Business Insider takes a look inside UPS driver training school

Hayley Peterson, a senior correspondent for Business Insider, took a look inside Integrad, the UPS driver training school, to see how students learn to drive and deliver safely for the world’s largest courier company.

In courses lasting five to nine days, students at Integrad learn about hazard avoidance, protocols for vehicle manoeuvring, truck loading, parcel carrying, and walking in adverse conditions.

Alongside classroom learning, drivers get hands-on training through practical demonstrations, and the article takes a look at some of the specialised technology used by the company to train their prospective drivers.

A truck fitted with pressure plates is used to teach drivers how much weight they are putting on their knees, hips and lower back when carrying parcels, and how to distribute their weight through three points of contact to lessen the load.

Another truck with transparent plexiglass sides is used to monitor students’ parcel sorting and selecting procedures.

Credit: Larry Tseng

The technology ranges from simple to sophisticated: a prop door is used to practise wheeling goods into buildings, while virtual reality is used for training in safety and hazard-spotting.

There’s a “slip-and-fall” station dedicated to learning how to safely walk on ice while carrying parcels.

There’s also an entire mock neighbourhood with street signs and sheds for training drivers in the use of their Delivery Information and Acquisition Device (DIAD), used for navigating and parcel-scanning.

Eventually drivers leave the training centre and take to the road to practise hazard-spotting for real.

There are more details, and plenty of pictures, over on Business Insider.