Celebrated at a prestigious and expanding event in central London, the What Van? Awards 2018 shone a light on the exceptional standards of quality, innovation and progress that the LCV industry succeeds in achieving on a yearly basis.
As well as the awards recognising the outstanding light commercial vehicles in all the major market sectors, we also enlisted the help of our esteemed readers to nominate the companies and individuals they feel worthy of recognition in a range of categories: Safety, Risk Management, Innovation, Fleet Manager, Green Fleet and Service, Maintenance and Repair.
Our panel of judges whittled down the consistently impressive submissions into shortlists before selecting the winners in each category.
We also introduced a Driver of the Year Award for 2018, with the winner being chosen from a selection of first-rate nominees compiled from data supplied by telematics expert Lightfoot.
Over the past 12 months the LCV industry has once more exhibited its vibrancy and adaptability to change, but, with the current climate of political and economic uncertainty hitting business confidence, difficult times lie ahead during which the sector’s renowned resilience and ability to meet challenges will be called upon.
Visit our Awards section to see the full list of winners.
The judges
What Van? assembled a panel of judges who can draw on expertise gathered over decades to choose the light commercial vehicles, services and innovations they believe most merit recognition. They included:
James Dallas became What Van? Editor in October 2016 having joined the title in 2010. He has been a motoring journalist for 17 years, and previously worked on local newspapers in London.
Steve Banner has been a journalist for 40 years. He started out working on a local daily paper in Surrey but for the past 30 years has specialised in writing about commercial vehicles. Steve has been a contributor to What Van? since the early 1990s.
Andy Picton has worked for residual value specialist Glass’s for 15 years and currently manages the responsibilities for the commercial vehicle team, which includes valuing new and used commercial vehicles. Andy has worked in the industry for over 25 years at leasing companies such as Leaseplan and Barclays Asset Finance.
Dean Hedger is head of LCV and public sector at Alphabet GB with more than 20 years’ experience in the fleet industry. Dean started in 1992 as the fleet manager in an NHS Trust and went on to join Alphabet in 2014.