The FTA has announced the winners of its 2015 Van Excellence Driver of the Year Award.

Dave Lucas from London Borough of Redbridge (pictured right) was overall champion, Ian Booth of Balfour Beatty came second and Iron Moutain's Glen Quinn was awarded third place.

Each van driver was tested during the event which comprised five separate tasks designed to evaluate the overall ability of each person behind the wheel.  The Van Excellence Driver of the Year competition examined 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 FTA Van Excellence Driver of the Year 2015 was open to Van Excellence accredited operators, who had been invited to enter their best driver. In total, 17 contestants took part.

Mark Cartwight, FTA’s head of vans (pictured left) 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.”