This time last year the FTA launched a new initiative seeking to find the Van Excellence Driver of the Year. To do this, an event was created for Van Excellence accredited operators & organisations to enter their best driver in to a competition where their driving skills and abilities were tested. The judges assessed a wide range of driving skills from fuel economy to driver behaviour, risk awareness to defect checking and then to top it off, a legislative knowledge test.
Apart from hoping for a hotly contested competition, the ambition of the project was to address some of the stereotypes and pressures faced by the drivers that work in our industry everyday.
At the time, Mark Cartwright, FTA’s Head of Vans commented “This competition gives us a terrific opportunity to show this vital sector of UK logistics in a positive light and gain van drivers the recognition they deserve for their skill and the importance of the job they do.”
“Van drivers are an often maligned community, the Van Driver of the Year event provides a perfect opportunity to recognise and celebrate some of the fantastic drivers we all share the roads with. The fact that so many came forward to enter this competition is indicative of how important they take their responsibilities.”
With entries soon set to open for this year, we have an opportunity to look back on the success of the inaugural event last year and shine a spotlight on the importance of the work undertaken by FTA.
Last year I was genuinely impressed by the level of professionalism, knowledge and exceptional driving skills demonstrated by the Van Excellence accredited drivers. Whilst my congratulations go to Dave Lucas, London Borough of Redbridge in 1st place, 2nd place Ian Booth, Balfour Beatty and 3rd place Glen Quinn, Iron Mountain I would extend this to all the drivers who took part.
The FTA’s Van Excellence programme has continued to grow from strength to strength with a real recognition by our industry of the great results that its having in terms of raising best practice awareness for van fleets.
Putting the van driver in the spotlight is something we as a Commercial Vehicle Team do day to day as we work with van fleet operators across the private and public sector. The audits and van fleet reviews undertaken by our own specialist and dedicated commercial vehicle team start with a bottom up approach. Beginning with the drivers allows us to baseline a fleet and look at the suitability of the vehicles for their work and the understanding of relevant legislation amongst the drivers.
We absolutely believe in minimising risk and helping van fleet operators to honour their Duty of Care obligations to their van drivers, and this is of course very much in line with the core strategy of the FTA’s Van Excellence programme.
The FTA Van Excellence Van Driver of the Year competition is just one example of the new initiatives that are being developed by the FTA, and one that we wholeheartedly support.
Guest blog by Mark Lovett, Head of Commercial Vehicles LeasePlan UK
