Lowes Petroleum, for the second straight year, has recognised its best drivers.
The professional driver awards acknowledge those truck drivers who are responsible for delivering millions of litres of fuel every year to regional Australia.
Launched last year to salute the professionalism of its drivers, the awards according to Lowes Petroleum General Manager of Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) Bernie Morris, recognised those going above and beyond in their day-to-day deliveries.
“Every day we are receiving comments from customers and the public to ‘stop and go’ traffic people about our driver’s professionalism and the awards are a perfect way to acknowledge this,” he said.
“Often there’s a perception that driving on country roads has less risk: that perception is wrong,” said Morris.
“Most of us go to work each day knowing that our immediate workspace is a safe environment for us to work in. Our drivers don’t have that luxury: everyday road conditions, the weather, vehicle issues and the general public create dangerous work environments.
“Our drivers make hundreds of risk decisions daily to ensure that they, and others around them, remain safe. These awards were brought into play to recognise the drivers who do that the best.”
The recognised winners, according to Morris, exhibited both a professional attitude and behaviours in every aspect of their job.
Highly regarded amongst peers and customers alike, these drivers often went beyond their duties, as both a driver and as a representative of the Lowes Petroleum business.
While there is an expectation that the awards might go to those who pilot the big tanker road trains, the winning drivers came from across the whole business including a smaller Lubes delivery truck.
“This year we received significantly more nominations than we did last year,” said Morris.
“We assess the nature of the nominations around customer service, the care drivers showed for their vehicles, the commitment to their depots and to the team they work with,” he said.
Morris also noted that Lowes made sure that these were also the safest drivers it has working.
“We assessed this by referring to drive cam alerts, to logbook and fatigue breaches and incidents like crossovers and speeding, so we believe the drivers awarded this year are, in fact, the very best drivers we have in our business,” he said.
The announced winners were David Hull from the Townsville Depot for region 1, Alex Connell from the Brisbane Depot for region 2, Daryl Neal from the Newcastle Depot for region 3, Mark Thomson from the Shepparton/Melbourne Depot for region 4 and Craig Hall from Burnie, Tasmania representing region 5.
Pat Kenyon from Townsville/Ayr Depot for Region 1, Brett Harm from the Wondai Depot for region 2, Rafat Quazi from Penrith for region 3, Chris Rhodes from Hillston Depot region 4 and Noel Barrow from the Hobart Depot for region 5 received honourable mentions.
