After having previous events in Montpellier (France) and Naas (Ireland), for the third edition, the IPC Drivers' Challenge moved up North.

On 03 March 2015, seven teams of highly qualified drivers from An Post (Ireland), bpost (Belgium), Correos (Spain), CTT Correios (Portugal), Posti (Finland), Posten Norge (Norway), and PostNord (Sweden-Denmark), took part in the third IPC Drivers’ Challenge on the testing track of Nokian Tyres in Ivalo, Finland.

The combination of low temperatures, snow and icy roads challenged the teams to succeed in a series of tests related to car handling, eco-driving, safety and customer service. The Posti team excelled in all categories and took this year’s IPC Drivers’ Challenge trophy home, while An Post and Correos ranked second and third respectively.

All teams that participated in the IPC Drivers’ Challenge consisted of a professional driver and a postal manager. The competition brought together drivers who had won domestic eco-driving challenges organised by their posts and had shown particular excellence in driving ecologically and safely while ensuring high-quality customer service. Some posts selected their champions based on day-to-day performance as well.
Tests in the third edition of the IPC Drivers’ Challenge included:

  • A theory test
  • A driver daily car check
  • A challenging combination of car handling exercises on a frozen lake, with certain elements being performed on pure ice,
  • A 14 km long, snow covered open road eco-driving route with a number of customer service elements.
Transport accounts for over 40% of total direct CO2 emissions by postal operators. Through a combination of measures, including eco-driving and an increased use of alternative fuels and vehicles, posts participating in the IPC sustainability programme have been able to save more than 447m litres of fuel over the six years into the programme, which results in important budgetary savings of more than €327m (US$434m).