Taken from the introduction speech at the Irish Transport & Logisitics awards:
Nuala McKeever, William Murdock from Henderson Wholesale winner driver of the year & Elaine Carr Operations Director Europa General
“Insurance is always topical within the Logistics industry and where better to place your business than with your local insurance provider.
With over 20 years experience within the Northern Ireland Market, Europa General provide specialist tailored products such as Commercial Motor and Liability insurance along with Non Conventional self insured products.Europa General prides itself in the service it provides to all its customers and its approach to insurance; that is developing policies to suit the needs of the customer and to deliver niche insurance products.
They’re innovative skills have helped build long standing business relationships with many organisations throughout Northern Ireland and being here today sponsoring the Driver of the Year award helps them reward those who also strive for excellence within their chosen industry.”
Presented by Elaine Carr, Operations Director of Europa General
William Named Top Driver
Henderson Wholesale employee William Murdoch has been voted ‘Irish Driver of the Year’ at the prestigious annual Export & Freight Transport & Logistics Awards.
William picked up his award, sponsored by Europa General, at a glittering ceremony held recently in Belfast before a packed audience of leading players in the industry.
He had to compete against some of the best truck drivers in the country following a record entry for this year’s awards battle.
Chief tester was the highly experienced Ronnie McCabe, Senior Driving Instructor from one of the leading training organisations in Northern Ireland, Transport Training Services at Nutts Corner.
“This year we had the largest ever number of entries and the competition had to take place over two weekends. All the contestants competed over the same route incorporating a variety of road conditions and hazards as well as an identical manoeuvre.
“We were looking for the driver who offered a high standard of skills, had an excellent driving record and was dedicated to his profession. Points were awarded on the assessment of three key areas of competence: Control, Planning and Roadcraft.
“The standard of driving was extremely high with only a handful of points separating the finalists. William had a near perfect drive achieving an overall score of 95.5%.”
The Transport & Logistics awards ceremony – now in its eighth year – is organised annually by Export & Freight, Ireland’s leading transport magazine, and is recognised as the premier event in the Irish transport calendar. There are 16 categories covering every aspect of the transport and logistics sectors, with the aim of identifying the best in the industry.
The magazine, and its sister publications, ‘Plant & Civil Engineer,’ which covers the plant, construction and quarrying sectors, and ‘Sustainable Ireland’ covering the energy, environmental and waste management markets, is published by Hillsborough based 4Square Media.
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
