), type of trainees (e.g. truck, car, forklift), job role (e.g. sales, service), or employment status (e.g. interview candidate, employee), or a mixture of multiple types like in the image below. It's up to you. There's a default group in there already. You can't delete this, but you can unassign any trainees from it. For a guide on setting up groups, click here. 


We recommend you do this before inviting trainees as it's much easier.


4. Set up module availability for each group

Computer: Manage > Module availability

Smartphone: Account > Manage > Module availability

Or go to the Your Groups page and click on Restrict module access


Some courses have optional modules - check each course's description here; in Fleet Driver Skills, all modules are optional. If you want to restrict the modules your trainees see you can do it by group.

Examples of why would you change module availability within groups

  1. Your trainees are doing Fleet Driver Skills. Some drivers drive utes, some drive trucks. Create a group for ute drivers and a group for truck drivers. Hide the truck modules in the ute driver group
  2. Your trainees are doing Fleet Driver Skills, but you don't want to give them a lot of modules all in one go. Use module sequencing to reveal modules gradually.
  3. You have two forklift packhouses and your operators are using the Forklift Operator's Certificate: one packhouse only uses forks and pallets while the other uses a number of attachments. Hide the attachments module from the packhouse that only uses forks and pallets
  4. You have 20 heavy vehicle drivers and you want them to do the pre-trip inspection course. None carry dangerous goods or drive a tipper truck as it's just chilled freight. Hide the DG and tipper modules.
  5. You want your drivers to learn about driving in difficult conditions, but they only drive between Whangarei and Hamilton. Hide the snow and ice modules (see below).


Click here for some sample module sets for Fleet Driver Skills


You can choose one or more groups, then either turn off individual modules or turn off whole sections. Users that belong to these groups will only see the modules you allow them to see when they log in. We recommend you turn off the standard car, motorbike, heavy vehicle and tourist sections as these are designed for learner drivers or tourists. This way, all your drivers will get to the training via the courses menu option or via Your skills.


In the screenshot below you'll see that in Driving in Difficult Conditions we've turned off modules relating to snow and ice for Auckland drivers, but they partially remain with Wellington drivers while Christchurch drivers have the full set.


Smartphone:

5. Do you need any other managers to monitor and supervise training?

As the account holder, you can already do what a manager can do, and more. If you want any other managers, visit Managers and invite some (or click Manage then Managers).

You can restrict your managers by groups. E.g. Barry could manage Auckland and Sales while Jill manages Tauranga and Hamilton and Judy manages Service. You could use an external assessor to manage trainees, too.


IMPORTANT: If you want your Managers to be able to add/edit/delete trainees then you must give them those permissions on the Account page (go to Profile > Account)


6. Invite your trainees

Now you're ready to invite your trainees and get them started. Take your list you made in step 2, then invite them by going to Manage > Trainees and courses and clicking Course and trainee options. From that menu choose either Invite Trainees via email if you want to invite them using their email addresses, Add one trainee using a form if you want to invite someone that doesn't have an email address, or Add multiple trainees using a spreadsheet if you want to add a lot of trainees without email addresses at the same time. 


If you're inviting using email it's best to split the emails into unique groups then invite those groups separately. For example, invite all the people in Auckland and Forklift drivers at the same time, like in the image. Then all the people in Tauranga and Forklift drivers. If you make a mistake you can edit the trainee later after they have accepted the invitation.




Once you've invited some trainees and managers, check out the user permissions lists to find out what they can do.


Now all that remains is for you to tell your trainees about it.