Effectiveness of the Vigil Vanguard in bus driver training : a pilot study

Bus transit authorities have an interest in investigating new training methods that might improve the performance of their drivers due to the fact that highly skilled drivers lower the risk of harm to both the passengers and the bus. This article reports on a pilot study conducted to assess the usefulness of an innovative bus safety feedback device known as the Vigil Vanguard (VV). The results revealed that there were no statistically significant differences in driving performance between various experimental conditions. It is hypothesised that the lack of derived from the VV feedback was possibly due to the incongruity between the feedback needs of the trainee bus drivers and the feedback given by the device. Further investigation is recommended to assess the usefulness of the VV in other applications (such as remedial and advanced driver training), as the VV feedback would appear to be highly relevant in these training applications.