What Van? Britain's biggest and best van buyers' guide

If there is somebody more enthusiastic, knowledgeable and driven to improve standards in the light commercial vehicle industry, then we are yet to meet them.

Mark Cartwright has held the role of head of vans and light commercial vehicles at the Freight Transport Association since February 2012, having been with the association since 1987, and it’s fair to say he is the considerable driving force behind its programme to improve standards across van operators.

The FTA describes Van Excellence as providing “a perfect opportunity for van operators to assess their standards of operation, make improvements where called for and to receive recognition of high standards”. At present the scheme is over 100 operators, with Cartwright claiming another four or five are coming in every month, driving the total towards the next target of 130.

Black country born and bred, Wolverhampton Wanderers, cycling and curry fan Cartwright has become one of the leading authorities and certainly one of the leading voices on all things to do with light commercial vehicle safety, and is the go-to person for help and advice on improving compliance, while still defending the industry’s ability and potential to self-regulate.

He joined the FTA in 1978 as part of the Midlands regional team before moving on to become account manager and then membership project manager in 2003, before moving to the role as head of vans nine years later, having been involved with the FTA’s Van Excellence scheme since it was established.

AAH Pharmaceuticals, Enterprise and Iron Mountain UK were the first companies successfully audited in March 2011, with the current drive being to encourage smaller operators to join.

Cartwright tells a story – the names should probably remain off the record – where he was accosted at the end of a meeting of agencies and associations by someone complaining that the van of a builder they were using probably wasn’t roadworthy, moaning that no-one was doing anything about it. His answer, probably in fairly blunt terms, was that the person contracting him to do work for them should be saying they won’t use people driving unroadworthy vehicles. Which is the crux of the next potential stage of Van Excellence development, where members encourage their suppliers and contracts to sign up to improved standards.

Van Excellence was first launched after the FTA, as an association, had what Cartwright describes as a “eureka” moment. “We sat down in front of a focus group of operators and asked about the opportunity for a code of practice, and that became the Van Excellence code of conduct and has driven everything we have done since,” he explains.

The latest developments Cartwright is driving are a new certificate of driver competence and increased recognition of the importance of vans to the UK economy.

“If you want to see how important vans are to UK PLC and GDP then just look out of your window in the morning and see how many vans you see,” he told What Van? earlier this year. “Vans power the economy but with that comes responsibility – you have to make sure you do it properly.”