Pink Salary Exchange is celebrating after it was recognised by its peers as a key player and leading innovator in the transport industry.

We have landed the winning prize as the ‘Leading Salary Sacrifice Car Scheme 2023 – East Midlands’ for our Pink Salary Exchange scheme which launched in August 2021. This recognition comes from the UK Transport Awards 2023, the fifth consecutive awards event run by influential publication SME News.

The transport industry is crucial to the UK economy in terms of helping growth, enabling the country to function and aiding the development of efficient businesses. And yet in the last couple of years it has faced unprecedented challenges and constraints. These have included the COVID pandemic, the fuel crisis, spiralling operational costs and widespread national disputes and disruptions. The transport industry has recovered more swiftly from these various crises because it is essential to how the UK operates, and this is why this industry-wide recognition comes as a more valuable form of approval than ever before.

Expert panel and tough judging criteria

Winning this award has been a long process for us, which started when we submitted our bid for nomination and earned a place on the awards shortlist. These entries closed in January 2023 and from there a judging panel of four industry experts at SME News assessed the information presented by each nominee and researched further publicly available information. The winners in each category were judged on criteria which included:

• Client dedication
• Innovation
• Business growth
• Longevity
• Online reputation
• Customer feedback
• Business performance

We had a degree of confidence in our product, because the Pink Salary Exchange scheme has already been recognised as the best scheme available on the market by a panel of industry experts, but to receive this award is further acknowledgement that we have put together a progressive and ground-breaking product. The winners were announced by SME News on 28^th April and we join a list of influential transport businesses across road, rail, air and sea, including such diverse organisational sectors as car dealerships, train detection warning systems and snow removal machine manufacturers.

Award recognises ingenuity and hard work

All the winners are crucial to the industry and the national transport infrastructure in their own way, and the awards are specifically noted as recognising “ingenuity and hard work”. And with the Pink Salary Exchange scheme we set out to bring something new and exciting to the market, so it is amazing that our ingenuity and hard work in that respect has gained this appreciation and respect.

Amongst the unprecedented challenges referred to earlier in this article are the various ‘road to net zero’ targets set by the Government to reduce emissions and hit crucial climate objectives. Our Pink Salary Exchange salary sacrifice car scheme is central to that, and we see it as a critical factor in changing behaviours and enabling an infrastructure which helps to meet those objectives. This is what inspired us to design this product, and to be nationally recognised for taking that important step into the unknown is justification for the bold and innovative approach we have always taken as an organisation.