Professional Off-Road & EVOC Training

The Driving Company provides professional off-road driver training and off-road EVOC training for public agencies, utilities, fire departments, law enforcement agencies, military organizations, and companies whose personnel operate vehicles off road.

Our programs range from 1-day occupational off-road driver training to comprehensive 2-day off-road EVOC training and our advanced 4-day Off-Road EVOC Train-the-Trainer Instructor Course.

All courses emphasize hands-on driving, sound decision-making, vehicle preservation, and the practical skills employees need to operate safely and effectively in real-world off-road environments.

Not everyone who operates a vehicle off road is responding to an emergency.

Our 1-Day Occupational Off-Road Driver Training Course is designed for government agencies, public utilities, private companies, and other organizations whose employees must operate 4WD vehicles off road as part of their regular duties.

The objective is straightforward: teach employees to safely and competently operate their vehicles off road without becoming stuck, damaging equipment, or unnecessarily exposing themselves or their organization to risk.

This highly hands-on course teaches drivers how to understand the capabilities and limitations of their vehicle, properly configure 4WD systems, assess terrain, select appropriate driving techniques, and make sound decisions before committing to an obstacle.

Training can be conducted using stock SUVs, pickups, modified 4x4 vehicles, and other appropriate fleet vehicles. We strongly encourage students to train in the type of vehicle they actually operate on the job.

Basic winch familiarization and vehicle recovery safety can also be incorporated upon request.

• Off-road vehicle safety
• 4WD systems and theory
• Vehicle capabilities and limitations
• Ascending and descending steep terrain
• Approach, departure, and breakover angles
• Tire pressure and traction management
• Proper off-road braking techniques
• Weight transfer and vehicle dynamics
• Proper vehicle configuration
• Terrain assessment and line selection
• Spotting techniques and communication
• Traction-control systems
• Proper use of locking differentials
• Mechanical Sympathy and vehicle preservation
• Basic winch familiarization and recovery safety upon request

Our professional off-road courses are scheduled on request.

We can schedule a dedicated training date for groups of eight or more. If you have fewer than eight students, contact us anyway. We may be able to place your personnel into an existing course being conducted for another agency or organization.

1-Day Occupational Off-Road Driver Training — $350 per person

Operating off road during an emergency requires considerably more than simply knowing how to engage four-wheel drive.

Our 2-Day Off-Road EVOC Course is designed for public-safety personnel who may be required to operate emergency vehicles in remote, unimproved, and challenging terrain.

Proper off-road training can significantly expand an agency's response capability by giving personnel the skills and judgment to safely reach locations that may otherwise be inaccessible.

Students learn how to negotiate different types of terrain, assess risk, make sound decisions in rapidly changing off-road situations, and understand the capabilities and limitations of their vehicles.

A major component of the course is our concept of Mechanical Sympathy: teaching operators how to accomplish the mission without unnecessarily damaging or overstressing expensive agency vehicles. Better driving technique can translate directly into reduced repair costs, reduced vehicle downtime, and longer equipment life.

Emergency off-road operations don't always go according to plan.

That's why our 2-Day EVOC Course goes beyond basic vehicle operation.

Students learn about off-road response vehicle setup, vehicle recovery, winching, recovery equipment, mechanical advantage, calculating recovery forces, spotting, and solving real-world off-road problems.

For fire agencies, we provide specialized instruction in the operation of Type III wildland fire apparatus and other off-road firefighting vehicles. Few vehicles expose poor off-road technique quite as efficiently as a large, heavy emergency apparatus operating on difficult terrain.

The Driving Company brings extensive experience training personnel in these vehicles and understanding the unique considerations involved in safely operating Type III fire engines in an off-road environment.

This isn't a course built around hours of classroom lectures.

Lead Instructor Dave Storton holds a Master's Degree in Adult Education, and the course was designed using proven adult-learning principles and a problem-based learning model.

Students are presented with realistic off-road scenarios requiring them to assess the terrain, evaluate vehicle capabilities, identify hazards, choose appropriate techniques, and solve problems as a team.

Our instructors have extensive experience both as emergency responders and professional off-road EVOC instructors, allowing us to connect driving techniques directly to real-world public-safety operations.

This is a highly interactive, hands-on course.

We know that driving is learned behind the wheel, so that's where your personnel will spend the majority of their training time.

The course meets or exceeds applicable NFPA standards for off-road emergency vehicle operation.

