Kia training heads OS?

Kia's aim to change the attitudes of young drivers before they get their licence is finding traction with overseas government agencies but not locally.

Kia Motorvation, a driver education group funded by Kia Australia that aims to change the attitudes of young drivers before they get their licences, has told motoring.com.au that it is finding stronger support from road authorities as far away as the UK than from local government-related bodies.

The group's director, Geoff Fickling, said while local authorities are dragging their feet, his company is already in talks with the British government to roll out its crash prevention program in the UK.

"We're talking to the NHS [National Health Service]... and they've got very similar problems over there [in the UK] with hooning. They call them kamikaze drivers over there. They've investigated a lot of programs around the world and they feel that the only one they've seen approaching attitude the way we are, is ours."

"It would be ironic if we kicked up a pilot program elsewhere in the world [that had government support].

"We're not getting any support or interest from Australian authorities at all," he said.

According to Fickling, Kia Motorvation is a few months away from deploying its first mobile training unit in Australia. A full-size bus equipped with high-end audio, visual and computer aids, the vehicle will travel to schools up and down Australia's East Coast to educate teenagers about the dangers of being both over and under confident behind the wheel.

"Getting kids before they start driving is important," says Fickling.

"We've got a bus almost built. It's a mobile training unit and it's going to have our two simulators on board and a bank of computers. What we'll do is we'll pull up at a school and a group of kids will go on the bus. They undergo a questionnaire on the computers, which determines what sort of driver they will be, demure or dominant.

"Then they go onto the driving simulators, which are set up to confirm what the questionnaire results revealed.

"It's a different way of approaching [driving training]."

Fickling says British authorities are keen to employ this 'attitudinal change' strategy with young drivers and is looking at deploying mobile training units to do so. Similar approaches to do the same locally have fallen flat.

"There's a lot of ignorance within organisations such as the TAC and Federal Office of Road Safety [now Australian Transport Safety Bureau]. They seem to think that any driver training that doesn't occur on the road, in a car, is detrimental. I'm not too sure how they came up with that idea."

Fickling believes that one of the best ways to reduce the road toll among younger drivers (and also generally) is not to rely on heavy-handed threats such as speed cameras, but to change the behaviour and attitude of drivers before they even get their licence.

"I think speed cameras are effective in changing attitudes briefly ... [but] it doesn't go deep enough. It's very shallow, that approach. It's more like a threat than getting people to realise what the real danger is."

He says that it's crucial to understand why we behave in certain ways when behind the wheel, and to find the reasons why people take risks rather than just punishing them when they step out of line. Safer driving can be achieved more effectively by "Understanding the source of the problem rather than being threatened with a fine or loss of licence," he says.

Fickling has been educating drivers since the late 1990s and developed Motorvation in order to show young drivers that attitude and behaviour play a large role in being safe on the road. Kia Australia announced its support of the initiative in 2009 and the company added its driving simulation systems in 2011.

Working with kids aged 15 and 16, just before they go for their learner's permit, Motorvation's approach involves a number of practical tests, but also discussion.

"We basically come up with two groups that most drivers fall into -- we call them dominant and demure. If you're a dominant driver you tend to be a little bit confident, tend to think you're pretty good -- a lot of males fall into that category. Some are extreme and they're often called hoons... We call them driver-holics."

From Kia Motorvation's observations, around 20 per cent of those tested are in the dominant category, but most are demure.

"And they love talking about this. We were very nervous at first about bringing this into our courses but it's amazing the response we get. They love talking about what sort of driver they're going to be or what they think they are," Fickling explained.

"It's about getting kids to realise that it's their own attitude that's going to be the major problem.

"Kids often ask if it's dangerous to text while you're driving -- obviously it is. But the fact that you'd consider taking that risk in the first place, that's what you've got to examine. You're obviously not taking the driving task seriously. Why is it happening in the first place?

"It [the program and discussions] gets them to think about it."

The 17-25 year age group is represented in a high number of road deaths in Australia. Fickling says that four years ago Motorvation made the decision to: "focus on young drivers because we felt that most of the courses available were very generic and are aimed at any driver."

"From our experience young drivers needed a different approach. We designed a program that leaned more to the attitude side, not just the skills side."

Year 10-11 students are the ideal age group, says Fickling.

"It's a lot easier to go to a school with a mobile training unit than it is to get groups of kids to attend a venue," he commented.

The cost is around $100 per student, but would be much higher were it not for corporate sponsors.

"The schools or parents usually pay for the program, and the reason for the corporate backing from Kia and others is to bring the cost down. If we didn't have Kia and Caltex and our other supporters the cost would be horrific.

"I doubt whether many schools would be able to afford it without them," Fickling told motoring.com.au.

Fickling and Kia Australia plan to expand the Kia Motorvation driver education scheme to cover most of Australia.

"We'll start with the East Coast and the plan is to have three or four of these buses running around Australia. When we get the second one in Sydney, that'll cover Queensland and New South Wales, and the Victorian one will cover South Australia and Tasmania," he said.

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