Van Pools Blog
Time Change Affects Drive Times
November 7th, 2011 0 Comments
Andy Bawden
By Andy Bawden
VPSI Vanpool Safety Instructor
Now that you’ve set your clocks back an hour, you’ve gained and hour of daylight drive time in the morning. You also lost an hour of evening daylight for the drive home. This grand tradition was started to save electricity during summer months by extending evening hours and allowing school kids more opportunity to go to school in the daylight. It can affect drive times and you need to change with the times.
As fall makes its way towards winter the days will become shorter until the third week in December. Until then the days will become shorter and daylight will be limited. As a vanpool driver you need to make sure you are well rested before driving and prepare yourself for other challenges.
Other changes and adjustments that will need to be made:
- Adjust your tires’ pressure to recommended levels found on the driver’s door post.
- Approach intersections carefully and be prepared to stop or slow down.
- If you stop – stop before the limit line to allow other drivers and pedestrians a clear and unobstructed pathway.
- Limit the number of lane changes.
- If you change lanes – signal well ahead of time.
- Increase the following distance.
- Maintain a safe and consistent speed.
Andy Bawden is a Vanpool Safety Instructor and is now a guest contributor to VPSI’s Commuter Chronicle newsletter and van-pools.com blog. He is certified by the National Safety Council as a Defensive Driving Instructor. He was previously VPSI’s Loss Prevention and Vanpool Safety Manager.
Vanpool Safety and the new vRide Initiative
April 29th, 2011 0 Comments
By Andy Bawden
VPSI’s Loss Prevention and Safety Manager
Hal Genter, VPSI’s Project Manger in Atlanta gets his introduction to the Vanpool Safety Meeting, when he takes me to Turner Broadcasting System’s office in downtown Atlanta next Friday.
I have been conducting these meetings for several years throughout the country. In the Atlanta area, over the years, I have held meetings at TBS and other great places such as Georgia Power, Emory University, Atlanta VA Medical Center and Fort McPherson.
The TBS vanpool drivers are an enthusiastic group and always make me feel welcome and at home at their facility. The meeting next Friday (May 6th) will start at 10:00 AM and will be followed by the second vRide presentation with TBS and the first with the drivers, where Hal will answer the question – “What the heck is vRide?”
This will be a super 2-for-1 day for the vanpool drivers. Both Hal and I are looking forward to seeing everyone there.
Citizen Complaints
September 1st, 2010 0 Comments
VPSI Local Offices, the VPSI Call Center and the VPSI Home Office sometimes receive calls from other drivers (citizens) or, on a rare occasion, even one of the vanpool passengers. These callers may be reporting a vehicle operating in a manner that is not indicative of the safe and defensive manner the vast majority of all vanpool drivers practice on a daily basis.
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VPSI Vanpool Safety Manager to Conduct Session at ACT Conference
August 25th, 2010 0 CommentsOn August 30, 2010 Andy Bawden, VPSI’s Vanpool Safety Manager, will co-present a Vanpool Council Session about Safety and Risk Management, along with Aaron Fodge of the Colorado North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Andy Bawden
The session will include an interactive discussion of how to respond to a vanpool emergency and how to reduce the risk of a vanpool accident. The session starts at 3:15 PM on the first day of the ACT Conference, held at the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort in Indian Wells, CA.
Jon Martz, ACT Immediate Past-President and Vice President of Government Relations for VPSI, is the primary organizer of the ACT Vanpool Summit, and he encourages all members to attend. Andy or Jon can be reached in Troy, MI at 248-597-3500.
For more information about the 2010 ACT International Conference, visit www.actweb.org.
VPSI Promotes Safety
June 24th, 2010 0 CommentsVPSI works tirelessly to promote safety and create a safe environment for vanpool drivers, passengers and the many other commuters with whom we share the road. An integral part of VPSI’s risk management program includes ongoing safety promotion efforts. Andy Bawden, a defensive driving instructor of the National Council and VPSI’s Loss Prevention Manager, regularly conducts driver safety awareness meetings in classroom settings at employer locations across the country in support of our safety awareness efforts. He encourages interaction with all attendees and challenges them to keep the safe operation of their vehicles in the forefront of their minds. These safety training meetings are held throughout the US to demonstrate how safe a vanpool vehicle can be when operated by an experienced, alert vanpool driver.
On May 4th, Bawden held one of these training sessions with commuters working at The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California. The Aerospace safety training event was one of eight such meetings conducted by VPSI in Southern California in May.
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