• Off-road safety for SUVs, pickups, modified 4x4 vehicles, and wildland firefighting apparatus
• 4WD systems and theory
• Vehicle capabilities and limitations
• Ascending and descending steep terrain
• Approach, departure, and breakover angles
• Tire pressure and traction management
• Proper off-road braking techniques
• Weight transfer and vehicle dynamics
• Proper emergency vehicle configuration
• Terrain assessment and line selection
• Spotting techniques and communication
• Traction-control systems
• Proper use of locking differentials
• Mechanical Sympathy and vehicle preservation
• Winch operation and safety
• Mechanical advantage
• Calculating required pull force
• Calculating anchor forces
• Recovery equipment and rigging
• Recovery scenarios and problem-solving
• Trail and backcountry emergency response scenarios
• Kinetic Energy Recovery Rope (KERR) demonstration
• 
  

The 2-Day Off-Road EVOC Course is scheduled on request for agencies and organizations.

Dedicated course dates are available for groups of eight or more. Agencies with fewer personnel should contact us, as we may be able to combine students with another scheduled agency course.

Hollister Hills SVRA — 2-Day Off-Road EVOC: $695 per person

San Diego Area — 2-Day Off-Road EVOC: $995 per person

The Driving Company's Off-Road EVOC Instructor Train-the-Trainer Course is designed for public safety agencies, fire departments, law enforcement agencies, military organizations, government agencies, and other organizations that need qualified personnel capable of providing professional off-road driver training within their own organization.

This is much more than an advanced off-road driving course.

Students learn the advanced off-road driving, vehicle recovery, instructional, facilitation, safety, and course-development skills necessary to plan, administer, and teach a professional basic off-road driver training program for their agency.

Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge, instructional resources, and practical experience needed to begin developing and delivering an agency-specific off-road training program.

This course prepares students to train drivers. It is not intended to qualify graduates to train or certify other instructors.

Our Instructor Course is conducted as an intensive 4-day program at Hollister Hills SVRA, where The Driving Company has been providing professional off-road training for decades. Because we know the Hollister Hills training areas, terrain, logistics, and course flow extremely well, we've refined the program to efficiently accomplish the required training in four full days.

We also regularly bring the Off-Road EVOC Instructor Course directly to agencies and training locations throughout the western United States and beyond. When conducted at another location, the program is normally scheduled as a 5-day course. The additional day allows our instructors to evaluate the local terrain, establish appropriate training areas and exercises, adapt the curriculum to the location, and provide the same depth and quality of instruction we deliver at Hollister Hills.

And when we say we'll travel, we mean it. The Driving Company's Lead Instructor, Dave Storton, conducted a two-phase off-road training project in Tajikistan over a two-month period.

Most of our traveling courses are conducted throughout the western United States, but if your agency has appropriate vehicles, suitable terrain, and a need for professional off-road instructor training, contact us. We can bring the course to you.

Before someone can effectively teach off-road driving, they need a deep understanding of what they're teaching.

The Instructor Course covers the core material from our 2-Day Off-Road EVOC Course, but at considerably greater depth. Students develop a more advanced understanding of 4WD systems, vehicle dynamics, traction management, terrain assessment, vehicle configuration, spotting, Mechanical Sympathy, emergency response considerations, and vehicle recovery.

But instructor candidates aren't simply taught how to successfully negotiate an obstacle. They learn to understand why a particular technique works, how to recognize errors in another driver's performance, how to communicate corrective instruction, and how to safely coach a student through increasingly challenging terrain. A good off-road driver knows what to do. A good off-road instructor understands why it works and can teach someone else to do it safely.

Being an experienced driver does not automatically make someone an effective instructor. Professional instruction requires an understanding of how adults learn, how skills are developed, how learning activities should be structured, and how instructors recognize and correct performance problems.

The instructional component of the course includes:

• Adult learning principles
• Instructional Systems Design
• Developing measurable learning objectives
• Creating effective learning activities
• Demonstration and coaching techniques
• Facilitating hands-on driver training
• Evaluating student performance
• Providing useful performance feedback
• Recognizing and correcting driving errors
• Remedial training strategies
• Working with difficult or struggling students
• Managing different experience and ability levels
• Maintaining consistency among instructors
• Managing risk during practical exercises

Lead Instructor Dave Storton holds a Master's Degree in Adult Education, and the course incorporates established adult-learning principles into the design and delivery of off-road driver training. The objective isn't to create instructors who simply tell students where to put their tires. It's to develop instructors who understand how to teach people to think, assess terrain, make decisions, and safely operate vehicles in an unpredictable off-road environment.

We don't believe off-road instructors can be developed primarily in a classroom.

Students spend substantial time in the field driving, observing, teaching, coaching, spotting, evaluating performance, managing exercises, and solving realistic off-road problems.

