B6 Armoured Vehicle Training Has Real Business Impact

In our next “Training Leaders” interview, Andy Thompson speaks with Dave Allen, a highly accomplished freelance High Threat Environment Driver Training instructor, and Road & Fleet Safety Consultant. We discuss what effective driver training means to both individuals and to the companies who invest in this critical aspect of Health, Safety, Security and Risk Management.

How did you develop a career in Driver Training?

I spent 25 years in the British Army and had various driving related roles, from a fuel tanker driver to an ambulance driver. I undertook Close Protection driving duties for three years in Northern Ireland and then for a 3 Star General within NATO for four years. I had a few other related tasks on the UK mainland and also in Germany and close protection driving in Bosnia and Iraq.

When I was in Northern Ireland, I did a RoSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) course which led to assessing on Blue Light courses, the Armoured Car courses, and from there I realized how much I liked training, and particularly training on specialist equipment.

I left the Army in 2013 and carried out NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) assessing DGVs (Driving Goods Vehicles). I then moved onto a contract in Kurdistan in Iraq and loved my time there. I was training drivers on oil and gas contracts – specifically, the seismic teams, operating in B6 armoured vehicles – cross-country driving and general defensive driving techniques.

What exactly does driver training entail, in the context of B6 Amour?

Well, it depends. As a freelancer, all of my work is through third-party companies to provide driver training. I specialize in B6 armoured vehicles as I have significant background in that from the military and, commercially, stretching back to my first overseas contract in 2014.

It is predominantly about tactical driving and evaluation, although I also teach defensive courses from heavy vehicles to light vehicles and cross-country courses for seismic teams. So a little bit of everything – if it is drivable, I can run a course on it!

For a normal defensive driver training course, it’s usually about going into a country outside of the UK where the driving standards may not necessarily be that of the UK. So it’s about developing competence through classroom presentations, to give students some background information on how to drive safely, then applying that practically, with additional tuition, and assessing students, to achieve a higher standard than before they attended the course, and then build on that.

Is that a one-off for these students, or do they have to go through any refresher training?

It depends on the company [paying for the course]. Under IOGP (International Association of Oil and Gas Producers) compliance, they have to re-evaluate every 12 to 36 months. Normally it’s 12 to 24 months for IOGP people in the oil and gas industry. With the armoured vehicles, it’s supposed to be every 12 months. However, it depends on the contract, people and company. 

Is the training the same for all environments where the threat requires the use of B6?

Again, it depends. When I was in Afghanistan, it was higher threat environment, so the training has more content about tactical evaluation, not only of the driving itself, but what to look out for, specific to Afghanistan, such as the types of IED they are getting hit with. As an example they have a lot of attacks using magnetic bombs. Technology is developing with armoured vehicles to counter this though. We now see plastic on the outside of the vehicles to provide an outer shell to stop magnetic mines. Further development of armoured vehicles, probably within the next two years, is going to see either glass or carbon fibre, polycarbonate or something that’s not magnetic, incorporated into the vehicles outer shell, because the risk is getting higher and higher from magnetic devices. So that’s an example of changing environments and adapting B6 to meet the threat, which is different to each operating environment.

So as the risk is developing, your training has to develop along with it, of course?

Yes. And not just the threat. There are different standards of B6 vehicles, they’ve all got the same ballistic capabilities, but some of the vehicles are fitted with different items that need to be considered too, such as speaker systems, or different fire suppression systems. Some can have forced air systems, So there are specific components within each vehicle that, when you turn up for the first day of training, you have to go through them first, to see exactly what spec you have, to make sure that you understand it and are you’re competent enough to teach it.

What trends are you seeing in the current market?

At the moment, due to COVID-19, obviously, all training stopped. We couldn’t get out into the countries where our clients were and, if we could, we couldn’t get into the vehicle to do the training. Now it’s starting to get easier – developing driver bubbles, or you have the PPE to carry out the training in, it’s getting better

Looking ahead – all these people within the sphere of IOGP are coming into their second year and need to be retrained to continue to be compliant. Lots of companies that would have had their driver training forecasts are now a year behind. I think a lot of companies are going to start taking on new people when contracts start up again. So obviously if they haven’t got an in-house trainer, they’re going to have to get trained to make sure they’re driving to the required standard for the company. So, I think the next 12 to 24 months is going to be a busy period, just on catch up.

As a freelance B6 Driving Instructor, what standards do you deliver the training to?

There are various organizations that qualify people to a set standard. The only one recognized internationally, really, is RoSPA. If you’re a diploma holder, beware – it’s just changed now – it used to be a Level 3 diploma, but now it’s a Level 4 diploma (they’ve now removed the International Master Driver qualification). So, even within RoSPA’s scope of training, they’ve changed it to be more compliant.

People think training in a car is easy. It’s really not. You have to have a good baseline to start with. If you haven’t got that baseline of structure and how to conduct a lesson, you can’t just walk in off the street, jump in a car and do it. You need to have the correct qualification, which predominantly is the RoSPA qualification. If you do the ADI (Approved Driving Instructor) course, a lot of companies are not interested in that as they want advance instruction and not a basic level of instruction. They want more advanced qualification, because IOGP used to state you had to be a RoSPA diploma holder to conduct any training. So, again, this is recognized worldwide.

