ECOWILL Activities
The “Train The Trainer” seminar (TTT) for the Spanish driving instructors took place in Madrid on 21-23 June 2011. The seminar was led by two expert instructors from DVR, the German ECOWILL partner. During the execution of the seminar, 13 master trainers were certified under the level 1 (for learner drivers) and level 2 (for licensed drivers). The driving instructors granted to become ECOWILL master trainers, came from different regions of Spain, 7 of them are part of RACC driving schools and the other 6 come from the National Driving School Association (CNAE). With this distribution, Spain has an infrastructure of master trainers to offer and conduct the seminars all over the country, especially in key regions.
As part of the ECOWILL project objectives, a series of subsequent “Train The Trainer” seminars started in Spain in order to create an infrastructure of certified ECOWILL trainers nationwide.
The first TTT seminar, conducted by a couple of Spanish master trainers, was held in Barcelona on 24-26 January 2012. 12 driving instructors from the northeast regions of Spain were trained for both levels (learner and licensed drivers).
The second TTT seminar was conducted in the city of León on 17-19 April 2012. The 12 driving instructors participating came from the northeast regions of Spain and all of them were certified under the ECOWILL level 1 and level 2 promoted by the project.
Finally, A third TTT seminar was held in Madrid on 22-24 October 2012. Driving instructors from Madrid and surroundings received the instruction for level 1 and level 2 seminars. In this TTT seminar, we invited the principal stakeholders (makers decision) to participate with different roles. 4 examiners from DGT (Directorate General of Traffic) were certified under the ECOWILL trainings. 8 more people from this public administration came as observers (we had the honor to have the ecodriving training Sub-director along the seminars) to evaluate the courses and finally, the person in charge to promote the ecodriving from the National Energy Agency (IDAE); the other participants (8) of the seminars were driving instructor from RACC driving schools.
At the end of the seminars, we received good feedback from DGT and IDAE and some considerations to include inside this courses for a national standardization. With this, they say that in a near future they will take advantage of our expertise regarding a recycling course for driving instructors with ecodriving at a national level and also for the new driving instructors that are working to get the certification. This is because it is possible that the next year we have the ecodriving included inside the curricula and examination to get the license in Spain (Category B).
With this seminar, we already have a full set of certified ECOWILL driving instructors nationwide (from RACC, DGT and CNAE) that will keep the ECOWILL project alive after its end.
The ecodriving Short Duration Training courses for licensed drivers have been launched by RACC in October 2011. Several training courses were made during the RACC Motor Show. Electronic invitations to participate for free in a SD Training were sent. Approximately, 90 SD Training courses took place during the 5 days that the event last.
Since then, about 350 SD training courses took place in Spain by May 2012. Most of the trainings made (80%) are organized for private drivers. By the end of the training, very positive feedback about this “new” way of learning ecodriving techniques was received from participants. Fuel savings calculated by the end of the period (compared with the usual driving style of participants) is between 8% and 25%, with an average of 17%.
The other 20% is for fleet companies. Fleet managers and fleet drivers always gave good feedback about the SD Trainings. More specifically, the companies were happy to give ecodriving courses to employees in a very short period of time (1h aprox) which offers them a high cost/benefit ratio. The participants consider the techniques learned as a good tool to use also outside their job, in their private driving. The average group fuel economy made by fleet drivers is around 20%.
By the end of October, 518 SD Trainings have been devlivered, reaching with this number the target proposed for Spain under the ECOWILL project.
From now to the end of the project in April 2013, we are managing a full communication campaign using all the tools available from RACC, in order to deploy the SD Trainings in a very extended way to all the citizens of Spain.