Bringing in new blood to the transport industry has never been more important, and apprenticeships are an excellent way to recruit, train and retain people of all ages. If the Apprenticeship Levy is not to be just another tax, employers must put in place approved apprenticeship schemes to claim their money back.

There is now a good range of apprenticeships for the logistics sector from driving goods vehicles to supply chain management that complement well-established schemes for workshop technicians.

This award is for the company apprenticeship scheme that can demonstrate it is successfully attracting and retaining high quality recruits who are making a positive contribution to the business and wider industry. It is open to third party and own account transport and logistics operators running 11 or more commercial vehicles and companies associated with this sector such as vehicle manufacturers, rental and leasing firms, CV dealers and repair and maintenance workshops.

Judges will be looking for:

• Well-structured apprenticeship schemes that meet the business’s needs;
• Strong take up of the apprenticeship programme;
• High retention and pass rates;
• A good rate of employment of apprentices once they have completed the scheme.

We are looking for a project that used the latest technology (whether in vehicles, components, infrastructure or IT) to enhance your service and resulted in a clear benefit to your customers and/or improvement in efficiency.

This is not about just using industry-standard products or software, but looking at your business and customer needs and developing a technology-based solution. The entry must be made by a third party or own account operator running 11 or more commercial vehicles, though it can include supporting material from suppliers and consultants.

Judges will be looking for:

• A description of the problem you were trying to solve or the service you were looking to enhance, ideally with measurable targets for the project;
• Details of the technology applied, including how it was selected and adapted to your business;
• How the technology was successfully applied to your operation;
• The specific outcomes for your operation and/or your customers’ business.

• Financial performance
• Customer service
• Long term growth strategy
• Corporate social responsibility
• Staff development and retention

Excellent customer care is more than just delivering the goods on time and on budget or having a good complaints procedure. It means going out of your way to ensure that your whole operation is geared to consistently exceeding your customers’ expectations. We want to see commitment from all levels of the company and, of course, testimonials from customers and the results of customer satisfaction surveys.

This award is open to all third party logistics and own account operators (where the transport operation plays a significant role in the delivery of excellent customer service) running fleets of 11 or more commercial vehicles plus contract hire or rental companies with fleets of 11 or more commercial vehicles.

Judges will want to see:

• What processes are in place to understand what KPIs are important to your customers;
• How you monitor your levels of customer satisfaction;
• Evidence that everyone from the senior management down has bought into the customer care ethos, rather than that the company just runs an excellent customer care or complaints department;
• How you have gone above and beyond business as usual to delight your customers (or, in many cases, your customers’ customers);
• How excellence in customer care has helped you grow your business.

The Fleet Truck of the Year award showcases the best truck of the year. The following factors are considered when selecting the finalists:

• Productivity (including reliability and vehicle uptime)
• fuel efficiency;
• driver acceptance;
• manufacturer/dealer support;
• total cost of ownership.

There is no entry form for this award. The finalists will be chosen by our panel of judges. The winner will be announced on the night.

The Fleet Van of the Year award celebrates the best van of the year. This category is for any light commercial vehicle under 7.5 tonne GVW.

The following factors are considered when selecting the finalists:

• Productivity (including reliability and vehicle uptime)
• fuel efficiency;
• driver acceptance;
• manufacturer/dealer support;
• total cost of ownership.

There is no entry form for this award. The finalists will be chosen by our panel of judges.  The winner will be announced on the night.

This category is open to operators of 11 or more vans up to 7.5 tonnes GVW. To win the Fleet Van Operator of the Year, you will need to show our judges that you are achieving outstanding standards in:

• Professionalism
• Productivity
• Customer service 
• Health and safety
• Training
• Environment

This, the most coveted award in the road transport industry, is for the outstanding road haulage or 3PL company of the past year. The Haulier of the Year category is open to any company running 11 or more commercial vehicles of 3.5t GVW or over.

To win, you need to show not only strong financial results, but also a commitment to:

• Legal compliance
• Business success
• High operational standards
• Staff development
• Safety, health, environment and quality

Judges will be looking for evidence that the haulier:

• Has long term customers and does not rely on ad hoc transactional business;
• Delivers added-value rather than price-led commodity services;
• Has a system to measure and minimise fuel consumption;
• Has a well-thought-through fleet replacement policy;
• Has a strong recruitment and training policy.

Entries MUST include: three years’ audited accounts; a print out of the DVSA OCRS for every operating site covered by the entry; evidence of high levels of customer satisfaction (include contact details of five customers we can contact for feedback). 