I did the UK Police Advanced Driver Course, the Police Blue Light Course, my Level 3 Diploma with RoSPA, my Level 4 Diploma with RoSPA, and my knowledge has increased with each course, respectively.

What sets you apart?

My experience. The training on B6 is very niche. Clients want somebody that’s got experience with armoured vehicles. I’ve got a lot of military experience – I was deployed in Basra, Iraq, for nine months on the GOC’s CP (General Officer Commanding’s Close Protection) team as a driver, and conducted some training with other nationalities in theatre. I’ve worked with armoured cars in Northern Ireland and working with international teams within NATO. So, I’ve got a broader knowledge of different nationalities within that environment and also conducted advanced driving lessons across the board. My experience from the military is what my clients are interested in because it can be applied to the civilian market.

Has your experience led to any evolution or innovation in your instruction?

People are wanting more experience within the vehicle. You get people that may have a good driver qualification, whether it’s “Police Advanced”, or similar, but they don’t use a lot of armoured vehicles – they’re very good doing the advanced driving, but when it comes to the specifics of the vehicle, like the ballistic capabilities, their knowledge is not that in depth, And that’s what people want now – they want somebody that’s got the experience, the knowledge and who understands exactly what the amour is supposed to be and do and pass that on to the students.

A couple of years ago, the licensing category for B6 changed. Now you have to hold the heavy vehicle driving license to drive B6. You can’t drive it on a car license because of the weight. And they are increasing in weight. They used to be about three and a half tonnes. Now for a B6, they’re moving up to about a four and a half tonnes, sometimes just over five tonnes, dependent on additional equipment they have got fitted to vehicle, so the suspension is getting higher to take the added weight, which leads to instability in the vehicle. So again, when you’re doing the training on it, these are the things that you have to impart over to the student – it isn’t like driving a normal 4×4…. the weight of the vehicle, opening and closing the doors, speed, braking, taking corners…  everything has to be a lot more smooth, slower and a lot more controlled. Which is counter-intuitive in a incident situation.

What’s your view on the expectation of training, with respect to the “Hollywood” effect?

In my opinion, some companies have an alternative approach or expectation to driver training. The inclusion of J-turns and handbrake turns in a course are – and again, I stress, in my opinion – in today’s world, completely redundant for various reasons.

Accelerating to the contact point, turning around and accelerating away from the contact point is not advisable. As a target you’re increasing your threat exposure exponentially.

Additionally, modern cars don’t have handbrakes, they have a parking brake, and the electronics won’t let you apply it whilst you’re moving. If you conduct handbrake turns, you have to adjust the handbrake every single day because you need it very tight because you’ve got to snap to do the handbrake. So teaching handbrake turns is dangerous. The course content for this is irrelevant because if you’re teaching somebody about that, then they go on to drive a High Net Worth family, the chances are it will be in an S class Mercedes, or something along those lines which will not be applicable!

With regard to J-turns: When you go on the course, when you’re in a nice, big, open area, you can carry them out very easily. I’ve never yet come across a road that is as wide as the training area. You’re not taking into account the height of curb stones, the position of drainage, the position of other vehicles. In reality, you are always going to get traffic obstructing your ability to move, including in reverse.. You’re also never going to react in the optimal way, when panicking.  Technology is also against you as cars are using more intuitive systems to prevent loss of traction, loss of stability which J turns produce.

Ramming drills are another example. People watch too much television, and don’t appear to have heard about inertia switches. These stop the flow of fuel to engines. They were introduced in the late ’70s early ’80s, I believe. Before that, cars had a crash and then burst into flames because the fuel lines ruptured, spilling fuel on to the hot exhaust manifold, setting fire to the car. This doesn’t happen anymore!

We’re not acting in a Hollywood movie. It’s about the safety and security of the driver, and the passengers. Nothing else.

In Hollywood, you also see bullets bouncing off an armoured car. B6 vehicles are not designed like that. If you take the rounds on the windscreen, you’re not going to see through the windscreen. You start taking into the bodywork. It doesn’t bounce off the bodywork. It penetrates into the inner armour which stops it. So people arriving to attend a course often have a mindset – they see it in movies, and think that is what a B6 Defensive or Offensive Driving Course is all about. The misrepresentation is massive, and it poses challenges. 

Longmoor [the School of Military Close Protection] is recognized throughout the world as the best training provider for Close Protection. They moved away from handbrake turns, and so on, in the1990s, because they realized it doesn’t work. On my courses I spend a lot of time on the skill of reverse driving, because you never know when that skill is needed. Moving backwards is a skill and you have to practice it.  

If you look around the world at past and historical attacks against armoured vehicles I can not think of one that used a hand brake turn or J turn, which incudes countries from Mexico, UK, Iraq, Afghanistan, to Mali.

