Bus Driver of the Year 2013
Gordon Cutting from Stagecoach Oxfordshire has been crowned Bus Driver of the Year 2013, after finishing fifth in 2012’s competition. Gordon received a £1,000 cheque from ROSCO (Road Operators’ Safety Council). He also received £500 from Unite the Union and was awarded the John Boxall Medallion as national champion (John founded Bus Driver of the Year in Coventry in 1967). A further £500 was awarded to Gordon as highest placed competitor from the Stagecoach Group and £50 accompanied by the Giles Fearnley Trophy as best-placed driver from England. The national final took place in Blackpool and saw 105 entries.
Runner-up was Andrew Hardy from First South Yorkshire, receiving £750 with the Compak Ramps trophy and £250 from the Rail Maritime & Transport Workers’ Union. Andrew was additionally highest-placed FirstGroup competitor, winning £500 and both Best Newcomer and Youngest National Finalist, receiving the Ticketer and Mistral Group Shields, each with a £50 cash award.
In third place was Phillip MacDonald of First Bristol, Somerset & Avon, winning the Volvo Bus & Coach Cup plus £500 and the Best Impressions Trophy with £250, with a further £250 for being second highest placed FirstGroup finalist. Philip McAvoy from First Devon & Cornwall finished in fourth place, winning the Optare Trophy and £300 plus the GoSkills Cup and £200. Ted Reid of Stagecoach Bluebird was fifth, picking up the Scania Trophy and £150 and the McKenna Shield with £100 plus the Kathleen Stark Memorial Shield and £50 as best competitor from Scotland.
Recognising those that helped run the event, the Transport Benevolent Fund (TBF) presented each of the team of volunteer Marshalls with a commemorative plaque. Chairman of the UK Bus Driver of the Year Association, Joe Mackie, said the charity’s involvement in the industry and its close links with drivers is ‘a natural fit’ with the objectives of BDoY. TBF is now in its fourth year of sponsoring the awards.
Pleased with winning the accolade, Gordon Cutting said, ‘I’m so happy to have won this award for what I see as probably one of the best jobs in the world. I have the best passengers of any driver in the country. They are the reason I do what I do and I drive the way I drive. It is interacting with them that puts a spring in my step every day.’