With the online shopping boom, home delivery is today one of the fastest growing sectors in the logistics industry.  But it remains a challenging business with constant pressure to deliver the best service at lowest cost. As a result operators are striving to set themselves apart from their competition and position themselves as the home delivery operator of choice for both the retailer and the consumer.

The judges will be looking for:

• A strong business performance matched by service excellence including first-time delivery rates;
• A range of delivery options to improve the end recipient experience;
• Innovation in the vehicle fleet that increase the efficiency of the operation and deliver environmental benefits;
• Ability to meet the ever-increasing demands of the end recipient for more flexible delivery options;
• Excellent health and safety standards;
• An effective logistics model which can handle seasonal peaks and  unexpected demand;
• Evidence of the financial stability of the organisation.

This award is open to any third party of own account operator offering a home delivery service including parcels, pallets and two-man operations. 

This award is open to transport operators and product and service manufacturers or suppliers who can show outstanding innovation in developing a product, service or operation. The judges will want to see evidence of how creative thinking has been applied to solve a problem. 

If the solution was mainly technology-led, consider entering the Best Use of Technology category instead. 

Judges will want to see:

• What the problem/issue was;
• How the innovative solution was arrived at;
• How it delivered significant benefits.

Trucks and trailers are mobile billboards that should be used by operators to present a strong, positive image of the company and the transport industry to the public. Judges will want to see a modern, stylish livery that gets across its message clearly and effectively. This Award is for a truck, trailer or van livery; extra consideration will be given for a livery that works well across a range of vehicle types and sizes. 

This award is open to third party or own account operators running 11 or more commercial vehicles.

The judges will want to know:

• What you set out to achieve with the livery;
• How you arrived at the design;
• The timetable to roll out the new livery across the fleet;
• The benefits to the company and/or wider transport industry.

With your entry you will need to supply good quality colour photographs (prints measuring 10” x 8”) of the side and rear views of the new livery and a side view of the old livery for comparison purposes. Please ensure that you clearly identify the new and old liveries. Please send these to the following address:

Katy Matthews,
DVV Media International,
Seventh Floor,
Chancery House,
St Nicholas Way,
Sutton,
Surrey,
SM1 1JB

Please ensure that the photographs will arrive by the entry deadline 28 February 2019. Please clearly identify whose online entry the photographs belong to when sending them, as well as clearly labeling the new and old liveries.

Cutting emissions of carbon dioxide is possibly the greatest challenge facing road transport, but successful companies show it can be done without adding cost or affecting customer service. The Low Carbon Award will be given to the operator who has made significant progress in reducing carbon emissions by improving the efficiency of its operation and/or by the use of alternative fuels and drive trains.

This award is open to third party or own account operators running 11 or more commercial vehicles.

Judges will want to see:

• How you measure your carbon footprint, preferably using some recognised methodology;
• What opportunities you identified to reduce carbon emissions;
• What initiatives you have taken;
• The outcomes in terms of reduced emissions (such as total tonnes of CO2 or grammes of CO2 per tonne kilometre) and improved efficiency.

The operations department contains the key people who make the logistics world work. Often the unsung heroes of any operation, they have to juggle the need for the business to make a profit, the demands of customers for high service levels and the absolute requirement to run legally at all times.

Judges will be looking for an outstanding ops department that is able to balance these key aspects of the job and goes above and beyond the call of duty to ensure the profitable, safe, legal and efficient running of their fleet. This award is open to third party or own account operators running 11 or more commercial vehicles.

Judges will want to see:

• A highly compliant fleet, including: a green Traffic OCRS for your site(s);
• Results from tachograph analysis (inhouse or third party) showing high levels of compliance with drivers’ hours rules; 
• A declaration that the site for which you are responsible has not been successfully prosecuted or called to a public inquiry in the last three years;
• Evidence of high levels of customer service (for own account operations this can include internal customers), preferably in the form of measured KPIs such as on-time, in-full delivery, or recent testimonials;
• An efficient and profitable operation, including fuel consumption and driver telematics data where available,  and the use of an effective transport management system.

This award is open to genuine partnerships between: operator(s) and a customer; two or more operators working together; or operator(s) working with a supplier or consultant. The entry to this Award must be made by an operator running 11 or more commercial vehicles.

Evidence of a partnership as opposed to a simple contract could include: 

• Long-term (more than one year) working relationship;
• Working in teams that include members drawn from the partner organisations;
• Sharing of data and resources;
• Pain/gain sharing financial models.

