The Bus Driver of the Year National Final 2025 will be held on Sunday 14 September, organiser the UK Bus Driver of the Year Association has announced.
That date is a fortnight later than is customary but has been settled on to avoid a clash with the switch-on of the Blackpool Illuminations, the organiser says. The contest will again be based at the Imperial Hotel in Blackpool.
The Association hopes to attract more support for the contest from independent operators in 2025, although it notes that overall entry levels have been strong since the competition resumed in 2022.
Preparations for the next National Final will start in January 2025, but in the meantime, Graeme Healy has been appointed as a director on the 11-strong Bus Driver of the Year Council.
Mr Healy succeeds John Jardine and is a dedicated driving examiner with Lothian Buses. The Edinburgh operator and its subsidiaries have long supported the contest, with Lothian East Coast Buses representative Thomas Gilhooley having been crowned Bus Driver of the Year in 2024.
Mr Healy is a second appointee to the Council in 2024. He follows former Traffic Commissioner for North West England Gerallt Evans onto that leadership team.
Next year’s national final will be the 57th. The Bus Driver of the Year competition can trace its roots back to 1967 as a practical skills competition organised for Coventry Corporation drivers.
The current approach began in 1992, when the Council radically overhauled the National Final contest to more realistically reflect everyday conditions, with a two-mile route through Blackpool and along Middle Walk on the resort’s seafront that continues to be observed.
