Training improves driving habits
April 29, 2022
UVA Engineering students studied the effectiveness of the Mindful Driver Training program
The Facilities Management Fleet team continues to partner with the School of Engineering to support and improve its award-winning Mindful Driver Training program, which combines driving safely and boosting fuel efficiency.
A new capstone project by UVA systems engineering students and professors from the Department of Engineering Systems and Environment studied the effectiveness of the Mindful Driver Training program, which was launched in 2021. The students found that the training program results in a significant reduction in the majority of unsafe and inefficient driving habits.
The program was recently awarded APPA's Effective & Innovative Practices award as well as contributed to the UVA Facilities Management Fleet's honor as one of the National Association of Fleet Administrators 100 Best Fleets for 2022.
“This was a chance for students to work with professors on a real-world problem,” Transportation Operations and Fleet Manager Mike Duffy said of the partnership between Facilities Management and the School of Engineering.
The Mindful Driver Training program was created during the 2020-21 school year as a result of a student capstone project which involved analyzing GPS data from a selection of department vehicles as well as anonymous accident data from UVA Risk Management. This group of students then worked with Duffy and Quality Assurance and Development Manager Sandra Smith to translate the data-driven training tips into a training program.
To study the effectiveness of the training, Professor of Engineering Systems and Environment Brian Park led a new set of students to complete a second capstone project analyzing vehicle usage data of a selection of Facilities Management vehicles in the weeks following a training session. The students — Ryan Ahmadiyar, Jenny Chun, Caroline Fuccella, Damir Hrnjez, Grace Parzych, Benjamin Weisel, and Ph.D. student Zuye Mu — examined data which included incidents of hard acceleration, hard braking, hard cornering, speeding, seat belt usage and idling.
While each specific driving metric and FM team had varying timelines of improvement, the group found that the majority of driving trends stopped improving around 12 weeks following a training session. After researching these driving trends, reinforcement trainings were created to help support a continuation of positive driving habits.
As a result of these findings, the Fleet team has decided to continue providing the Mindful Driver training to all FM Fleet drivers. In addition, the team is actively planning for the introduction of reinforcement trainings to continuously improve drivers' safe and sustainable driving practices.
The Engineering students who recently completed the capstone project say that it provided real-world experience working with a client.
“The opportunity gave me extensive exposure to working with a client to achieve a vision, learning how to work with a team…and how to step out of the classroom and holistically approach and solve a problem,” said student Caroline Fuccella.
Student Grace Parzych said she found the project to increase her awareness of the challenges of applying sustainability practices in the field.
“I learned that some vehicles within the fleet need to perform non-sustainable practices in order to complete their work, such as certain vehicles needing to idle to lift items,” she explained. “This requires us to change the way we provide training, so we create the most sustainable practices while not interfering with the necessary work of the fleets.”
The project also impacted the students' personal driving habits.
“With the number of cars on the road continuously increasing, it's become more important to adopt more sustainable practices, especially in fleets that operate large numbers of vehicles,” said student Jenny Chun. “Personally, I've also found myself trying to adopt the sustainable driving tips I learned from this project in order to save gas and be a safer driver.”
The Facilities Management Fleet team plans to continue its partnership with the School of Engineering to continue to reduce preventable accidents and improve the sustainable driving practices.
Jane Centofante
Communications senior generalist
UVA Facilities Management
(434) 982-5846
janecentofante@virginia.edu