Air Products Driver of the Year

Exemplary finalists.

Mercedes-Benz Trucks hosted its latest in a series of events at Wentworth Park, which celebrated the driving industry. The Air Products ‘Driver of the Year’ competition proved an enjoyable and rewarding experience.

In 2018, Air Products drivers proved themselves on the road, gaining points in many different areas including economic driving, compliance, safety and most importantly achieving zero ‘Preventable Vehicle Accidents’. Forty seven drivers qualified and from this pool only six made it to the final event at Wentworth Park.

Adrian Garlick snapped up the coveted prize of overall winner, after he spent the day fighting off competition from Andrew Cartwright, Dave Chadwick, Jeremy Cook, Clive Dennis and Alan Graham.

Tricky tasks and challenges.

The fun-filled event provided plenty of on and off-road trials to keep the team busy. With activities including driving an Actros tractor unit, manoeuvring challenges in a fully-electric FUSO eCanter light truck and tackling an off-road circuit in an all-wheel drive Unimog – participants put all their training in to practice.

A particularly tricky task involved reversing an Econic refuse collection vehicle with blacked-out mirrors, using solely the truck’s camera system to navigate! The candidates also partook in a fault recognition exercise, a quiz based on safety and the Highway Code, a crane handling challenge and piloted a radio-controlled scale model of a Unimog around an obstacle course.

Award-winning driving skills.

Adrian beat off close competition, finishing the day as Air Products ‘Driver of the Year’. He also bagged individual prizes in the reversing, fault-finding and quiz sections, while Dave Chadwick excelled in the off-road challenge and Alan Graham beat the group in the on-road drive and manoeuvring tests.

The first prize included a fabulous trophy along with a Mercedes-Benz Trucks sports holdall filled with branded goodies such as a cap, flask, Hi Vis jacket, torch and cosy sleeping bag.

Actros driver Adrian, who’s been in the industry for 15 years and worked at Air Products for 18 months was thrilled with his achievement, “I was against some very tough competition from my colleagues, and I’m sure the margins were very tight, so I’m delighted to have won,” he said.

– Mark Pawsey, Air Products UKI Distribution Manager

A successful and fun event for all.

Air Products’ very first ‘Driver of the Year’ event was a smashing success and thoroughly enjoyed by all. For Mark Pawsey, Air Products UKI Distribution Manager, the day was about showing the company’s appreciation for their team, “Today was really about celebrating our drivers – recognising those who are responsible for our trucks out on the road, and the contributions they make to our success.”

Mark was also impressed by the efforts of the event organisers, “It was the first time we’d held an event like this, and it couldn’t have gone any better. Our partners from Roanza Truck & Van, together with the Wentworth Park team, organised everything superbly. I’m already looking forward to returning next year, for an even bigger, better competition.”

Safety first.

Roanza Truck & Van were happy to help, as their Sales Director Lester Freakley added, “We’re always looking for ways to support our customers…it was great fun, of course, but on a serious side, too – the focus was very much on safety and compliance, as well as providing a well-earned pat on the back for six hard-working and highly professional drivers.”

Air Products have maintained a strong commitment to responsible driving and operation and encourage their drivers to make the most of the safety equipment available. The company purchased 75 tractor units and 15 rigid last year which all came with Mercedes-Benz Safety Packs.

Have you attended an enjoyable Mercedes-Benz Trucks event?

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