Streamline Learning Systems - Arrow Case Study

Arrow Transportation Systems Inc. is a privately owned transportation company based in Richmond, BC. A third generation family-run business, Arrow was founded in 1919, and is currently enjoying substantial business growth in the Transportation and Materials Handling sectors. With operations across Canada and in the US, Arrow is a leading provider of transportation solutions.

One of our most challenging training contracts, Arrow Transportation was looking for a better method of training their entire workforce on a broad number of topics from worker safety, to their onboard GPS tracking computer technology. With the company facing both internal growth issues and the high employee turnover common in the industry, Arrow was looking for a more effective and affordable way to educate their personnel and ensure organizational consistency.

	Limited Infrastructure: Arrow has over 30 divisions throughout Canada and the US, including remote regions in Northern Canada. Network bandwidth is very limited in many regions, with some divisional offices limited to the sharing of a single 56k dial-up Internet connection.
	Branding Variation: The training would actually be delivered two company organizations, Arrow Transportation and Gold Star Transport, both divisions of Arrow Transportation Systems Inc. The training would have to reflect the needs and branding of both company units.
	Audience Variation: Arrow has 3 different classes of employees; company drivers, lease operators, and drivers for lease operators. The training that is required for each employee type is not the same, meaning that a training package would have to adapt for user type.
	Topic Diversity: Drivers are not only expected to understand all aspects of safe efficient hauling, but many additional tasks as diverse as the use of onboard GPS computers, customer service issues, client site-safety, fall-protection, collision avoidance, and hazardous materials handling.
	Literacy Levels: To deliver training effectively to all users in the company, the package had to be designed for an average grade 8 reading level, while still remaining interesting to the entire user base.
	Fluidity of Workforce: At the division offices, drivers work on a variety of different schedules and are rarely (if ever) all in the same place at the same time. A method for scheduling training and recording compliance would have to be created to help managers implement the training to an often unseen workforce, and to help ensure that all drivers complete their necessary training.
	Liability and Legislation: Many of the training components would cover areas sensitive to company liability as well as training components that are government legislated (i.e. WHMIS training) . In order to deal with these issues, the successful retention of critical components would have to be recorded.
	Custom Technology: Training would need to be developed for the GPS tracking and monitoring system found in every Arrow truck. Limited external resources were available as a basis for training development, forcing a deep understanding of this customized technology system in order to create effective lesson content. In addition to training on the GPS devices, Arrow required that we build a fully-functional voice-based simulator of the device so that drivers could go through a "mock" trip, and practice typical device techniques before recording data into the live system.

Our first step was to decide on an appropriate delivery method. To ensure a successful implementation, a number of factors were considered. Streamline anticipated the need to use high quality video (to allow affordable visual demonstration of complex issues), and recognized that voice-over would be required throughout the training to deal with possible literacy issues. As all Arrow divisions did not have access to a dedicated, high speed Internet connection or Wide Area Network with sufficient bandwidth, Internet and Network delivery options were ruled out. In the end, CD ROM based packages were created so that the training could be installed on dedicated training machines at each division. As an installed package, the full audio, video, and animated training could be delivered on a 233 MHz computer with sound, and all infrastructure issues that would have restricted the use of necessary audio and video were averted. Only the final recorded testing and user scheduling components were to be delivered over the web. These data tracking elements do not require significant bandwidth, and would benefit greatly from a central storage approach that would allow company wide education report generation.

Once the delivery method was selected, the team at Streamline began designing a navigation structure and lesson delivery format.

With the base delivery issues decided, Streamline began development of the training content. Streamline worked closely with a wide range of subject matter experts including Arrow's Safety Director, management, employees, customers, government regulators and industry inspectors. At critical stages of development, the storyboard was approved by related subject matter experts, and then tested for accuracy, relevance, and clarity.

As the training will be taken by all employees upon release, it was decided that cultural and company direction issues should be addressed. To help enforce cultural uniformity throughout the company and introduce key personnel and their message to the workforce, introductory videos by all of Arrows' key management personnel were included. In addition to the key personnel videos, the company purpose and values was delivered in the training by the company General Manager.

The final solution includes over 4 hours of industry leading training delivered on 4 professionally packaged CD ROMs. The 4 training packages include;

A complete set of training packages was provided for each Arrow division, to allow simple installation on a local dedicated training computer that is available 24 hours a day, and can be accessed around the fluid driver schedules.

In addition to the installed training packages, the solution included an online testing and tracking system dedicated to user scheduling, and monitoring the successful delivery of the training (www.arrowtraining.ca). This testing and tracking solution not only handles all of the employee scheduling through email notifications to division managers, but provides instant access to valuable reports on company education levels from any web-enabled computer. This instant access to training data simplifies the enormous task of monitoring education levels within their organization, allowing record levels of compliance to be achieved, which greatly reduces company liability.

In addition to management reporting for their own internal education requirements, an "auditing" function was created to allow Arrow clients to log in and generate driver training reports, and ensure drivers are properly trained on issues important to the client organizations, before entering their sites.

The training system, in full use since July 2002, has exceeded Arrow's expectations, both in the increased educational levels throughout their organization, and the great feedback they have been getting on the training system from their employees and managers. The solution has not only provided a quick return on investment for Arrow, but has allowed them to further differentiate themselves from their competitors.

As a testimony to our success in creating the training to suit the Arrow workforce, in the fall of 2002, an almost entirely illiterate trainee with little computer experience completed the training successfully, and achieved a 96% final score. The driver reported thoroughly enjoyed the new training process, and the freedom that the "voice, animation, and video based" computer training provided over text-based training.

The training has proven a valuable tool in Arrows' realization of their organizational strategy and vision, and is helping them to further secure their position as one of the premier transportation companies in Canada.

With the success of the initial solution, new and exciting uses for this method of training delivery are becoming apparent. For example, Arrow now sees a great opportunity to create training packages specific to their larger client. Arrow leadership feels that systems for training Arrow drivers on client-specific issues not only increase the standard of service they provide for their clients, but will help to strengthen their long-term partnerships and build trust.

"...through the use of Streamline Learning Systems media, we were able to clearly express the capabilities of our organization and differentiate ourselves from our competition. As a result, our business has grown substantially."