Vehicle Safety Training

It is vitally important that expedition leaders and fieldwork organisers can manage and assess the safety of vehicles used during trips.

Traditional tour leader and expedition training tends to focus on core skills such as navigation, first aid and emergency response. Whilst those skills are absolutely vital it is clearly part of the role of overseas staff and leaders to do all we can to avoid accidents and incidents in the field - a major part of this is the dynamic assessment of risk. Many leaders have extensive experience of paper based and dynamic risk management of traditional outdoors areas but very little when it comes to other issues such as vehicle safety. This is in contrast to incident statistics which show most major incidents on overseas trips have revolved around vehicles.

Therefore it is vital to give staff the abilities to assess and manage vehicle safety. The course will look at how pre-planning and dynamic field assessment can allow us to recognise and minimise these risks.

It is appropriate for:

• Expedition managers and field management staff
• University staff running fieldwork or supervising others around the world.
• Expedition leaders and tour organisers.
• Travelers, teachers and other individuals involved in fieldwork or expeditions.

Course Content:

Pre-planning of vehicle safety - what can we do in advance of the trip - pre trip agreements, vehicle standards and license checks

How does this work in the field - what vehicle checks and assessment can we do to make sure our pre-planning expectations have been met - or to assess additional vehicles where no prior planning or assessment is possible

What is an 'acceptable standard' - vehicle standards are varied around the world - what is legal and what isn't? Are all legal things acceptable?