Defensive Driving Fundamentals & Attitudes 2020

This award winning internationally recognized comprehensive blended Defensive Driving and Driver Attitude program focuses on Driver Attitude and Defensive Driving skills. This all in one course includes all the Thinking Driver material that has won national awards and resulted in up to 90% reductions in incident rates for one prominent user. Your best choice for major driver change.

Course Overview

This award winning internationally recognized comprehensive blended Defensive Driving and Driver Attitude program focuses on Driver Attitude and Defensive Driving skills. This all in one course includes all the Thinking Driver material that has won national awards. Driving attitudes directly affect risk tolerance in corporate and other drivers. Stress, personal factors and issues and other driver actions all play a role. This course teaches drivers to understand and self-manage these forces to maintain clear and objective decision-making skills while driving and avoid impulsive, disrespectful, retaliatory or other actions that increase driving risk or attract complaints. The probability of incident or accident is significantly reduced when drivers reduce speed, observe highway laws and rules and demonstrate courtesy to other road users as a result of this training.

This Course focuses on Driver Attitude by educating employees on the personal factors that influence risk tolerance. As drivers understand their own psychology and "hot buttons" then learn how to self-manage emotion, they are able reduce risk tolerance even in stressful driving situations or when provoked by other drivers. This results in reduced incident rates (up to 90% reduction) as proven by many Thinking Driver course users*.

The course also features an in-depth module on Thinking Driver's proprietary 5 Fundamentals of Defensive Driving: Think and Look Ahead, Anticipate Hazards, Keep Your Options Open, Manage the Risk and Control With Finesse.

These core defensive driving concepts developed and fine tuned to a clear focused driver safety system by Thinking Driver founder and internationally recognized driver training expert Spencer McDonald form the foundation skill sets required to drive incident free for a lifetime.

This is Thinking Driver's flagship Driver Course and results in reduced incident rates as proven by many Thinking Driver course users. The media rich course engages learners through a variety of interactive on-screen activities including quizzes, click to discover facts, video, audio commentary and much more. The user interface is intuitive and easy to use. Employees love this course because unlike so many others, it's interesting, entertaining and informative while holding their attention.

This course was developed by internationally recognized road safety, driver psychology and training expert, Thinking Driver Founder, Spencer McDonald.

If you have been considering either Defensive driving Fundamentals or Defensive driving attitudes as individual courses, this all in one course include all content from both standalone courses.

*Source: Technical Safety BC (90% reduction in at-fault accidents between 2011 and 2015 using Thinking Driver training courses)

Course Topics

Understanding triggers
  • Explores situations and the actions of other drivers that may cause irritation or changes in decision making as well as an increase in risk-taking behaviour
  • Encourages a more tolerant outlook toward other drivers as a result of self-reflection and assessment
Managing Driving Stress
  • Types and sources of driving stress
  • Eye lead time
  • How stress affects drivers mentally, emotionally, and physically to promote risk taking behaviour
  • What drivers can do to reduce or manage stress and their reaction to it
Anger
  • How anger, the most dangerous emotion when mixed with driving can result from unmanaged stress and frustration or from triggers resulting from other driver actions
  • Understanding two kinds of anger that can result in reactionary or risk taking driving actions
  • Simple and effective anger management tools that can be used while driving
  • How to avoid personal confrontations and road rage incidents
Aggressive Driving
  • Understanding the nature of aggressive driving
  • Recognizing aggressive driving behaviours and how anyone can turn into an aggressive driver if stressed or provoked
  • Identifying how aggressive driving consumes excessive fuel and wears vehicles prematurely
  • How to reduce risky driving actions which could cause incidents
  • Reducing vehicle abuse, fuel, and repair costs
Emotional IQ
  • How willingness to take responsibility for resolving even bad situations in a positive way can reduce stress and empower drivers
  • Identifying safe speeds
  • How unrealistic expectations of others leads to disappointment, stress, and escalated risk tolerance