Instructor candidates experience the course from both sides of the learning process: as drivers developing advanced skills and as instructors learning how to teach those skills to others. Our problem-based learning approach uses realistic scenarios that require instructor candidates to evaluate terrain, recognize hazards, develop solutions, communicate effectively, and manage safety while accomplishing an operational objective.

Learning to teach off-road driving requires actually teaching off-road driving.

Recovery operations present some of the greatest risks encountered during off-road vehicle operations. Instructor candidates receive detailed training in vehicle recovery principles, recovery equipment, winching, rigging, mechanical advantage, force calculations, anchor considerations, kinetic recovery, recovery planning, and recovery safety.

More importantly, students learn how to teach recovery operations safely.

This includes identifying hazards, establishing appropriate safety zones, communicating with participants, selecting equipment, evaluating recovery plans, and preventing students from creating dangerous situations involving the tremendous forces generated during a vehicle recovery.

Training firefighters to operate Type III engines and other wildland fire apparatus off road requires more than understanding vehicle specifications. Our instructors have real-world experience working on fire strike teams and operating in off-road emergency-response environments. They understand the operational realities of taking large, heavy emergency apparatus into remote and unimproved terrain, where vehicle placement, weight transfer, clearance, traction, route selection, spotting, and sound judgment can directly affect both the mission and crew safety.

The course can be conducted using SUVs, pickups, fleet 4x4 vehicles, Type III engines, and other wildland firefighting apparatus, depending on the needs of the participating agency. We have even trained drivers in a 81,000 8x8 Crash Rig!

Our instructors don't teach Type III operations from a textbook. They bring both professional instructional expertise and real-world field experience to the training. That experience is incorporated into realistic exercises involving terrain assessment, vehicle positioning, Mechanical Sympathy, emergency response considerations, and the unique challenges associated with teaching personnel to safely operate large and expensive fire apparatus off road.

Teaching individual driving techniques is only part of an instructor's responsibility. Graduates also need to understand how to put those individual skills together into a structured, defensible, and repeatable agency training program.

Students learn how to develop and administer training using clearly defined learning objectives, progressive skill development, appropriate training exercises, documented safety procedures, student evaluation, and remedial training when necessary.

We also discuss considerations involved in developing an agency-specific program that can support the requirements for California POST course certification, when applicable.

• Off-road safety and risk management
• 4WD systems and theory
• Vehicle capabilities and limitations
• Advanced terrain assessment
• Ascending and descending steep terrain
• Approach, departure, and breakover angles
• Tire pressure and traction management
• Proper braking techniques
• Vehicle dynamics and weight transfer
• Vehicle configuration and drive modes
• Traction-control systems
• Proper use of locking differentials
• Spotting techniques and communication
• Mechanical Sympathy and vehicle preservation
• Emergency response considerations
• SUV, pickup, and fleet 4x4 operations
• Type III and wildland firefighting apparatus operations

• Recovery planning and risk assessment
• Recovery equipment selection and inspection
• Winch operation and safety
• Rigging techniques
• Mechanical advantage
• Pull-force calculations
• Anchor-force calculations
• Anchor selection and evaluation
• Kinetic Energy Recovery Rope techniques
• Recovery safety zones and communication
• Recovery scenarios and problem-solving
• Teaching and supervising recovery operations

• Adult learning concepts
• Instructional Systems Design
• Developing measurable learning objectives
• Creating effective learning activities
• Lesson-plan development
• Demonstration and coaching techniques
• Course facilitation
• Evaluating student performance
• Providing effective feedback
• Identifying and correcting performance problems
• Remedial training
• Managing difficult students
• Training safety and risk management
• Developing consistent instructional standards

We don't want graduates to return to their agency with a certificate and then have to figure out how to build a training program from scratch.

Instructor Course students receive a package of course-development and instructional materials they can adapt for use within their own organization, including:

1. Expanded Course Outline — A sample off-road training course outline that can be modified to meet agency-specific needs.
2. Lesson Plan — A sample lesson plan demonstrating how to structure and document off-road instruction.
3. Safety Guidelines — Sample off-road training safety guidelines that can be adapted to agency policies and used in developing a program intended to meet applicable California POST course-certification requirements.
4. Student Workbook — A workbook that can be adapted for use in the agency's own off-road driver training courses.
5. Classroom Presentation — A PowerPoint presentation that can be used and adapted for the classroom component of an agency off-road training program.
6. Program Development Guidance — Practical guidance for organizing exercises, developing learning objectives, documenting training, and establishing a consistent agency program.
7. Ongoing Instructor Support — After the course ends, The Driving Company remains available as a professional resource for graduates and their agencies as they develop and deliver their own programs.

