October 2009

The competition had all the hallmarks of the world’s fastest and most dangerous high speed event - the tension, the camaraderie among the competitors, a nail biting race to the finish line and the rousing cheers and congratulations for those who made it onto the winner’s podium.

While this was not Formula 1 and took place at a more sedate pace at the Gallagher Estate in Johannesburg as opposed to the principality of Monaco on the Mediterranean, Engen Petroleum’s annual FormulaE Driver of the Year competition lies close to the heart of the organisers, the drivers, their colleagues and even the families and communities of the organisers and participants.

Llewellyn Snyman, Engen national transport operations manager, says the value of the FormulaE Operations Awards Programme lies in the high standard of excellence it demands of its participants.

Snyman says rewarding top performing drivers in various categories has a number of positive benefits for Engen and for South African road transport as a whole. These include improving the standards and skills of the drivers, increasing the focus on health, safety, environment and quality (HSEQ), enhancing customer service and reducing total operating costs.

This year, the occasion coincided with National Transport Month and in a message of support for the FormulaE initiative, guest of honour at the awards ceremony, Bheki Nkosi, Gauteng’s MEC for Transport, said Engen’s focus on building driver capacity and enhancing the awareness of HSEQ was laudable.

“The importance of these issues cannot be overstated when considering the central role of transport in South Africa’s overall economic growth,” he observed.

Engen’s national operations manager, Jeeva Chetty, reiterated this saying that since the start of the FormulaE Awards in 2005, the company has seen tremendous improvement in depot and driver standards.

“Because the drivers are selected from the pool of bulk fuel truck operators (BTOs) who have racked up top performance scores in comprehensive monthly tests and performance targets throughout the year, they are constantly striving toward excellence in their daily working lives,” he said.

FleetWatch congratulates the winners of the Engen driver competition and salutes Engen for persevering with a first rate driver incentive programme which goes beyond personal pride and achievement and has, in Snyman’s words, “bred a tradition of excellence, teamwork and ownership of Engen’s HSEQ objectives at the very coalface of the company’s business.”

Tolerances are extremely tight. A driver makes a valiant attempt to reverse his truck into the tightest of parking spaces and stop at exactly the right spot.