Bulwell route bus driver named Driver of the Year at UK Bus Awards

Jonathan Smallman, who drives Nottingham City Transport’s NCT Orange 35 route between Bulwell and Nottingham and Orange 36 route between Chilwell and Nottingham, joined hundreds of people from across the bus industry at Troxy in London to celebrate the achievements of the UK bus industry.

The UK bus driver of the year award brings together the verdict of bus passengers, employers and mystery travellers to recognise and reward drivers who make a difference to their customers.

Judges shortlisted five drivers from across the UK for the award, describing the nominations as a “particularly strong field of entries this year”.

Jonathan, NCT’s reigning driver of the year, has an exemplary record, with several customer commendations, mystery traveller assessments of of between 93 and 95 per cent, 100 per cent attendance and a driving standard score in the top 1 per cent of all NCT drivers.

Jonathan, who joined NCT in 2019, 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 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 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 our recruitment and training teams put into preparing our colleagues for the roles they undertake”.

Jonathan follows in the footsteps of previous NCT winners of the main award – Les Roome in 2014, Aaron Johnson in 2018 and Jatinder Kumar, in 2019.