A Nottingham bus driver has been named the best in the UK. Nottingham City Transport (NCT) bus driver Jonathan Smallman took home the title of Top National Bus Driver at the annual UK Bus Awards on Tuesday, November 15.
Jonathan says he is on "cloud nine" following the win, which was on his birthday. He joined hundreds of people at Troxy in London to celebrate the achievements of the UK bus industry.
The driver is also the current NCT Driver of the Year. Jonathan drives the Orange Line 35 and 36 buses to the west of the city and joined Nottingham City Transport in 2019.
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The Top National Bus Driver Award brings together the verdict of bus passengers, employers and the all-important mystery travellers to recognise and reward drivers who make a difference to their customers.
UK Bus Awards judges shortlisted five drivers from across the UK for the award, describing the shortlisted drivers as a “particularly strong field of entries this year”.
Jonathan has an exemplary record, with several customer commendations, mystery traveller assessments of 93-95%, 100% attendance and a driving standard score in the top 1% of all NCT drivers.
Celebrating his win, Jonathan said: “It feels amazing, such a magical, amazing experience. To even be in the last five was an honour, but to have my name read out from the golden envelope has put me on cloud nine. To be recognised externally by the award organisers, is overwhelming, as is being the best driver nationally. There are not enough words to describe how being the number one driver in the UK feels”.
David Astill, NCT Managing Director, said: “Our drivers are our customer-facing ambassadors, and we are very proud of Jonathan’s achievement in being recognised as the Top National Bus Driver. On behalf of his colleagues, I congratulate him on his significant success, which is richly deserved.
"We can also take huge satisfaction from the fact that Jonathan is the fourth NCT driver in just eight years to take this top national prize, which reflects tremendously well on the calibre of our drivers and the efforts that our recruitment and training teams put into preparing our colleagues for the roles they undertake."
Jonathan follows in the footsteps of previous NCT winners Les Roome (2014), Aaron Johnson (2018) and Jatinder Kumar (2019). His attitude and customer service sees him help new drivers settle in as a Support Driver and Mentor, spending time with them during their first two weeks on the road after passing their PCV test and then as a friend throughout their career.
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