Meet the MT Awards 2022 winners – Best Use of Technology Award partnered with Bridgestone UK

BOC

An engaging virtual reality training solution from BOC ably demonstrates how bringing technology together can overcome a problem.

Using high-definition 360-degree video capture, eye-tracking and motion seat technology, BOC’s virtual training programme reduces travel time for drivers, whilst providing a vastly more accurate picture of the driver’s abilities to spot hazards and react to them.

The company has taken traditional training and adapted it through immersive technology. BOC wanted to devise a method that could provide a step-change to training with a platform that would supplement on-the-road training as realistically and consistently as possible. Personalised and individual training sessions needed to be tailored to the user, with clear unique actionable analysis and results.

BOC felt that streamlining and upgrading training programmes was likely to be time consuming and expensive, requiring drivers to take a full day away from work. More so, the training experience is traditionally reliant on the skills of the trainer/assessor, and it was difficult to consistently measure against key safety criteria.

BOC used several high-performance devices along with bespoke software to ensure that the user interface of the trainer’s app is easy to use and broke down complex data in a way that is digestible and actionable.

Beginning with a headset and a bespoke motion seat they created a realistic environment for the driver as well as a repeatable experience for the trainer.

Judges described the solution as a “really clever use of leading-edge VR technology” that helped BOC overcome an age-old issue of providing safe, cost-effective and beneficial training.

Described by one judge as a “great tool that is different to everything that the market currently has in place”, the panel appreciated the analytical abilities of the system to enable targeted areas of improvement, and the reduced carbon footprint of not operating vehicles for training purposes.

"We've done a lot of hard work in the last three years to get here. It's a big safety feature with big benefits."

John Evans, business improvement manager, BOC

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