Samworth Brothers’ Rafal Kolanko was named as the 2017 Microlise Driver of the Year at the Microlise Transport Conference at the Ricoh Arena in Birmingham.

Following a process involving over 120,000 HGV drivers, Kolanko was shortlisted and subsequently won the medium distance category, featuring drivers who regularly undertake a mixture of journeys and typically cover between 31,000 – 60,000 miles per year.

In securing the overall prize, he also saw off competition from shortlisted and winning drivers in both the short and long categories, confirming his position as one of the UK’s leading drivers.

The short, medium and long categories are based on data collected by Microlise telematics units. Now in their third year, these telematics-based awards are defined by analysing anonymous data assessed against a range of criteria, using a process defined by the University of Nottingham’s Advanced Data Analysis Centre.

The short distance category was won by Michael Young of Culina, with the long distance category won by Peter Jones of Chamberlain Transport. Chamberlain Transport also won the Driver Excellence award, as a result of having the highest proportion of their drivers in the top 1,000 based on analysis of the telematics data.

The full shortlist of 24 drivers, who enjoyed a Porsche track day courtesy of MAN Truck & Bus UK, are listed below including the winners for each category.

Short Distance
Winner: Michael Young – Culina
Runner up: Alan Cobb – Ceva
Runner up: Anthony Fieldhouse – DX Freight

Medium Distance
Overall winner: Rafal Kolanko – Samworth Brothers
Runner up: Mark Close – Brocklesby
Runner up: Anthony Niles – Culina

Long Distance
Winner: Peter Jones – Chamberlain Transport
Runner up: Jason Jeffry – Goldstar Transport
Runner up: John Seggons – Bibby Distribution

Driver Excellence – Sponsored by Road Haulage Association
Winner: Chamberlain Transport

Extra Mile – Sponsored by Knorr-Bremse
Winner: Stuart  McClellan – Bibby Distribution
Runner up: Neil Salmon & Clive Everson – B&Q
Runner up: Peter Cochrane – Samworth Brothers

HGV Hero – Sponsored by Dunlop
Winner: John Harrington – DHL
Winner: Robert Brown – Eddie Stobart

Most Improved Driver of the Year – Sponsored by Scania
Winner: Catherine Eastbourne – Warburtons
Runner up: Clive Sutton – Bibby Distribution
Runner up: Michael Roberts – Royal Mail

Young Driver of the Year – Sponsored by Vodafone
Winner: Laura Farnsworth – Samworth Brothers
Runner up: Thomas Virtue – Hovis
Runner up: Grszegorz Kepinski – Muller

Lifetime Achievement – Sponsored by Freight Transport Association
Winner: Richard Ireson – Tesco
Runner up: Paul Thompson – Bibby Distribution
Runner up: John Seeley – Hovis

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