ISUZU Truck has hit out at the 'macho' attitude of commercial vehicle drivers who are refusing driver training, even when it is offered for free. Since January, Isuzu has been offering every fleet and operator buying a vehicle a driver training package with Drive and Survive but so far the take up has been under 10%.

Sales director Mike Rogers said: 'The training only takes four hours, working on defensive driver skills, perception skills and getting optimum performance out of a vehicle, concentrating on tyre wear and reducing fuel consumption. It seems incredible that fleet managers are not more actively encouraging drivers to take up this training when it can mean a saving of about £1,500 a year on a vehicle's running costs.

'Accident rates, downtime, fuel use, everything is cut, there is no downside to driver training. It seems the only thing getting in the way is drivers' macho 'I don't need training' attitude. This year we will sell about 700 3.5- tonne vehicles, which means that, if this trend continues less than 70 drivers out of a potential 700 will have been trained.'