John Lawson

A TNT Fashion Group employee has been crowned the RTITB (formerly "Road Transport Industry Training Board") Operator of the Year Competition Midlands and Southern England national champion.

Hosted by TNT Express Services UK and Ireland in Tamworth, the 15 June event saw competitors participate in two practical tests, a pre-use check and a theory test. They were marked on a "penalties basis", and John Lawson Junior from Nuneaton, who had the least number of penalties, was crowned champion.

Lawson received a shopping voucher and a trophy sponsored by Toyota Material Handling UK. He will compete in the grand final on 16 September at RTITB's headquarters in Telford, Shropshire.

The first runner-up was Colin Price from Telford. Price works for Cables and was trained by AES Training Services. He also received a shopping voucher and also goes through to the grand final.

Second runner-up Chris Potten was trained by Apex Training Services and is employed by Moorhouse and Mohan Ltd. He received a shopping voucher.

All competitors were given certificates to honour their achievement of getting through to the national final stage. Toyota Material Handling UK supplied 7FBMF electric counterbalance forklifts for the competition.

RTITB accredits materials handling equipment training provided at over 600 locations in the UK and Ireland and has a register of instructors numbering over 8,000, and a register of operators in excess of 250,000. The scope of its accreditation schemes includes forklifts, large goods vehicles and bespoke equipment used in ports, airports, construction, agriculture, horticulture and by rescue services.