Driver Challenge

DAF DRIVER CHALLENGE

Delayed by two years, the fi nals of the 2020 DAF Driver Challenge took place in June. The winner goes forward to the International fi nals in Europe! The winner goes forward to the International fi nals in Europe!

Reproduced courtesy of Truck & Driver magazine Words: Jessica Grainger Photographs: DAF Trucks UK

The DAF Driver Challenge is a great way to showcase the DAF product as well as gather feedback from drivers. The biannual event now being staged for the third time, was previously held at Millbrook Proving Ground, which was an amazing location, but the new venue at DAF Motus Gloucester gave a whole new set of challenge options. The initial selection process has tightened up over the years. It now includes an online entry with questions, an invitation for a drive and further theory questions before final selection to go forward to the UK final. Here, there are five assessors, cherry-picked from DAF’s own Dealer Driver Trainers; these are the people that really know the DAF product inside out. One assessor is responsible for a specific event, and in the spirit of good competition, there is no socialising with competitors between challenges!

The challenges are designed to test every facet of a driver’s skill and knowledge, from health and safety to pure driving ability. The 15 finalists, split into groups of three, worked through all the challenges in a different order. Over the two days each driver was tasked with completing a total of eight challenges. The pressure was intense.

Driving Challenges

There was a 40 minute “commentary drive” around the town in the new mirrorless XG; the majority of drivers came with no experience of these, so this was, “in at the deep end.” For a commentary drive, the driver tells the assessor everything that they see, while explaining what they do and why. It’s pretty full on when you are experiencing a vehicle for the first time.

The off-Road challenge involves two circuits in a DAF CF 410 Tridem around a seriously testing dirt track in a local quarry, fully loaded, with a time limit and a bucket of ping pong balls in the back that if spilled, will incur penalties.

Manoeuvring tests were carried out in both an LF Electric rigid and a mirrorless XG with 45ft trailer, around a coned course in the yard. Not only were drivers conscious of the assessor with their clipboard, there was the added pressure of the other finalists seeing every mistake.

The final driven challenge was to take the DAF LF Electric on a 20 minute city drive..

Non-driving challenges

The remaining challenges included an interview, walk round checks, theory and hazard perception tests and lastly, load restraint. The walk round check included a couple of red herrings and things that drivers should notice, such as loose wheel nuts. The load restraint challenge was a real brain teaser, and certainly would have thrown me. Competitors

Off-road Challenge in a CF 410 Tridem: just don’t spill the ping-pong balls..

had only five straps, a pump truck to secure, and pallets to move around to ensure the load was secure for transport. Assessors were looking for details such as using the vehicle ladder and use of correct lashing points, as well as the load security.

All the drivers were hugely impressed with the event, with many saying they would quite happily have paid to do the challenges. The off-road driving shone out as the weekend highlight for everyone, including me. The tridem set up proved unstoppable in the terrain, but we all agreed we wouldn’t be driving that hard if we owned it! The mirrorless system really impressed with its field of vision and detail. A slight change in driving style is required as you can’t move your head position to change your view but it quickly became second nature. I was able to take the low ride XG for a quick drive just to experience the new product, and as a long time DAF driver, was impressed with the tweaks to the driveline and controls. The cab really is a big step up for driving and living space. Aerodynamics have been improved by 19%. The amazing electric bed, standard in the XG+ but optional in the XG was a thing of beauty. I have big issues with sleeping comfort and would quite happily have taken the bed home with me.

New award

Each challenge yielded an award, as well as a first, second and third prize overall for the event. This year saw the launch of the Ian Joyce Shield, a new award commemorating a much admired and loved colleague to all the team at DAF. Ian was one of the first Dealer Driver Trainers. A winner was chosen to reflect the kindness and consideration for which he is remembered. The shield was presented by Ian’s son, Stephen Joyce, to winner Jennifer Lock. Jennifer is the third generation in the family business of Allen and Lock of Cornwall, which provides transport and industry training. She is one of three daughters and by her own admission was the tomboy of the three. She got behind the wheel as soon as possible through the Young Driver Scheme, and can usually be found behind the wheel of a six wheel tipper. Jennifer holds a full set of HGV licences, and a PSV. She confessed to feeling a little rusty doing the coupling exercise but was at home on the off-road area. This was Jennifer’s second crack at the challenge, previously competing in 2018.

The competition attracted, two other previous competitors. Colin Court, who went on to become the outright winner this year, came very close on his last attempt in 2018. Graham Hirst made it to the final in 2016. Illness forced Devon-based Graham out of the competition on the final day. His career has gone from strength to strength since making the final in 2016. He became a driver trainer at Gregory’s Distribution and was then head-hunted by the Royal Marines to continue providing training with them, his 30 years’ experience proving invaluable.

