Research shorts
Data automation to support driver competence.
Automated driver competency indicators offer a significant improvement in the availability and quality of driver competency information. This can be used to assist and improve existing competency management processes.
The industry invests significant resources in training drivers, and their ongoing competence is reviewed at regular intervals. This is done by manual analysis of data from on-train data recorders. Automating the process not only reduces the time needed but also removes bias and makes the data available sooner.
Driver managers get information more quickly, changing competency management from a reactive practice to a proactive one. It also allows them to allocate their own resources where they are most needed. Drivers can also get easy-to-digest information that supports their own self-development.
‘We use on-train data recorders to support the ongoing professional development of our drivers, but this is a time-consuming process that relies on our driver management team manually reviewing the data. Having provided anonymised data for this RSSB research project, it has been great to see how this analysis can be automated in a fair way and allow drivers and assessors to have much richer information about driving performance to support professional development.’
Laura McEwen, Operations and Engineering Director, c2c
