Humanitarian aid and NGOs driver training

Independence in the field is invaluable

Our curriculum is based on decades of experience in all corners of the world. We teach three core areas: Driving, Recovery, and Repair.

We know that in the real world you are often being driven, rather than driving yourself, in marginal areas under marginal conditions in unfamiliar vehicles. Our training allows you to think like a driver when not behind the wheel and to be prepared to handle situations such as a stuck or damaged vehicle.

Our approach enables methodical progression, repetition, and practice – leading to thorough understanding.

You will learn

  • Basic driver skills & vehicle awareness, plan development, and field preparation.
  • You will have the knowledge to assess your driver BEFORE going into the field.
  • Convoy Applications: Understanding convoys and your role in them.
  • Situational Awareness.
  • Basic recovery and repair: diagnostics, identification & troubleshooting.

We at OEX feel that driver training is the first “modification” to get for your vehicle. Off-road driving, done well, is composed of three aspects: Driver skill, Recovery, and Repair. We will teach you to plan and execute driving at a level you may never have conceived of before. The linear and methodical approach we have developed over the last 20 years ensures you “Drive before you Drive, Recovery before you Recover, and Repair before you Repair.”

Core to OEX's success and longevity is our curriculum and our instructors. Our method creates thinking, intelligent, independent, and adaptable individuals able to move through any terrain in any vehicle required. With your new skills, an obstacles are attempted with forethought, accountability, safety, all under your own an iron clad plan. You will know how to drive it, recovery from it, survive it, and fix issues even before you get behind the wheel. You or your group will reliably operate any 4×4 vehicles with impunity, reliability, and safety.

OEX prides itself on the consistency of our message; no matter where in the world or which one of our branches you visit, the message remains the same – a dynamic system using linear progress, method, repetition, practice, and an awareness of individual’s differing learning styles to ensure mastery. It becomes part of your long-term memory, not the short term.

At any of our OEX locations or chosen venues you will have terrain choices that emulate and replicate environments found anywhere in the world. Like chapters in a text book, our locations are made up of three trail/road types: purpose-built, mixed natural and purpose-built, and pre-existing natural terrain. We progress from one to the next through method leading to mastery for all terrains and obstacle types. Within this step by step process we incorporate recovery and repair training unique to those different environments so you develop a truly educated, preconceived, and effective plan.

OEX was founded by a biologist turned field operator; you will learn to do all of this with minimal environmental impact, building a mindfulness of environmental stewardship –there is a way to use vehicles like this ethically and in a low impact manner to achieve your goals and objectives.

OEX classes are designed specifically to each client’s needs depending on their current skill level and specific interests. We evaluate each student’s progress with our linear method of training, and we constantly adjust the difficulty level as their proficiency improves.

OEX is trusted by

Since 1998 OEX has partnered and trained thousands of people. We are in debt to all of these people and organizations. Here are some companies that have put their trust in what we do.

This was the best investment in my education. I never would have thought through the off-road driving conditions in such an organized, step-by-step manner.

Bill H.

I’ve spent a good amount of time off-road and around similar trucks. I feel like I learned more in the last week than all the other years combined. Great course, great instructors.

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Meet the trainers

John Brady
Trainer
Retired from the US military as an instructor, John brings his passion for teaching and skills as a vehicle fabricator to OEX. He can be found at the Norh Carolina facility.
Erik Eisensmith
Trainer
Director of operations for OEX, Erik can be found instructing at the Connecticut facility and events around the northeast.
Ted Dinwiddie
Trainer
Ted is an instructor based at the Virginia facility. He has a long tenure with OEX, training all branches of the US military at our facilities and on location around the country.
Tony Cerruto
Trainer
Tony is the Director of Training and Military Contracts. He is based in North Carolina and frequently trains out west at our Utah location.