Entries to the 2025 Bus Driver of the Year competition have opened ahead of this year’s contest, which organisers have confirmed will be held on Sunday 14 September at the customary Imperial Hotel in Blackpool.
For now, operators need only register online at the Bus Driver of the Year website, where they will input the number of drivers that will participate and pay the entry fee. They will then receive an entry pack that enables them to proceed with selection of their best candidates.
The competition aims to reward full-time drivers who exercise their skills throughout the year, and thus it is required that entrants work at least three full shifts per week in order to qualify for the contest.
Bus Driver of the Year returns in 2025 for its 57th edition and will follow last year’s contest at the seaside resort, where Lothian East Coast Buses man Thomas Gilhooley triumphed. He took home the Bus Driver of the Year trophy and £4,600 in prize money.
Mr Gilhooley, 63, has been a driver at the municipal operator’s Musselburgh depot for over six and a half years. Victory in 2024 followed a third place the previous year.
Runner-up in 2024 was another regular participant in Raj Viswanathan of Go-Ahead London, who claimed £3,800 in prize money. In third place was Brian Mackie of Stagecoach East Scotland and in fourth was Danny Bayley of National Express Coventry.
The top five was rounded off by Clive Sutton of First North and West Yorkshire.
