Apr 18, 2016 Trucking, RegentInsurance, HighwayHeroes, Driver, CommercialVehicles, trucks, TruckDriver
The 2016 staging of the now annual Highway Heroes Awards in November will see the winner drive away with R75 000 in cash and prizes, not forgetting second and third placed drivers who will receive prizes worth R40 000 and R20 000 respectively.
Its recognition that is not to be sneezed at and rewards outstanding driving, which can only help fight the dismal SA truck crash stats.
Regent Insurance has increased the prize money from almost R100 000 to R135 000 that will be awarded to South Africa’s top three truck drivers and fleet owner of the first placed driver.
Paul Dangerfield, Highway Heroes campaign manager at Regent Commercial Vehicles (RCV), says one of the aims of the Highway Heroes initiative is to raise road users’ awareness of the many challenges that truck drivers face in the course of their work – the daily threat of hijacking being one of the most obvious one. “From our claim statistics, we have pinpointed other challenges that truck drivers face: excessively long hours on the road; being pushed to speed; driving at night; high traffic volume; impatient road users; poor driver training; and that there are not enough safe places for truck drivers to stop overnight.”
“We also believe that this platform presents a perfect opportunity to start changing road users’ perceptions that truck drivers are reckless and that they are largely responsible for the unacceptably high accident rate in this country,” says Dangerfield, adding: “This is simply not true.”
Regent first introduced the first Highway Heroes competition last year and the winner, Themba Vilakazi (45) – a driver for Fairfield Long Haul in Howick – won R50 000 in cash and prizes. First runner-up, Dumisane Nzimande (Gauteng) won cash and prizes worth R25 000 and Michael Madamo (Mpumulanga), the second runner-up, R12 500.
The first campaign highlighted the important role that truck drivers play in the economy – and how 53-million South Africans would be negatively impacted without the thousands of truck drivers in the logistics industry who transport billions of Rands worth of essential goods to every corner of the country 24/7/365.
But to be judged the top driver is no small feat. The participants are evaluated by means of stringent analysis of driving technique and behaviour via telematics’ data obtained from the fleet owner. This is combined with an analysis of the results obtained over a 60-day period from telematics’ devices that will be installed in the trucks of the 15 finalists.
Entries opened on 1 March 2016 and the winner and two runners-up will be selected from the finalists’ shortlist before the awards announcement in November this year. The winning driver will win R75 000 in cash and prizes, while the runners-up will receive prizes worth R40 000 and R20 000 respectively.
The competition is only open to Regent insured drivers and they can be South African or permanently employed foreign nationals. Fleet owners can nominate their best truck drivers by completing an online entry form or by downloading, completing and emailing an entry form to highwayheroes@regent.co.za . Nomination forms are also available from Regent Commercial Vehicles Consultants, at selected Regent branches and from Regent brokers. Entry forms must be submitted with a motivational letter from the fleet owner that explains why they believe their driver is the best in the country.
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