New York City Parks will roll out a new online fleet training program for drivers in May. The program allows the department to administer, track, and deliver fleet-related courses through a software application.

NYC Parks’ goal is to train more than 4,000 drivers in an effort to improve safety, reduce preventable accidents, promote best practices, and improve compliance with agency policies, said Paris Apollon, the Parks Department’s chief of operations for citywide services.

The online platform is available to all employees, and contains training videos, reading materials, and quizzes. It builds on the Parks Department’s fleet instructional video library that began in 2016.

Apollon explained how the program works:

Employees create an account to access the system. They answer preliminary questions, such as their job function or title and are routed to the appropriate training modules. There are four training segments: (1) all parks drivers, (2) maintenance and operations (specialized vehicles), (3) parks forestry (forestry vehicles and equipment, and (4) elective courses.

Upon successful completion of the online program, the driver will be issued a certificate to operate Parks vehicles.

The test scores, courses completed, and other information will be tracked by Parks Fleet. The training program is mandatory for all 4,000+ Parks drivers, and Apollon expects that all drivers will be trained by the end of calendar-year 2018.

“New York City parks span over 30,000 acres, and our vehicles cover every corner of the five boroughs,” said NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver. “Our expanded fleet training program is designed to enhance safety for both our park visitors and our staff. By hosting the training course and video library online, we’re making it easy for all staff to access the training they need to ensure our parks are safe for both drivers and visitors.”