At SDI we pride ourselves on providing professional security services through using highly trained and skilled drivers.
Five of our employees at SDI are retired police driving instructors who have taught advanced high-speed driver training and VIP anti-hijack skills to police officers in various forces in the UK, as well as several locations overseas at the request of government officials.
This enables us to offer various bespoke courses to drivers with the appropriate level of driving ability, backed up by accredited certification.
The following case study proves the importance in having the required qualifications to provide the excellence our services demand:
We were approached by a well-known chauffeur company that had a contract with a family with homes in London, Switzerland and Monaco to provide driver training courses to three chauffeurs that would drive the family in these locations.
Our Chief Instructor, Paul Gridley, ascertained the driving skills of each person and their level of ability through a driving assessment and put in place bespoke courses for each of them. The Swiss driver was often required to drive in London and Monaco and had extensive experience gained from driving in the UK for more than 12 years so there was no requirement to carry out the training outside of the UK.
All three received an SDI Certificate of competence and were put forward for an independent course, for which they were all awarded a Gold certification.
Some years ago, we employed a driver with a Security Driver certification from a UK training company for an urgent three car convoy task that we were unable to cover. The driver said he was skilled as a convoy leader and was given that role. He was a disaster from the start and tried to lead the convoy the wrong way down a one-way street amongst over glaring errors. He explained that he gained experience when he was chosen to be the lead driver following the Easy Rider from the police SEG on a government task employing around 60 drivers with no checks on ability. The only skill required for this role was to follow the rider as traffic and the route would never be an issue with the SEG in control.
Following this, we ensured that we would always carefully assess a candidate for all future tasks and courses that we offered.
We are one of only a few training providers who insist on candidates that cannot produce or do not have proof of training, having an assessment drive prior to us accepting them for a course. Paying for a course with no assessment the candidate may not have the required level of competence and cannot fail the course so ends up becoming qualified when that should not be the case.