Turners Driver of the Year 2022 - The Competition returns
2022 has seen the return of our “Driver of the Year Competition”. Bigger than ever, we started back in January with over 1850 drivers from across the Groups Divisional companies. New to the competition, we welcomed Jack Richards, Macintyre Transport, Turners Milk and Food Grade Tanker drivers.
Three tough rounds that started back in January, concluded with our final on Saturday September 17th. Our eight finalists were;
Robert Browne – Bicker Jiri Sinak – Crick Thomas Samutlik – Exning
Carl leavold – Jack Richards Andrew Brown – Port Talbot Natalia Regucka – Macintyre
Ricky Wilson – Norwich Krzysztof Jaholowski – Southampton
The competition judges drivers not only on their weekly performance scores but compliance with tachograph infringements, Safety, adhering to company policies and procedures along with knowledge of Road signs & markings and EU driver regulations. The aim being to have the eight most professional all round drivers represented in the Final.
But to add a twist this year’s Final, and to help drivers stay focussed between their events, we introduced a LEGO challenge. On arrival all drew lots to select a certain LEGO Technics model which if completed by the end of the day, they would keep – the photos tell the story!
The five key challenges on the day were:
A 40 minute test route for our drivers to use the lowest volume of fuel.
Using one of our latest DAF units the challenge remains with the driver and their style of driving to minimise the litres of fuel used.
The Manoeuvring challenge – A time challenge to work your way through a very tight, but small course with a Scania unit and our Urban two-axle rear steer trailer behind, sounds simple but when the nerves kick in and you’ve never used such a trailer it becomes as slightly more challenging task.
The Circle check challenge: Before embarking on a journey each driver must complete the legal requirement of a circle check for the truck and trailer. This helps identify any faults or damage that would deem the truck and trailer combination unsafe to drive.
This year our training artic and trailer had a number of pre-set faults that each finalist had to find within 20 minutes.
The Road sign and markings exam: Testing their knowledge with 38 questions on UK road signs and markings along with Drivers legal obligations, the latest Highway Code plus a few “curve-ball” questions on Turners and our methods of measuring weekly driver performance.
And finally a new element for 2022 – A Risk and Hazard awareness video section.
Each driver was shown 9 risk video clips from our own Camera systems with the aim of answering the questions posed with each all testing their knowledge of on road risk, why collisions happen and how to avoid such incidents.
And the Winner is……
Jiri Sinak from our Temperature Controlled operation based at Crick. Jiri collected the winners’ cup plus £2000 in holiday vouchers along with a host of Drivers goodies supplied from our sponsors.
2nd Position: Carl Leavold from Jack Richards who received £1000 in holiday vouchers.
3rd Position: Krzysztof Jaholowski from Turners Container operation at Southampton with £500 in holiday vouchers.
All our runners up received a bundle of prizes to reflect their achievement in reaching the final of this year’s competition.
Thank you to our Sponsors, Chassis Cab Ltd (DAF Trucks) Scania UK Ltd, AddSecure / Isotrak (Telematics provider) Smartdrive (Camera technology) and Turners, who jointly supplied all the prizes.
Our congratulations go to all our finalists who have set the highest of standards, not only for this competition but in their day to day duties. Their levels of professionalism are an example to other drivers and the transport industry as a whole.
Finally, I would like to thank all my Turners colleagues who have helped make the competition the success it is and in particular for the Final held on September 17th.
If you would like any further information on our competition, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Stephen Blackmore
Fuel Management & Driver Safety Management
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Turners Headquarters: 01638 720335
Mobile: 07872 841670