Meet Ian Peters: our international award-winning driver

A DS Smith LGV driver has proved he is one of the most competent drivers on the road after being named ‘International Driver of the Year 2013’ by global driver safety and compliance solution provider Lytx Europe Ltd. (formerly DriveCam Europe Ltd.). Ian Peters, who is based at the Kemsley Paper Mill, won the title by demonstrating consistently professional and safe driving behaviours.

When Operations Support Manager Darren Luetchford told Ian Peters he had been named the Lytx International Driver of the Year for 2013, he was over the moon. Luetchford recalls: "We'd had to double check before we went to tell him. We were as amazed as he was! After all, we hadn't entered this global competition before."

When Lytx invited DS Smith to nominate their best driver for the worldwide category, they asked for Ian's background data. Based at our Kemsley Paper Mill, he has worked for DS Smith for nine years as a night LGV driver, making deliveries throughout the night from the mill to our depots and staging posts before bringing back recycled fibre for the recycling division.

Constantly improving driver behaviours

Like all our drivers, Ian has a Lytx DriveCam fitted to his cab. It shoots images through the windscreen and inside the cab, constantly recording a loop of both the road and the driver. If triggered – if the vehicle corners too quickly, brakes too sharply, or hits something, for example – it stores footage of the seconds before the incident, the incident itself and the outcome.

DriveCam is a coaching tool to improve driving behaviours. At regular intervals throughout the day, any stored clips are uploaded to the DriveCam facility in San Diego, where they are reviewed and scored. DriveCam's experts look for opportunities for improvement and pass them back to DS Smith. We can then discuss the contents of the clip with the driver: you could have done something here to improve the safety of your vehicle; if you had held off a little bit there you would not have had to hit the brakes quite so hard. The drivers appreciate learning like this and aim to try and score as few points as possible by avoiding risky incidents.

Honouring driving excellence

Luetchford is constantly looking for ways to inspire our drivers, so he saw the DriveCam competition as an ideal opportunity. Amongst other things, nominated drivers are rated by the number of points they have scored, with the award going to the driver with the best record in driving safely and professionally. Ian Peters was put forward because he had zero incident recorded and sent to the DriveCam facility.

"Lytx VP and General Manager for Europe Paul Jones came out to our Kemsley site early one morning to present Ian with a trophy, a prize and a certificate," Luetchford remembers with pride. "It has inspired and motivated him, but he is always inspired and motivated anyway. That's why we chose him!"

Driving the points down further

Since it was first installed five years ago, DriveCam has helped us build on the already excellent behaviours of our drivers. The points our drivers score are already well below the industry benchmark, and they are going down year-on-year.

This award is also a recognition of our commitment to training and constantly evaluating our safe and professional fleet of drivers.

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