This article takes an overview of the best training practices in the Navy's Top Gun pilot training school. The techniques and methods used to improve pilot performance and decision-making have been adapted to the driver-training arena. This article reviews the reasons for the Top Gun school, the fundamental teaching methods, the results and examples of how to apply these methods to your fleet training program. The presentation will review many more examples of how to use these methods
Trucking companies have a real challenge. Although management is not around to monitor how safely the driver is doing the job, the drivers. actions and decisions have a large impact on public safety and the bottom line. The crux of the problem is how do you motivate a driver to make good decisions when there is no one watching.
Most companies respond to this problem with a good dose of training. However, studies estimate that conservatively 50% of what is learned during traditional training fails to be transferred to the job. The waste is dramatic!
It is easy to blame employees for this lack of training based change in the workplace, and in some cases, the blame is justified. However, the fact remains that many of the potential gains from training are not realized. Fortunately there are strategies that can be utilized to squeeze more profit from your training dollar.
The bulk of this article deals with utilizing a program that has had great success in effectively improving the 'driver': the Top Gun Training School. We chose this method of training because we found many parallels to the trucking industry. In both situations you are trying to improve a population that already feel their skills are superb. (Have you ever met a driver that thought their skills were anything but stellar?) Also in both cases the training window is very short.
The last and most important major parallel we considered was the serious end results of pilot or driver error in the respective areas. However our most important reasoning for choosing this training method was the dramatic measurable improvement the training made. These strategies have been proven to work where it counts: in the field.
In 1968 Navy and Air Force pilots found themselves in a 2-to-1-victory ratio with the North Vietnamese pilots. This compares to a 15-to-1 advantage the Navy had in the Korean Conflict. With a 2-to-1-victory ratio it was apparent that the Navy would run out of planes and pilots very quickly. The Navy decided to respond.
