09-05-2025
Teams from bpost (Belgium - 3), La Poste Groupe (France), Posten Denmark (Denmark), Posten Bring (Norway), Posten Sweden (Sweden), Posti (Finland), and Swiss Post (Switzerland) united on 6 and 7 May 2025 at the Gardermoen Raceway near Oslo, Norway to compete in the seventh edition of the IPC Drivers’ Challenge. All posts have sent their best team, mostly selected through national competition or continuous measurement of driving behaviour. In line with international developments in sustainability efforts, all components of the Drivers Challenge were performed exclusively by full electric vehicles.
Looking back at the event, Holger Winklbauer, CEO of IPC, said: “The seventh edition of the IPC Drivers’ Challenge illustrated exactly what the initiative is all about. Rewarding the best drivers by bringing them together for this event and introducing them to the newest developments in electric driving is the basis for an excellent atmosphere. The co-host of the event, Posten Bring spared no effort to make everybody feel at home, and the warm atmosphere showed exactly what is the power of collaboration. When one of the people involved mentions after the event that she feels as if she has expanded her professional community tremendously thanks to this event, this showed exactly what it means for the participants and people involved. We hope we can continue to expand the event in the years to come.”
The teams were submerged in all aspects of the postal delivery chain. The atmosphere was friendly, though competitive and all teams displayed an excellent level of professionalism and dedication in each of the competition subcategories. The Swedish team excelled in all aspects of the competition and rightfully took this year’s IPC Drivers’ Challenge trophy home. Teams from Finland and France ranked second and third respectively.
As in previous editions, participating teams consisted of a professional driver and a postal manager. Tests in this edition of the IPC Drivers’ Challenge included:
- a theory test
- a series of car checks
- a challenging combination of car handling exercises, using the Paxster vehicles, especially designed for Posten Bring
- a 41 km-long eco-driving route on the public road surroundings of Gardermoen Raceway.
- a 20km-long delivery route combining driving and the delivery exercise, including 8 delivery points on the public road.
Two side-awards were also presented this year, an eco-driving efficiency award, rewarding the team who performed best in eco-driving, and managed to drive in the most energy-efficient way and a sportsmanship award, for the team that showed the best attitude, fair play and motivation, fully in line with the focus of the IPC Drivers’ Challenge on staff engagement. Serge Piraux and Alain Laudelout (bpost 3) displayed excellent driving behaviour in the electric Ford Transporter and were rewarded the efficiency award, while Xhemajl Likaj and Guiseppe Mazzotta (Swiss Post) lead by example in displaying great team spirit an positive attitude were rewarded the sportsmanship award.
Drivers’ Challenge as part of IPC postal sector sustainability programme
The Drivers’ Challenge is part of IPC’s sustainability programme, launched in 2019, bringing together 27 posts from Europe, America, Africa and Asia Pacific. IPC’s Sustainability Measurement and Management System (SMMS) provides a common carbon measurement and reporting framework based on internationally recognised standards and open to all posts globally. The IPC programme assesses both carbon management proficiency and absolute carbon emissions reductions and carbon efficiency of participating posts.