Special Cargo Services streamlines the learning management process

Special Cargo Services is a full-service company in the dangerous goods field. Their team of dangerous goods specialists serve customers all over the world, in packing and documentation and storage of dangerous goods, distribution, consultancy and education. They have been doing this for over 20 years, and they distinguish themselves in the market with their flexibility, expertise and experience.

The Challenge

Special Cargo Services has two divisions – the operational side, which comprises experts in the packing and repacking of dangerous goods, and the training & consultancy department, which offers training & consultancy to companies who store and ship dangerous goods.

Special Cargo Services previously used their own LMS for a limited amount of e-learning to supplement their face-to-face training, but when they outgrew this, they knew that they needed a new, flexible solution to give them more control over the learning they offered.

The Solution

With this in mind, Special Cargo Services sought the help of an LMS vendor and chose to work with Bright Alley to help them implement a new Totara Learn learning management system.

One of the main requirements of Special Cargo Services’ LMS was the need to support recurring training. Learners needed to retake training programmes at regular intervals, and Bright Alley helped set up the platform in a way that would make it easy for learners and managers to stay on top of their recurring training requirements for e-learning and classroom training. Administrators have the ability to set expiry dates and set up automatic reminder emails to ensure that everyone’s training remains up to date.

Another issue Special Cargo Services had with their previous LMS was the lack of control managers had over their teams’ training. With Totara Learn, managers now have their own dashboards, giving them more visibility over what their employees are doing and allowing managers to better manage the learning of their teams. They can also enrol employees on training themselves in just a few clicks – another drastic improvement from the previous system.

Special Cargo Services have launched some e-learning courses via Totara Learn, and are currently testing them with several companies. Once they have received the feedback from this testing stage, they will then make edits and release the e-learning to a wider audience. Content focuses on topics such as air, sea and road transport, storing dangerous goods and security.

Bright Alley has designed the Totara Learn platform to reflect Special Cargo Services’ house style for added consistency, and further look-and-feel improvements will be made in the next phase of the process to ensure that the LMS feels as integrated as possible into the brand. They have also removed all of the options which are not relevant to end users to ensure that nobody gets lost in the system, and they have ensured that all navigation can be done in as few clicks as possible. The system is currently available in Dutch and English.

The Result

Special Cargo Services is delighted with how easy Totara Learn has been to use, especially compared to their previous platform. They are now able to manage learning much more efficiently, and the focus on user-friendly design means that all users can now find the training they need without having to go hunting around the system for it.

The LMS is also helping users save time on learning administration so that they can instead focus on creating new content. Bright Alley’s work is helping Special Cargo Services achieve their goal of becoming the best knowledge centre in the Netherlands for dangerous goods training and giving learners a much better learning experience.

“Totara is a platform with the capability to satisfy all the needs for every customer. The basic options are sufficient for most companies. But for us, the customizing option in Totara is a great “plus”. Our goal is to become market leader for providing dangerous goods & airfreight security trainings.  By providing an easy-to-use manager interface; our customers can check the training level of each staff member at any moment. Enrolment for a (recurrent) training takes just 4 clicks. Conclusion: great application!” Jurgen Spanjers, Dangerous Goods Safety Adviser & Trainer, SCS Training & Consultancy BV The Netherlands