Lunch is provided each day during the Instructor Course.

Over the years, people have occasionally told us that by offering Train-the-Trainer courses, we're going to train ourselves out of business. We haven't.

More importantly, that's never been our objective. The Driving Company's mission is to help get as many front-line emergency responders properly trained in off-road vehicle operations as possible. The most effective way to accomplish that isn't for TDC to personally train every firefighter, law enforcement officer, search and rescue member, or other emergency responder who needs these skills. It's to develop competent instructors within their own agencies who can take professional off-road training back to the people they work with.

Agencies continue to send us new instructor candidates as experienced instructors promote, retire, transfer to new assignments, or otherwise move out of training roles. That's how a healthy Train-the-Trainer model should work.

Our goal isn't to make agencies dependent on The Driving Company to train every driver they have. Our goal is to help agencies build professional off-road training capability of their own.

There is, however, an important distinction. Graduates of the TDC Off-Road EVOC Instructor Course are trained to teach drivers. They are not trained or authorized by TDC to train or certify additional off-road instructors.

Developing an instructor requires substantially more than teaching someone the driving exercises. Our Instructor Course includes adult learning principles, instructional design, coaching and facilitation techniques, student evaluation, remedial training, recovery instruction, risk management, course development, and instructor-level safety considerations. When an agency has a graduate teach another employee to become an instructor, that second-generation instructor has not completed the same instructor-development process and has not been evaluated through the State-certified TDC Instructor Course. That can create significant concerns involving training consistency, instructor competency, documentation, defensibility, and organizational liability if an incident occurs during training or subsequent operations.

If your agency needs additional instructors, send them through the Instructor Course. We'll make sure they receive the same professional instructor-development training as the people who came before them.

One of the biggest challenges with specialized instructor training is maintaining proficiency. An instructor may complete the course and then go a year or more between agency training cycles. Driving skills, coaching techniques, exercise management, and even the little details that make an instructor effective can get rusty when they aren't used regularly. That's why graduates of our Off-Road EVOC Instructor Course are invited to come back and shadow our instructors during future TDC courses at no additional charge.

Observe the exercises again. Watch experienced instructors coach students. Refresh your knowledge. Ask questions. Spend some time back in the training environment before you're responsible for teaching your agency's next class.

We want the instructors we train to remain good instructors, not simply people who attended an instructor course years ago. Not every agency course we conduct appears on our public website. If you're a graduate who wants to come back and shadow a class, call or email us for upcoming opportunities.

Our relationship with your instructors doesn't end when the course does.

Graduates may contact The Driving Company with questions about training exercises, instructional issues, vehicle concerns, recovery techniques, course development, difficult students, or unusual situations they encounter while conducting their own training. Developing a successful internal off-road training program takes time and experience. Having access to instructors who have been professionally teaching off-road vehicle operations for more than two decades gives your new instructors somewhere to turn when they encounter something they haven't seen before.

Between ongoing instructor support and the opportunity to return and shadow future courses, graduates remain connected to the professional training environment long after their Instructor Course ends.

Sending personnel to outside training every time someone needs off-road instruction isn't always practical. The State-certfied Off-Road EVOC Instructor Train-the-Trainer Course allows your agency to develop qualified internal instructors who understand not only how to operate vehicles off road, but how to safely and effectively teach those skills to others. That creates an internal training capability that can improve driver competency, reduce vehicle damage, establish consistent operating practices, document training, and preserve institutional knowledge as personnel change. We don't need to train every driver. We need to make sure the people training those drivers know what they're doing.

Hollister Hills SVRA — 4-Day Off-Road EVOC Instructor Train-the-Trainer Course

Because The Driving Company has trained at Hollister Hills for decades, we know the terrain, exercises, logistics, and timing well enough to deliver the complete Instructor Course in four intensive days. 

Other Training Locations — 5-Day Off-Road EVOC Instructor Train-the-Trainer Course

When we bring the course to your location, we normally schedule five days. The additional day allows for time management flexibility, and adaptation to the  operational environment. We regularly conduct training throughout the western United States, but we're willing to go considerably farther when the need arises. The Driving Company's Lead Instructor has even conducted a two-phase off-road training project in Tajikistan over a two-month period.

If your agency has suitable off-road terrain and vehicles, contact us. We'll work with you to evaluate the location, training requirements, vehicles, and scheduling needs.

From Hollister Hills to agency training sites across the West — and even Tajikistan — professional off-road instructor training doesn't have to happen at our location. We can bring it to yours.