Driver training the SSB way

Stuttgart is a city famous for cars: Porsche and Mercedes-Benz are designed and built in Stuttgart. But unlike another famous ‘motor city’ at Lake Erie, Stuttgart is also known for its first-class public transport offering. The city’s local topography, shaped by steep inclines and height differences of more than 250m, provides an excellent background for transport options with only a limited requirement of space. Traffic infrastructure is shoehorned into Stuttgart’s city centre – the most densely populated area in Germany – which provides for a high demand during peak times as well as during the small hours.

The people of Stuttgart are relatively free to choose whatever mode of transport suits them. Provided that transport standards meet their expectations, the people of Stuttgart are inclined to leave their beloved cars in the garage once in a while and use public transport. The quality of public transport thus becomes a highly-valued selling proposition to compete with the private car. To deliver the quality expected, SSB has been applying a multi-modal set of means, whose core is formed by the choice and training of drivers. Additionally, drivers themselves and the company benefit by a sustained focus on training and choosing drivers for public transport. SSB acknowledges that customers, employers and employees benefit from skilled and well-chosen staff.

Drivers are not just drivers – they are so much more. From the customer’s point of view, they represent the company – how they appear and behave determines how welcome a customer feels aboard. And drivers can counter – balance a lot of what might have gone wrong, just by reacting appropriately. Thus, the recruitment and training of drivers is crucial for economic success – and is one of SSB’s main focal points. Not just in this respect, SSB ranks among the most avant-garde of Germany’s public transport operators.

If drivers are well-trained and well-prepared for the job, they will experience less stress under adverse conditions, which will benefit their health in the long-term. The rosters of bus and tram drivers have seen a huge increase in productivity during the last decade. This, however, has limited the opportunities of drivers for social interaction to a few moments, leading in the end to a lack of togetherness which can be met by the company. Initial in-house training in small groups encourages freshly-recruited drivers to stay with an operator. SSB’s drivers are aware of their skills and training, and proud of it.

While there are many issues fostering the search for qualified drivers, some issues have rather adverse effects. The Stuttgart job-market has become quite tight on qualified personnel over the past few years, and costs of living are high in relation to potential wages for drivers. Not everyone can afford to be a diver in Stuttgart. To hire, train and fire people until you find those who meet the company’s standard is therefore out of question. SSB has to ensure they employ the correct drivers. In return, SSB has benefits to offer – among them excellent training. In-house training is an investment into the people who are the core of service. It pays-off in terms of reliability, efficiency, commitment, loyalty and self-esteem.

Well-trained staff will consider the training to be a long-term investment, offering a long-term perspective, and thus are likely to stay with the operator. Long-term loyal staff keeps down staff turnover per year and thus requires less initial training per year – a welcomed economic side-effect.

However, there are also external reasons for focusing more on recruitment, qualification, and the training of operational staff. National and EU regulations on public transport operations have been sharpened and thus require higher standards in training and testing. On the jobmarket, the lack of skilled and capable drivers has increased, while the demographic change dictates that drivers have to work to an older age. Alternative employment models for older drivers become scarce, and driving requires good health. At the same time, driving becomes increasingly demanding: Growth in traffic volume and density are causing strain and aggression.

SSB has been one of the cutting-edge pioneers in staff recruitment – so which solutions does SSB propose? In which respect is SSB’s approach exemplary?

SSB goes to considerable lengths to choose their apprentices carefully. For more than 30 years, SSB has been inviting applications to only those who fulfil certain requirements. Applicants should have successfully completed professional training, preferably related to sales/service, technical issues or skills related to driving or supervising machines etc. They should hold a driver’s licence for cars, which must be clean with the central register for offences against traffic regulations.

Skills and experience which SSB’s HR Department value highly also include: Working in shifts, a proven ability to concentrate or to work alone, and self-motivation. Applicants need not hold a driver’s licence for buses or lorries in advance.

There is a pre-training assessment, com – pulsory for all would-be drivers. SSB allows two days for assessing each candidate, focusing on language and social skills, concentration, perceptive abilities, technical comprehension, punctuality, and medical examinations. At the heart of the agenda is a customised testing tool, purpose-made by BVG of Berlin, HHA of Hamburg and SSB of Stuttgart, and aptly branded ‘Testbilder’ (‘testing pictures’). It is based on the assumption that there is no deterministic ‘right or wrong’ way in social interaction, but a large variety of options, some of which comply with SSB’s requirement while others do not. This tool also proved very useful assessing other servicerelated staff within SSB.

