Tony Scotti is the founder of the Tony Scotti's Vehicle Dynamics Institute. In a typical ten-week time span, TBVDI wIII conducL 28 pro?rams will 210 sLudenLs Irom corporaLIons,?overnmenL agencies, and high net worth protection teams.
Tony Scotti is the founder of the Tony Scotti's Vehicle Dynamics Institute. In a typical ten-week time span, TBVDI wIII conducL 28 pro?rams will 210 sLudenLs Irom corporaLIons,?overnmenL agencies, and high net worth protection teams.
Tony Scotti is the founder of the Tony Scotti's Vehicle Dynamics Institute. In a typical ten-week time span, TBVDI wIII conducL 28 pro?rams will 210 sLudenLs Irom corporaLIons,?overnmenL agencies, and high net worth protection teams.
website: www.vehicledynamics.net Or via Facebook: www.Iacebook.com/Lony.scoaLLI.7 Or via email: tonyscotti@msn.com ************************************************* lesson I learned from that experience was the value of branding. After I went into semi-retirement, I became a consuILanL Ior Mercedes Eenz, and aIso did some vehicle testing - enough to keep me occupIed. In 2001 a roup oI IrIends oL together and put together a consortium LLaL wouId oIIer LLe "BcoLLI MeLLod" oI instruction. The training was going semi-OK but about ten months after it all started, my wIIe oI 84 years suddenIy and unexpecLedIy passed away. Interesting... the name of LLIs maazIne Is TouL TaIk, I can say wILL certainty that when you have been with someone Ior 84 years and LLey suddenIy and unexpectedly pass away the word tough doesnt apply. Eventually the consortium went their separate ways; one of the original members oI LLe roup was Joe AuLera. In 2008 Joe, his business partner Larry Side and I sat down and came up with a plan. Both Joe and Larry decided they wanted to make the huge commitment to continue with the tradition of the old Scotti School. I expressed my belief that it would be a daunting task. The plan consisted of going back to the old way of doing things. From that meeting Joe and Larry created the Tony Scottis Vehicle Dynamics Institute (TSVDI). Ten years later, in a typical ten-week time span TBVDI wIII conducL 28 prorams wILL 210 sLudenLs Irom corporaLIons, overnmenL agencies, and high net worth protection teams. Those training programs will be conducted in four states in the US, and in three foreign countries. So my guess is that meeLIn In back 2008 BnaIIy worked ouL 0K! TSVDI is working with and training the same clients the Scotti School worked wILL In LLe '70s and '80s. TBVDI Is oIn Lo todays hotspots; the end result is that the same clients have been sending their people Lo us Ior 40 years. TLe quesLIon LLaL bes answerIn Is, WLy do LLey come back Lo us? The answer is relatively simple. Firstly the market has to feel they have a problem that needs to be solved, and for decades, statistics have indicated that the overwhelming majority of security incidents involving corporaLe execuLIves and LILproBIe individuals, including government and military, have occurred while the targeted individual was in or around their vehicle. The safety and security of the vehicle occupants during this most dangerous period of time has been, and is, the responsibility of the securILy drIver. Eor 40 years our cIIenLs Lave demanded a training program that mitigates this risk. This is another one of those common sense LLIns, II we dId noL IuIBI those demands there would not have been a Scotti School and there would not be a TSVDI. This brings up the next question that begs answerIn, WLaL skIIIs mILIaLe rIsk? AII I can do is tell you what worked and is working for us. Firstly, driving is a measurable skill, the clients want know if the person holding on to the steering wheel can drive. They want - actually demand - we supply an objective measurement of driving skill. We offer our clients a simple training paradigm; all driving scenarios, no matter how simple or complex, are an exercise in the laws of physics. Makes no difference if its high-risk, low-risk, or what government, military, and police agencies think, the driver and their adversary must live within them. It also makes no difference what type of vehicle is being driven, or why its being driven, or who is driving it; when it comes to the laws of physics - it is what it is. Our training ensures the student leaves with an understanding of the factors that dictate a vehicles operational limits and those factors that dictate a drivers individual limitations. An abIIILy Lo reconIze LLe IndIcaLors and warning signs that a vehicle is being operated at or near its limits, and the skill to keep the vehicle within those limits, and to do so within a very short time frame. All this measured accurately with test equipment including the use of on-board computers. The second issue is security. Our clients understand the criticality of Surveillance Detection. Working in the armpit places of the world tells me that in many situations surveillance detection is not just the best protection; it may be the only protection. Again our clients demand their security personnel learn how, when and where an attacker is likely to conduct surveillance as well as how to plan, manage and conduct effective surveillance detection operations. Well, that was the journey and the how and why I am at the destination, although my status is semi-retirement for me it is not LLe BnaI desLInaLIon. WLIIe In LLIs pLase oI my journey I have been able to take a hard look at the industry that has been very ood Lo me boLL personaIIy and BnancIaIIy. What I see is that the industry is changing at a rapid rate - not good - not bad but different. Whats different is the amount of people in the business and the training they receive. The general feeling in the industry is; I have spent all this time and money to attend training programs, so of course I am cerLIBed." WeII, LLaL Is noL Low LLe concepL oI cerLIBcaLIon works. TLe sImpIe Issue Is that you cannot enter a training program with little or no experience and at the end oI Bve, seven, or wLaLever days IaLer, and be cerLIBed by LLose wLo Lave conducLed