Discussions about future driver training in Vienna

As part of the 4th project meeting of the ERASMUS+ project 'FutureDRV - Preparing professional drivers for their role in the 4th Industrial Revolution', an experts round table discussion took place on 30 January 2018 in Vienna (AT). The workshop motto ‘Driving Skills – More than just driving’ attracted both European and Austrian experts from the professional driving and transport sector (e.g. company representatives, stakeholders from employers and employees organisations, training providers for professional driving or researchers). The workshop consisted of two round table sessions with keynote presentations followed by expert discussions.

Round table session 1 on the topic ‘Innovations and the future work of professional drivers’ started with a keynote by Prof. Jochen Baier, (Hochschule Furtwangen University, DE) on ‘FutureDRV - New Business Processes’ which included subjects like the future of truck drivers, results of a scenario analysis, autonomous trucks, future business processes in transport logistics and final conclusions. The second presentation was given by the FutureDRV consortium member Moncef Semichi (AFT, FR) on ‘Innovations influencing work and skill requirements of professional drivers’. Mr. Semichi described the first results from an ongoing interview survey with transport managers where the experts defined the most important impact factors for the future of professional driving (PD) to be legal & administrative frameworks (national and European) as well as technological and infrastructure developments(road & IT).

Round table session 2 on the topic 'Preparing drivers for future skill requirements' started with the FutureDRV coordinating consortium member Claudia Ball (DEKRA Akademie, DE) presenting ‘A vision of future professional driver training’ followed by Andreas Silfverberg (FutureDRV consortium member, StageIT, SE) on ‘Training professional drivers’ communication skills with serious games’. Mr. Silfverberg gave the audience an overview on ‘Training Module #1‘ that is developed by the FutureDRV project and will deal with communication skills in professional driving. In this pilot, professional drivers will be taught to understand, test and reflect the importance of good communication skills by using ICT and gamification tools (via web or smart phone).

The 4th FutureDRV project meeting and expert round table was hosted and organised by the Austrian FutureDRV consortium partner 3s research laboratory, Vienna.