Australia’s best truck driver crowned by Scania

27 year old David Whyte was crowned Australia’s best truck driver at the Young Australian Truck Driver 2007 final, taking place in Sydney past weekend.

David Whyte is the first champion in Scania driver competitions 2007 taking place in close to 40 countries on five continents, aimed at identifying the world’s best truck drivers.

The driver competitions is a part of Scania’s global initiative to help raise the status of professional drivers and emphasise their great importance to both road safety and the profitability of transport companies.

David Whyte, from the Melbourne suburb of Glenhuntly, won the crown of Young Australian Truck Driver 2007 – and a brand new Scania truck – from 16 other finalists in a competition designed to test for instance their precision driving skills and road behaviour.

“People’s perceptions of truck drivers need to change. We are professional people who enjoy what we do and love driving. However, there is a need for greater understanding and tolerance on the roads by all drivers,” said David Whyte, who has been driving trucks for the past eight years

More than 1500 young Australian truck drivers had entered the nationwide competition. The competition has been undertaken by the Australian Trucking Association and Scania with the support of Shell, Continental Tyres, National Transport Insurance, Freighter and Fleetmark.

The most recent round of the world’s largest competition for heavy truck drivers was held in 2005 and attracted 30,000 contestants from 26 European countries as well as Argentina, Brazil, Taiwan and South Africa. Also competing in the 2007 competition, in addition to Australia, will be South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Botswana, Namibia and Tanzania. In Europe, Bulgaria has been added to the participating countries. The African countries, Malaysia and Singapore will also invite bus and coach drivers to compete for the title of best bus driver in their countries.

In addition to the competition rounds, Scania is organising road safety seminars in the participating countries, many of these in partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO). Scania will be represented at WHO’s First United Nations Global Road Safety Week, 23-29 April 2007, and also at EU’s Road Safety Day in Brussels on 27 April.