LLe training. Bo, aL 78, I Lave decIded Lo creaLe an assocIaLIon LLaL wIII oIIer cerLIBcaLIons In securILy drIver/secure LransporLaLIon. TLe cerLIBcaLIon wIII requIre a IeveI oI experIence coupled with a test of knowledge and a test oI skIII. My oaI Is Lo Ieverae LLe 40 years of working with the corporate community, to Increase LLe IeveI oI awareness oI cerLIBed security drivers in the market. Bo wLaL sLarLed In LLe earIy '70s Las moved through the decades protecting people from violence. There will be no cure for violence here in the US, or in other countries and people will always need protection. Hence I am conBdenL LLaL IuLure oI LLe IndusLry, and the people in it, will be here for decades to come. At 73, and after fifty years in the business, Toni Scotti is still running TONY SCOTTI , S VEHICLE DYNAMICS INSTITUTE, one of the most well-known, prestigious protective driving schools in the world. I'm 78, semIreLIred, and oIn on my BILL decade In LLe busIness. One of the advantages of age (and so Iar, LLe onIy advanLae!) is that I have been witness to the evolution of the industry. As it has been said many times; its not the destination, its the journey. Eor me IL Las been a 40 year journey and, looking back at my upbringing, it is not a journey I wouldve ever expected I would have taken. The journey starts in East Cambridge, Mass- achusetts, as a child of Italian immigrants. I did not know it at the time, but growing up in a tough environment gave me life lessons that served my journey well. In LLe '60s I worked In a sLoe IacLory, a bakery, as a labourer and an electronic technician. It was the shoe factory that convinced me that I needed to upgrade my education. I went to college at night and eventually received my Degree in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University. In the process of getting my degree, the military came calling. Since I had a few years of college, and had experience in electronics, I was assigned to a unit that worked with communications and trained with Cuban nationals. I thought nothing of it at the time, but that training turned out to be a life- changing event. WhenI got out of the military I continued with my education, graduated from Northeastern, and went to work as an engineer and hated every mInuLe oI IL. JusL noL Ior me! In LLe LLe earIy '70s, wILL a wIIe and cLIId, I ave up working as an engineer and followed my passion for cars and racing and got into the business of building and working on race cars. Part of working on race cars was taking the cars to the track and setting them up for the drivers. That usually included helping them with their driving. One of the drivers I was working with had a pit crew made up of poIIce oIBcers. TLe cops asked II I couId LeIp them with their departments driver training program, I did, and ended up actually doing the training, and found that I really liked training. In LLe earIy '70s I ran InLo an oId mIIILary friend, a Cuban I had met during my training. He IIved In VenezueIa and was a consuILanL to the government. I told him I was training law-enforcement agencies and from that he asked me II I wouId o VenezueIa Lo conducL training programs for the government there. In VenezueIa aL LLe LIme, veLIcIe ambusLes were second to soccer as the national pastime and LLey needed Lo Bnd a way Lo mILIaLe LLe problem. WLen I oL Lo VenezueIa I spenL LIme anaIysIn the attacks and, using the data I had collected, applied the science of engineering to vehicle attacks and created a mathematical model. The end result was that the training worked, and I spent a great deal of time in there conducLIn LraInIn. WLIIe In VenezueIa I meL security personnel from US oil companies. They asked if I could do the same training Ior LLeIr securILy Leams In VenezueIa, and other South America countries. At this point I Bured ouL I was a LraInIn company and needed a name so I called it the Scotti School of Defensive Driving, but the clients called us the Scotti School, so that was the name we went by. At that time, the concept of protective driving and executive protection in the corporate environment was almost unheard of, but while working with the oil companies I met a security consultant who convinced many of his clients to take a chance on this new and innovative concept of protecting LLeIr personneI wLIIe In a veLIcIe. In LLe '70s he and I conducted a program in Iran, at the time a little known country, as a US company in Iran had some of their engineers killed in a vehicle ambush which had sent shock waves throughout the corporate community. I kept on getting more requests to conduct training, and over a span of seven to ten years a business was born. Bo wLaL sLarLed In VenezueIa spread throughout South and Central America, and then to the Middle East, Europe and Asia, and from that I started training corporate security personnel working in the US. In LLe '80s and '90s LLe BcoLLI BcLooI rew aL an exponenLIaI raLe and by LLe end oI LLe '90s our cIIenLeIe IncIuded 8S% oI LLe Lop EorLune S00 companIes, I Lad LraveIIed Irom eILL Lo Len counLrIes a year, and Lad 200 corporaLe clients. We were conducting programs for vehicle manufactures, law enforcement agencies, and police, military and government trainers. The programs varied from high-risk convoys to off-road vehicles. One of the more unique programs was designing training for 18wLeeI armoured Lrucks. I was asked by the client; Can you do a boot-leggers turn in an 18wLeeI veLIcIe?" Ey LLe way LLe answer Is no, buL LryIn IL was excILIn! In 1997, aL S7 years oId, I decIded Lo seII LLe company and put my retirement plan into pIace and In 1999, I decIded Lo caII IL quILs and retire. However, selling the company turned out to be a huge error. The folks that purchased the company had no understanding of the security or training business and in less than two years came close to dismantling what I had worked decades to create. They wanted to re-invent the company in their image. The Bummer 2018 tough talk magazine 31 30 tough talk magazine Bummer 2018 Tony Scotti Tony Scotti