Fleet Maintenance - 22

While Purkeys has offered webinar training for
several years, this training option has recently
become more important than ever. Rambeaux,
who instructs training courses, recommends
that each technician get hands-on with their own
multimeter during the class.
"You need to make sure you know how to operate yours," Rambeaux says. "Every [multi]meter
is a little bit different ... whether it's a different
generation of labels or different brands and how
they use symbols. You want [to have] your [multimeter] there to say, 'Hey, is this the right function?
Is this what you're talking about?'"
Adding a hands-on aspect to webinar training
can be a good technique to reinforce the information being conveyed by the instructor.
Portal: Other companies use dedicated web
portals to house more complete training solutions. The Dana Training Academy, for example, features various product-focused modules.
Training modules are typically web-based courses
that feature text, video, and images, sometimes
followed by a test or quiz to see how much information the technician has retained.
"The Dana Training Academy website allows
us to roll out new training, communicate product
bulletins and other important information, and
let shop owners and fleet managers track their
employees' progress as they learn Dana-specific
information," Donnelly says.
Portals such as this give technicians a sort of
one-stop-shop for all their training needs, at least
when it comes to the topic being addressed. Still,
Dana has upped their training to provide more
webinars while in-person training is not available.
"The online training offered by Dana
Aftermarket uses our dedicated Learning
Management System," Donnelly says. "Our initial
product modules cover Victor Reinz gaskets and

»Web portals give technicians a sort of onestop-shop for all their training needs.
Photo courtesy of Eaton

commercial drive axle products. With the latest
restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, we have conducted many webinars to support
our customers and their technicians. We also
feature multiple informational and how-to videos
online for our various product lines."
Eaton is another company offering a web-based
training portal. McKinney says the online training modules provide "level one" training, meaning
that once the technician completed the course he
or she would be able to perform "basically any
service procedure for components on the outside
of the transmission."
McKinney says that for more complex service
procedures, Eaton continues to offer in-person
training, but limits face-to-face interaction by
broadcasting it live. The Eaton instructor will
train two technicians at a local dealership or shop,
having them take turns tearing down and rebuilding a transmission. This will be live streamed to
other shops with two technicians at each so that

they can also do the hands-on work of tearing
down and rebuilding transmissions themselves.
This process allows the instructors to still oversee, provide guidance, and answer questions while
each technician takes a turn completing the transmission teardown, McKinney advises.
"That way, we're still making sure that all of
those technicians are touching every single part
in a safe manner," he says.
Meritor's Bullpen training portal works much the
same, offering training modules and videos, as well
as interactive webinar training sessions. As part
of that interactive training, technicians also have
the ability to share videos with the virtual class to
physically show the vehicle system or component.
"The way we have it set up, you can actually turn
on the camera on your cell phone and walk out
into the shop or wherever you have it and share a
live picture of what you're actually talking about,"
Baumer says. "You can point at something and say,
'No, no, I'm talking about this,' or 'Can you see the
way this is wearing abnormally?' Everyone in class
can see that; it's not just the presenter or putting
up the information that was prepared, you can
actually ask questions interactively."
Challenges
Remote training is a good solution, and the best
option available for many fleets given the current
situation, but it is not without its flaws. Lack of
hands-on experience and the inability to ensure
technicians are attending and paying attention to
courses are just two examples of the challenges with
remote training companies are working to overcome.
Eaton has created a work-around to try to get
technicians hands-on with the training material,
but the format may not be sustainable long-term.
"I don't think that web-based training can
supplement instructor-led forever, at least not

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Fleet Maintenance

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