BUS drivers in Hampshire are celebrating being crowned the greenest behind the wheel.

First Southampton has presented 12 of its drivers with a new award as part of a drive to boost environmentally friendly travel.

The winners, based at the firm’s Pound Tree Road depot, have been presented with the Greenroad Fleet Elite Award.

Their performance was calculated through a new piece of equipment installed on buses designed to provide a safer, smoother journey while reducing their carbon footprint.

The DriveGreen system has been fitted to dashboards of all its fleet’s vehicles and features a traffic light system measuring drivers’ performance.

The winning drivers were Randall D’Bell, Peter Major, Paramjit Nijjar, Leslie Jacobs, Russell Cade, Malcolm White, Boniface Silva, John Croft, Jason Webber, Christopher Webber, Andrew Olszewski and Ryan Drouet.

First general manager Chrissie Bainbridge said: “Our drivers have embraced our DriveGreen technology and, as a result, we are providing customers with more comfortable journeys and reducing our carbon footprint.”