The BusinessCar Techies are back – and this year they’re bigger and better than ever.

It’s been a busy 12 months for technology with a wide range of new innovations and advances making for an ever-evolving company car industry that has increasing opportunities, but also increasing complications.

Recognising these key innovations and services across the fleet sector, the Techies are the only awards dedicated to the intelligent use of technology in the corporate marketplace. We’re looking for key developments that make life easier, cheaper, cleaner or safer for business car operators, and it’s these clever ways of employing individual technology that win a much-coveted Techie, rather than the company as a whole.

That means smaller players showing examples of innovation and smart operation have as much of a chance of success as the giants of the industry, a fact proven in several cases where we’ve been impressed by ideas designed to help fleet managers and drivers.

Having gone from strength to strength since being launched seven years ago, in 2016 we received a record number of entries across the 10 categories, with quality, quantity and diversity of organisations all equally evident.

So competition is fierce and the quality of entries higher than ever, making the job even harder for our entries to stand out from their competitors.

Judged by the BusinessCar editorial team along with our tech-obsessed contributing editor Tristan Young, the panel has decades of expertise within the business car segment. For 2016 we have selected winners and, in some instances where a decision is particularly tough, up to two highly commended companies, across the 10 awards that are up for grabs.

To be in with a chance of winning, the 300-word entries needed to demonstrate significant cost savings, improvements to efficiencies, or new ways for fleets to more effectively manage their vehicles.

Choosing the winners was no easy feat, and with Highly Commended status only awarded in cases where the decision was closely run and more than one entry could justifiably be declared a winner, those companies given the commendation should be as proud as the winners of these increasingly influential awards.