Sponsored by LeasePlan, the event was open to Van Excellence accredited operators, who had been invited to enter their best driver, and saw 17 contestants praised for their outstanding professionalism, knowledge and excellent driving skills throughout the day.
Drivers undertook five separate tasks designed to evaluate the overall ability of each person behind the wheel and covering driving skills (fuel economy and driver behaviour), manoeuvring ability, the drivers’ risk awareness, legislative knowledge and the ability to identify pre-use defects of the vehicle.
The drivers were individually scored on each task and element of the competition, ranked on their performance, and the overall winner was announced based on their scores.
The winners are:
1st Dave Lucas, London Borough of Redbridge
2nd Ian Booth, Balfour Beatty
3rd Glen Quinn, Iron Mountain
Mark Cartwight, FTA’s head of vans, said: “The standard of entries to the FTA Van Excellence Driver of the Year 2015 was outstanding. Many congratulations must go to every single person who took part – they all demonstrated expertise, knowledge, experience and professionalism in every aspect of the competition. The image of the ‘white van man’ is much maligned, and this event offers drivers the opportunity to highlight the fantastic work they do, and illustrates the professional manner in which they carry out their work – playing a vital role within the UK logistics sector on a daily basis.”
The event was held at Mercedes-Benz, Wentworth Park, Barnsley, and was supported by Van Excellence Industry Partners, ATS Euromaster, Bott Ltd, BT Fleet, Hertz Van Rental, Lex Autolease and TomTom Telematics.
