Award Sponsor
Driving for better business
Driving for Better Business is a free to access government-backed National Highways programme, delivered in partnership with RoadSafe, to help employers in the private and public sectors reduce work-related road risk, protecting staff who drive or ride for work, and others who they may share the road with. Our mission is to improve the levels of compliance for all those who drive or ride for work by demonstrating the significant business benefits of managing work-related road risk more effectively. National Highways and Driving for Better Business produced the Van Driver Toolkit to improve van driver and fleet operator awareness of the basic legal and best-practice requirements to help improve compliance and reduce the number and severity of van incidents on the road network. Its clear, easy to understand collection of 35 modules have reached more than 1,440,000 drivers driving for work.
Fleet Operations
Fleet Operations is the UK’s largest independent fleet and mobility management specialist, offering a broad range of consulting and management services, delivering bespoke solutions to some of the country’s leading blue-chip fleet operators. By providing genuinely impartial advice, alongside innovative fleet management technology, we help businesses make long-term cost savings on their vehicle portfolios, while mitigating risk and helping them meet their sustainability targets. Our ground-breaking MOVE platform and Driver Companion App combines an extensive suite of vehicle and safety management tools, giving grey fleet, company car and van drivers one-stop-shop access – from the palm of their hands – to everything needed to order and run their vehicles. Services include strategic consultancy, sustainability, multi-bid leasing, supply chain management, policy creation and risk management, data consolidation, full or partial outsourcing and vendor management.
Rhino Products
Rhino Products are Europe’s leading manufacturers of commercial vehicle accessories, available through their international network of distributors. They pride themselves on supplying innovative products of the highest quality that help fleets operate safely and efficiently every day. With over 20 years’ experience in the industry, the Rhino group has grown into an international group of companies. Adding to their existing UK factories, in 2024 they opened a third site in Nantwich, dedicated solely to the manufacture and distribution of their latest product range – MR4 Van Racking. Not just market leaders in the UK, Rhino are also an unstoppable force globally, with additional sites in the Netherlands, Sweden and Poland. Their distribution centre in the Netherlands has also recently undergone a significant expansion project this year, increasing their stockholding capacity by over fifty percent.
The AA
As the UK’s most popular breakdown provider, the AA serves almost 10m business customers, working with around three fifths of the UK’s top 20 fleets. We offer the right mix of industry leading services with first-class customer service, demonstrated by once again, being named as a Which? Recommended Provider for breakdown cover. Our organisation is strongly technology and data-led, while our service for corporate customers goes beyond just keeping drivers on the road. We also help minimise wider stress and disruption to fleets and ensure the smoother running of operations through our award-winning services, including Key Assist, Battery Assist, Fuel Assist and EV Support. We put our customers first, through core values of care, courtesy, collaboration, dynamism, and expertise. Whether that is to ensure their safety, streamline administrative processes, keep them abreast of legislation or reduce downtime, our customers are at the heart of everything we do.
Category Sponsor
Aston Barclay
Sponsoring this year’s Best Used Van category, Aston Barclay is the UK’s leading supplier of used vehicle remarketing services with two business units: Aston Barclay Remarketing and The Car Buying Group. Working with some of the biggest businesses across the automotive industry, Aston Barclay blends its forty years of experience in physical auctions with cutting-edge technology to provide its customers with both the best remarketing solution and buyer experience on the market. It has six auction centres across the UK, with a dedicated LCV defleet and auction centre in Leeds. Commerical vehicles feature through the 16 weekly sales, all of which are also held digitally, as well as dedicated weekly LCV sales at our Leeds, Donington Park and Westbury centres. .
CPL
Sponsoring Best Leasing Award As the UK’s leading Access specialist, CPL offer the widest range of solutions available. We ensure that we are offering the correct equipment for all work at height, while promoting efficiency and safety. The range includes Vehicle mounted conversions built here in the UK across 5 sites. CPL also offer a broader range including Tracked, Trailer Mounted, Self-Propelled and Truck mounted platforms design by the world’s leading manufacturers. CPL have national support coverage to ensure your equipment is maintained to our high standards. Our engineers are trained by each manufacturer ensuring that any downtime is kept to a minimum. As part of the Klubb Group, CPL can also offer Recovery and Refueling solutions designed and built by our excellent partners.
Northgate Vehicle Hire
Sponsoring Best Fleet Manager Northgate Vehicle Hire’s core business is the hire of light commercial vehicles (LCVs) on flexible and minimum term contracts, giving customers the flexibility to manage vehicle needs without capital outlay or long-term commitments. With 68 UK locations and deals with the UK’s leading van suppliers, they help you to build and flex your fleet. Alongside LCV and specialist vehicle rentals – which, for peace of mind, include servicing, maintenance and breakdown cover – we also offer a range of mobility solutions to help customers manage their fleets more effectively, reducing costs, improving efficiency and ensuring they are able to meet legal and duty of care obligations. Northgate can also provide expert consultative advice across all aspects of operating electric vehicles (EVs), helping customers with everything from choosing the right e-LCV through infrastructure to driver training and advice – here to help customers make the switch.
Safety Judge/Sponsor
Euro NCAP
Euro NCAP is honoured to be judging in this year's What Van Safety Award. Established in 1997 and backed by European governments, motoring, consumer and insurance organisations, Euro NCAP is committed to providing reliable, comprehensive, and independent consumer information on the safety of new cars, vans and, soon coming in 2024, trucks. This information is based on the assessments derived from stringent and independent crash tests and advanced testing carried out in laboratories across the UK and Europe. Euro NCAP’s rating system helps consumers and businesses compare vehicles more easily and choose the safest options for their needs. Euro NCAP’s ratings for Commercial Vans were first introduced in 2020 to encourage wider fitment of ADAS technologies. Euro NCAP was determined to ensure that the same technology that is standard on passenger cars should be an option on vans, and in turn to encourage business owners and fleet operators to purchase the safest protection available for themselves and their drivers. While a safety rating can never fully capture the complexity of the real world, the vehicle improvements and the technology brought in over the years thanks to Euro NCAP have been shown to deliver a real benefit to consumers in Europe and to society. Euro NCAP has rapidly become a catalyst for encouraging manufacturers to implement significant safety improvements to new vehicle design.