Trains, planes, and automobile companies are jumping aboard E-learning as a way to indoctrinate workers about regulatory issues.

American Airlines is training 24,000 flight attendants in federally regulated flight-safety procedures through four- to seven-minute sessions delivered via Lotus LearningSpace, IBM's E-learning product.

Meanwhile, Union Pacific Railroad, one of the largest railroads in North America, is counting on a quick E-learning implementation to help it meet an upcoming regulatory deadline. The railroad recently bought learning-management software from Plateau Systems. Union Pacific needs to certify that 18,000 train-service employees across 23 states are compliant with Federal Railroad Administration regulations via E-learning starting Jan. 1.

"Given that we are a 24-hour-a-day operation, it's logistically easier and less expensive to do online training," says Kevin Naylor, Union Pacific's assistant VP of human resources planning and development.

Union Pacific plans to integrate the software, which replaces an older application from Pathlore Inc., with its PeopleSoft 7.5 ERP app. Linking the two is expected to ease the need to manually update employee records once a course is completed or certification achieved. The railroad could also integrate payroll and learning software, enabling it to automatically compensate employees for passing skills tests that warrant additional compensation, Naylor says.

Transportation and supply-chain-management company Ryder Systems Inc. also is using E-learning to aid in regulatory compliance. "We have to have a record of when training was completed," says Jeff Wright, group manager of E-learning and reporting. Ryder has integrated Lotus LearningSpace with its SAP enterprise app. That lets Ryder "create profiles of employee data and track people based on location," Wright says.

Of the 500 IT execs queried by InformationWeek Research in an InformationWeek 500 survey, 62% of those in the transportation and logistics industry consider E-learning initiatives to be one of the most-effective technologies deployed in the past 12 months to boost worker productivity.