The social test is accompanied by a test-ride on a tram or a bus. These first trips, circling around the depot, are crucial. They will tell both trainers and applicants if the driver will feel selfassured enough as a professional driver: Do I feel fit to become a driver? Do I comply with the requirements of this job? Does the operator really want me? To keep in mind: The better the foundation on which a future driver bases their new profession, the longer the commitment will last, the more experienced the driving staff will be and the less staff will feel tempted or compelled to quit the job prematurely.

The initial assessment will provide future drivers with an inside view to find out more about SSB and its culture, the details of the job they are applying for, and most importantly, the hands-on chance to find out whether they are suited to operate a bus or a light-rail vehicle. After all, most applicants will never have another opportunity to experience this: Only 10-30% of the candidates will be accepted for initial training.

SSB not only chooses its staff carefully, but also undergoes considerable expenses to train drivers on-the-job. There are no external training sessions or subcontractors; all training is performed by SSB’s own instructors – it is 100% in-house for bus and tram drivers. This enables SSB to set-up the training schedules in a very economical way. SSB intertwines theoretical and practical content, making use of a large scope of means. Since 1997, SSB has been using a full-scale Light-Rail Driving Simulator, complemented since 2004 by a full-scale simulation for SSB’s train protection system and signal boxes. Computer-based training devices are used for self-studying, mainly at home, and for issues with a repetitive character. Having finished the initial training, drivers will receive ‘on-line’ training by senior driving staff. They will also be attended regularly by instructors. SSB takes part in the development of national curricula for drivers’ training (both trams and buses) which provides a first-hand exchange with colleagues and offers valuable insight for improving the scope of training. The training is performed 100% in-house by SSB’s own instructors, in groups of between five and 12 people, depending on the content, allowing 12 weeks for tram and bus drivers to become full-time professional drivers. There are practically no failures in driver training – after having been chosen carefully, almost all applicants pass the final exams. During training, trainees already wear driver’s uniforms which make them feel welcomed as a member of SSB right from the start.

Drivers mostly work alone. This considerably restricts opportunities for professional and social exchange among colleagues, which creates a problem in itself, including feelings of separation, lack of appreciation and lack of regard by the company. SSB acknowledges these issues and counteracts them by two means.

SSB’s staff have set-up a purpose-made driver mentoring and supervision programme called ‘Fahrbe’ – a pun on the German words ‘fahren’ (driving) and ‘farbe’ (colour), clearly indicating what the programme is about: To bring more colour into the drivers’ working lives, by offering them the chance to participate in activities grouped around the driving routine and voice their concerns and point of view on operation-related topics within SSB.

To foster personal relations between staff and their superiors, SSB has established a system of structured appraisal interviews – this system is now also being applied to drivers and their seniors, to start on a five-year basis.

In terms of integration, SSB complements these means by others. Company medical employees are on-hand to execute all medical examinations of the staff. SSB offers excellent break facilities and restrooms. Drivers receive psychological assistance and personal support after accidents, if they wish to. SSB’s drivers are clad in elegant, comfortable and robust uniforms which are a visual expression of the pride SSB’s staff take in driving Stuttgart’s trams and buses. Last but not least, there are frequent checks on the abuse of alcohol or even the offer of counselling in private issues like, financial problems for example. Most of the training-related activities will be organised and hosted by the very same team of trainers who performs the initial training and testing of new drivers. This accounts for high mutual credibility, trust and respect among trainers and drivers, which again works towards motivation and quality.

The efforts SSB is undergoing in assessing, training and accompanying drivers, lead to strong results. SSB sports high marks in Stuttgart’s public service satisfaction survey – consistently achieving a first or second rank during the last decade. Constantly rising sales figures also underline the customers’ satisfaction with the service delivered, which is not the least caused by SSB’s drivers. This is complemented by a relatively low rate of customer complaints on driver behaviour. The seniority among drivers is rather high – 21 years in average. In the ‘war for talents’, SSB in return uses these facts to support its employer branding.

Biography

Reinhold Schröter is Head of SSB’s Operations Preparation Department and also the Deputy Operations Manager. He is also the Operations Manager for the German part of the cross-border tramlink between Strassbourg (France) and Kehl (Germany), currently under construction. Before joining SSB, Reinhold was Manager of the Schöneiche-Rüdersdorf tramway, a then subsidiary of Veolia Transport, running a suburban service in the East of Berlin. Reinhold began his professional life with Üstra, the Public Transport Enterprise of Hannover. He studied Linguistics at the Hamburg University and Civil Engineering at the Technical Universities of Vienna and Hannover