What other challenges do you face in delivering Driver Training?

Keeping with the “Hollywood effect” theme, you need to change a person’s perspective when they drive the vehicle. You can give the best training in the world to anybody, but if the person has got a closed mind to better ways of driving, it makes it difficult. That’s the first challenge – it’s is making an individual realize that they’ve actually got other people’s lives in their hands when they’re driving that vehicle and that they’re responsible because, again, they are the person driving.

In training we split lessons into theoretical and the practical sessions. With regard to the theoretical side, I tend to use a lot of videos because when we’re working in a foreign country where the English language probably isn’t the first language, or sometimes even a second language, so it’s very difficult to explain. Even through an interpreter, some interpreters can’t get the correct meaning across. You watch a video and then you explain, you can get people to understand it a lot more and it has more of an impact on the individual.

So you’ve got to understand it’s the mindset for getting anyone to drive, especially in B6 . You’ve got to get to understand there is a possibility if you don’t handle the vehicle correctly, you could kill people.  

Does age make a difference?

I teach more people in their 40s and 50s than people in their teens and 20s. I think that many companies don’t go to the younger guys, because they know if someone’s a bit older, they may have a more mature outlook with respect to their driving. So, they put a safeguard in straight away by removing the higher risk 18 to 24 age bracket. Also in some of the regions I go to, they have to employ local people and some of the locals are older because the younger people have gone back to the cities and move moved away from the villages. So they get the jobs and they might be the only ones that drive within that environment village.

How do you define success?

The best thing that I get from training people is when I see a driver that has actually changed – it’s brilliant. The knock-on effect is that they go from doing the course to having pride in being a better driver and then that way they’re a safer driver for the company. The course is pass / fail. If someone fails, they may have to move on from that job opportunity to another. So, passing (and failing) someone can have a real impact on their life. But I still have to think of the safety of the driver and all others that may be in the vehicle I say they are competent driving.

The responsibility for a driver can be acute. They may have high ranking official in their vehicle, it’s their responsibility to ensure that person is safe. Also, companies do experience a significant drop in the number of accidents and the number of deaths and the reduction in the costs related to replacing vehicles and repairing vehicles as a result of what I’ve been able to achieve.

There is a quantifiable impact to the business too?

A bad driver can create significant loss to any company. A B6 armoured vehicle starts about $160,000 dollars. So, it’s a big cost and asset to lose.

It’s your company reputation, too, potentially. I worked with an organization in one country whose drivers were causing a lot of problems. The company was getting a lot of complaints because of the way the drivers were behaving. So, the actions of the drivers were having a direct impact on the company and loss of revenue, loss of margin. The image of the company was affected because of the way that people viewed the bad actions of their drivers.

The cost of fuel from driving badly, to cite another example, can be reduced with better driver instruction. If not, that loss suffered by the company can eventually lead to the loss of jobs. So it comes back to mindset, and attitude.

There is a tendency to believe driver training is a tick box exercise. It’s not it can have a material impact on the bottom line of your company and also a physical impact in the case of fatalities. So driver training is not just a tick box exercise to satisfy HSE compliance rules – it can’t be!

Training standards differ. What do you think clients should look out for and what should they try to avoid when looking for a provider?

Companies look at training providers in different ways. They look at how expensive they are. If they can get it for more expense, what are they going to get? Then they look at the certification. What sort of certificate are they going to get from the person providing training? And then, lastly, they look at the content of the course.

I’d advise to look at the content before anything else. Whether you pay large amounts of money for a course, or you pay pennies, it is the content that’s going to be the difference. I’ve seen some places where they’ve spent a fortune on the course and the content was great, but it was irrelevant to the desired outcome.

When working internationally, you need visuals. I’ve seen some content with just bullet points and talking, which doesn’t work. You lose the guys, especially going through an interpreter. It just doesn’t work. When you’re looking to contract an instructor, look at the content, ask them to come in and deliver the lesson to you as an individual and see if that matches your needs, what you want for your company.

Certification – there are different types and awarding bodies that you go through. We all know we can go on line, choose a cheap course, and get a certificate but does it really mean anything? Some companies have a very good reputation for their certified courses others not as good. Being an internationally recognized certificate or a company certificate should make no difference it should always come back to content and if it relates to your needs.

Who do you admire, with regard to Training Services?

It has to be RoSPA. All the courses I have done to get qualified – my driving course for the gold certificate, my Level 3 diploma, my Level 4 diploma, RoSPA are thorough – they do health and safety, driving, there are lots of aspects to it, and there are various courses that they run. And you know when you get a RoSPA standard, that standard is exceptional. If you speak to anybody from the HSE world, from the driving world – everything comes back to RoSPA because they’re recognized as the leading edge of what they do.  

Do you do you have to requalify / re-evaluate every so often as well?

Every three years, I have to get re-certified. It’s quite a commitment to make to maintain professional standard, but obviously worth it.

Dave can be contacted about B6 Armoured Vehicle Driver Training Courses via his email: daveyallen666@hotmail.com 

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