EV Cargo (formerly CM Downton) had put forward two drivers who both agreed it was nice to be recognised for their efforts. Denise Hawker and Keith Warner both had very different driving backgrounds. Denise started off in production at Cotteswold Dairy

Clockwise from top left. Colin Court with his winning trophy, second placed Ryan Pennington, Jennifer Lock is a worthy recipient the Ian Joyce Shield and Richard Scott took third place.

and had never thought of driving as a career. A chance chat with a delivering lady driver who got her sat behind the wheel meant she was hooked. Fourteen years later, with a raft of experience with transport, she made the move to EV Cargo. Here she pulls a double decker with Moff ett forklift delivering to Pets at Home stores in the south west of the country. Keith has driving in the blood and aspired to follow his dad, who he lost early in life. This saw him become heavily involved with the petrol delivery industry, running a fl eet of 12 vehicles. He moved into driver training, which is now part of his role at EV Cargo, alongside driving.

Ireland was represented by Damien McCoy and Northern Ireland by Colin McKeag. Damien drives for Dublinbased Zellwood on fridge work delivering to the major supermarkets. Colin on the other hand was rather a dark horse. He won the Scania Young Driver Challenge back in 2010. He is also a hardened Scania fan driving a stunning R730 for the family fi rm, M K Transport, delivering bulk aggregates. David Seppman from Buxton was just squeezed out of a placing, despite winning the city drive in the rigid. He has a huge amount of experience running his own transport and training businesses. Daniel Lote, one of the youngest competitors at just 30, is an ownerdriver running a lovely looking 19-plate DAF XF. Few 30-year-olds can claim they have been their own boss for ten years. He is also a regular at truck shows and his XF was Editor’s Choice in our February ’21 issue.

If you see a show-ready Menzies MAN, we can guarantee this will be driver Lee Boddy’s. Having served in the RAF with numerous tours under his belt, he takes immense pride in everything he does. Re-joining civvy street in 2007, he started at Wisemans, and through the years has had various driving jobs to broaden his experience, as well as having a dice with death when crushed by a forklift. Crazy that you survive serving in confl ict and nearly get killed by a forklift at work! Michael Konera had travelled all the way from the Kent area. From school all he wanted to do was drive, but ended up pursuing a career in catering and tourism. He left his native Poland in 2004 and moved to Cyprus. Here he carried on working in the hospitality industry until he ended up doing van deliveries as part of his job.

This reignited his desire to become a professional driver. He completed his licences in Cyprus but found that there were no driving jobs available as businesses tended to be family orientated. This brought him to the UK in 2007. Michael has a real enthusiasm for the job and manages to make supermarket store deliveries sound interesting. He is also a big fan of DAFs so found the weekend particularly enjoyable.

Dirk de Kloe had also travelled from the Kent area and still retains a hint of his Dutch accent. A long time resident of the UK since childhood, he was academic at school, so driving as a career was not on the

The UK finalists had to successfully compete against hundreds of other applicants in online knowledge and in-cab driving assessments.

radar, but he still wanted to be a HGV driver. With that he went and got his licence and ended up stuck in the “no experience”, can’t get any experience trap. In 2008 he applied to Iceland, run by DHL. In the application, he stated that he would work for free until he had gathered enough experience. This must have caught someone’s eye as he got a call to say he had a position. DHL took him on and trained him up, with pay of course.

Artur Brejnak works for Aldi driving a Scania. He was finding the competition exciting, but felt his off-Road drive had been far too slow. You could see Artur took pride in what he did and wanted to learn from the challenges too.

Sunday saw Scott Andrews, 2018 winner, arrive to hand over the mantle and congratulate the new DAF Driver Challenge champion. Scott started vlogging before the Driver Challenge but since winning he has developed a huge online presence. He is no longer an agency driver, working full time for M&M Greene from Llanelli. He has just become the proud driver of a Scania S650.

Top Three

Third placed Richard Scott has driven for Home Bargains for six years, and really enjoys his job there. He had always wanted to be a driver but on leaving school went into the Royal Navy. Unfortunately, and to all our amusement, it turned out he gets very bad sea sickness. He stuck it out and did his licences on his leave time from HMS Somerset, docked in Portsmouth. This gave him the opportunity to get some experience agency driving before leaving the Navy altogether. Richie has ambitions to become an ownerdriver in the future.

Ryan Pennington came a close second. Originally from Derbyshire, he now lives in Essex. He doubted his chances of success on some of the challenges and was so concerned about the theory, that he swatted up on the Friday night. This paid off with a win in this challenge and his groupage experience was rewarded with a win in the load securing. He drives for Dutch transport company Thomas Boers, delivering groupage shipped through the port of Harwich. Ryan is the proud driver of the new DAF XG and was the only driver to have used the mirrorless cameras before.

Colin Court is the 2022 DAF Driver Challenge winner. Colin has 25 years’ experience pulling a powder tanker and has seen many changes in the industry through the years. He is very happy in his work and is passionate about driving, as the permanent smile on his face showed. Hanson is very lucky to have Colin as a member of the team. We look forward to seeing Colin go forward to the International final in Luxemburg and wish him luck.

If you are looking for a challenge and want to test your professional skills as a driver, look no further than the DAF Driver Challenge. It really is an incredible experience.