Judges will want to see:

• A brief description of the operation involved in the partnership arrangement;
• Why the partnership was formed including its aims or targets;
• How these were achieved;
• Any measurable outcomes, especially in terms of improved customer satisfaction or reduced cost.

Entrants for this Award will need to show either an exceptional commitment to all-round operational safety or describe a specific successful initiative designed to improve safety in a particular area of the operation. This category is open to CV operators running 11 or more vehicles and genuine partnerships between product/service suppliers and operators (the entry must be made by the operator).

Judges will be looking for:

For an overall safety policy

• A brief description of your operation;
• Accident rates for the last three years using standard measures such as accident frequency rates;
• What analysis/review was carried out to improve safety;
• What initiatives were introduced and how;
• The outcome of the initiatives including a reduction in accidents and injuries or other health and safety benefits;
• Top-down commitment to the initiatives. 

For a specific safety initiative

• A brief description of your operation;
• What was the safety issue you needed to address;
• What initiative was introduced and how;
• The outcome of the initiative and how it was measured.

The Service to Industry award goes to the person who is considered to have made an outstanding contribution to the road freight transport industry, either in 2018/19 or over their lifetime. 

There is no shortlist for this award. The winner will be announced on the night.

Open to any team of any size in any part of a transport or logistics operation, the Team of the Year award will be made to the group of people able to demonstrate that they have worked closely together to either:

• Deliver a major project on time and to budget;
• Or consistently over-achieved in their field of operation.

Judges will be looking for a set of objective KPIs that the team was working to and evidence that these were exceeded. More subjective comments from key external customers or colleagues in other parts of the business about the outstanding performance of the team will also be taken into account. 

Extra merit will be given to teams that have successfully integrated members drawn from different disciplines within the company or from partner organisations to work together effectively and seamlessly for the benefit of the business and its customers.

This Award is open to operators running 11 or more commercial vehicles.

Whoever is responsible for managing the specification, acquisition, repair and maintenance and disposal of an operator’s fleet (be it an in-house department or a third party provider) to win this award they have to demonstrate high levels of efficiency, reliability, availability, safety and first-time annual test pass rates. Innovation is also essential – this could involve reducing fuel consumption, being more efficient or using technology creatively to solve a specific technical fleet problem.

This award is open to third party or own account operators running 11 or more commercial vehicles and vehicle or product manufacturers which have developed technical solutions to meet their customers’ operational needs.

Judges will want to see:

For an operator’s engineering department

• A brief description of your fleet operation and engineering resources;
• High levels of legal compliance (include green Roadworthiness OCRS and excellent annual test first time pass rates);
• Excellent standards of fuel consumption, reliability and vehicle availability;
• Development of new initiatives to improve efficiency, cost control or safety;
• Close working relations with drivers and the operations team.

For a manufacturer’s technical solution

• An innovative approach to developing technical products and services;
• A description of the customer’s problem and the solution developed to solve it;
• Evidence of improvements in performance resulting from the new product or service.

Entrants in this category must show how they have improved the performance of their company or operation through training staff in the last 12 to 18 months. Your entry could focus on a specific group or team, such as drivers or management, or could cover all of your staff. Apprenticeships should be entered in the Apprenticeship of the Year category.

This award is open to third party and own account operators running 11 or more commercial vehicles, contract hire and rental firms, pallet networks, CV dealers and truck manufacturers (entries may be prepared in partnership with a training provider).

Judges will need to know:

• How you identified your training need;
• What training was implemented;
• What in-house and external resources were applied and why;
• The measurable outcome of the training, including cost/benefit analysis if applicable.

With more people living in increasingly crowded cities the logistics required to keep them supplied with everything they need while complying with the growing body of environmental rules and regulations is a tough and fast-moving challenge. This category – new for 2019 – is to recognise the innovative solutions the logistics industry is developing to keep our towns and cities safe, clean and quiet.

Judges will be looking for: 

• Initiatives that tackle key city delivery challenges such as emissions, noise, vulnerable road user safety and congestion;
• The use of low emissions vehicles or technology;
• A strategy for compliance with all current and future regulations on clean air, direct vision etc;
• Taking opportunities such as out of hours deliveries or consolidation centres to reduce both cost and environmental impact.

This award is open to any road freight operator delivering into urban areas including final-mile couriers, post and parcels carriers, urban distribution operators, retailers, construction hauliers, local authorities and waste collection operations.