BUS drivers in the county have beaten 18 other areas for the outstanding quality of their driving.

Stagecoach in Oxfordshire has been given the Christopher Ball Memorial Award for the fourth consecutive year.

The award ceremony is held in memory of Christopher Ball, a project manager at Stagecoach who died in 2014.

Mr Ball was instrumental in introducing the GreenRoad eco-driving technology to Stagecoach’s bus companies across the UK .

The GreenRoad system is installed on all Stagecoach vehicles and uses a traffic-light LED system on the dashboard which gives drivers instant feedback on their driving performance, encouraging smoother, safer, and more fuel-efficient driving.

To date, use of GreenRoad’s system and Stagecoach’s comprehensive driver training programme has helped deliver a significant improvement in fuel efficiency and reduction in CO2 emissions.

Every ‘event’ such as harsh braking or steering is recorded and the system produces a safety score for the driver. To achieve Fleet Elite status drivers must have driven at least 500 hours and had a score of five or under throughout the year.

Forty-five per cent of Stagecoach in Oxfordshire drivers were awarded Fleet Elite status and, of those, a further 88 (45 per cent) achieved the ‘Master Fleet Elite’ status for consistently maintaining the highest driving standard for four consecutive years.

Martin Sutton, the company’s Managing Director, said the award was recognition of the professionalism of the drivers.