Driver Training

This full-day, hands-on training is for municipal or school vehicle drivers and conducted at several New Hampshire locations. It's designed to provide drivers with the skills and information they need to keep their vehicle in control. Instructors from Stevens Advanced Driver Training demonstrate for and coach students to put all the necessary skills together so they can access 100 percent of their vehicle's capacity for avoidance and safety. For more information, download Car Control Program brochure (PDF). For upcoming Car Control training dates, download our current Training Dates flyer (PDF).

This training is designed for volunteer and municipal ambulance squads. Topics include:

• Vehicle handling and design characteristics
• Cushion of safety
• Backing
• Special conditions (night driving, adverse conditions, hydroplaning, impaired drivers)
• Vehicle inspection
• City, two-lane and multi-lane driving
• Driving with lights and sirens

This training is designed for career and volunteer fire personnel. Topics include:

• Emergency and non-emergency defensive driving techniques
• Vehicle inspections
• Responding to a call
• Backing
• Dealing with adverse weather conditions
• Vehicle characteristics
• Breaking techniques
• Night driving
• Fire ground considerations

This training is designed for law enforcement personnel. Topics include:

• Cushion of safety
• Driving with lights and sirens
• Two-lane roadway driving
• Safety belts
• Off-street driving considerations
• Dealing with adverse weather conditions
• Vehicle inspection
• Driving in congested areas

This training is for all lift truck operators (skid steer and wheeled), transfer station and recycling employees. Participants are encouraged to observe, analyze and discuss recommended safety practices. Topics include:

• Pre-start safety inspection
• Lift truck design considerations
• Safety procedures for picking up, moving with and setting down a load
• OSHA reminder points

Coaching the School Bus Driver is trainee orientated and emphasizes classroom discussion of daily experiences and problems. This training designed exclusively for school bus drivers and includes pertinent Commercial Driver’s License and Americans with Disabilities issues. Drivers will now understand the "why" and "how" behind the facts. Defensive driving techniques specifically relating to school bus and van drivers are stressed throughout the training.

This training is designed to train participants to observe, analyze and discuss recommended safety practices, including pre-start safety inspections, collision prevention techniques, defensive driving skills, driving in adverse conditions and backing up.

This program prepares attendees for the New Hampshire Commercial Drivers License (with air brake and tank endorsement) test. It is specifically designed to provide education on the hazards of driving, useful information on driving habits and operating emergency and large, commercial-type vehicles.

This is a National Safety Council instructor-certified course designed for the adult learner. It can be taught in two, three-hour sessions or one, six-hour session. Instruction is accomplished through the use of fully integrated materials, including visual aids, lecture and discussion. Covered topics include the following:

• Defining defensive driving and instruction in how to prevent collisions
• Focus on the most important person, the driver, including mental and physical conditions that affect driving
• Safety belts and other safety equipment
• Effects of drugs and alcohol and defenses against impaired drivers
• How to handle driving conditions in urban and rural areas, and expressway driving

The LGC’s Property-Liability Trust and the New Hampshire Division of Fire Standards and Training/New Hampshire Fire Academy (NHFA) are partnering to provide certified driver training programs to New Hampshire emergency responders. This 20-hour, all-vehicle certification program is offered throughout New Hampshire with practical driving exercises conducted on a driving course specifically designed to facilitate efficient and safe emergency driving instruction. Responders will learn professional driving techniques using NHFA’s pumper and rescue plus other selected apparatus and offensive/defensive driving tactics with specific instruction in the following area:

• Proper acceleration
• Braking and steering
• Anti-lock brakes and retarders

This training is designed for police, fire and rescue personnel. Covered topics include the following:

• Emergency response laws
• Driver and vicarious liability
• Punitive damages
• Vehicle maintenance
• Use of lights and sirens

LGC partners with UNH Technology Transfer Center to provide this hands-on, grader training using experienced public works professionals as trainers. A scholarship ($120 value) is available for one registrant per community to attend this training, which includes a day of in-classroom instruction along with a day of in-field, hands-on experience. Covered topics include the following:

• Basic grader maintenance
• Basic blading techniques
• Hands-on grader operation

This one-of-a-kind training uses a PowerPoint presentation to showcase a compilation of background information and veteran member experience. Covered topics include the following:

• Plow operator qualifications
• What actions to take in the event of an accident, as required by the Federal Drug and Alcohol Testing Program
• Inspecting the plow system—what to look for and why it matters
• Knowing your plow route: what the public expects
• Defensive driving of snow removal equipment
• Easy nutritional techniques to keep you alert during snowplowing operations and to promote healthy eating habits
• Why a written snow removal plan is necessary

Municipal truck drivers, especially plow truck drivers, have to be the exemplary defensive driver for all drivers. They are the drivers who must go out onto the roads when all other drivers are forced off the roads because of ice, snow, sleet or hurricanes. Topics covered in this training include the following:

• Commercial Driver’s License and DDC principles as applicable to city, highway and rural driving situations
• Cushion of safety
• Safe following distances
• Blind spots
• Tailgaters
• Stopping distances
• Pre-trip inspection
• Effective scanning and collision prevention techniques
• Safe backing procedures
• Night driving
• Impaired drivers
• Adverse weather conditions
• Triangle placement

A certified DDC-PTD instructor also teaches training participants the Federal Highway Administration’s random drug and alcohol training requirements for drivers at the scene of an accident.