The first meeting of the judges for the 2014 UK Coach Awards will take place in London during this week, the last week of February.

The panel of industry experts includes representatives from key industry bodies including consumer representatives, and will be examining the entries across the 16 categories to be presented this year.

The UK Coach Awards has announced that this year's Guest of Honour will be Chris Owens, the current President of bus and coach industry trade association the Confederation of Passenger Transport. He will present the awards to winners at the ceremony, which is to be compered once again by the BBC's Carol Kirkwood.

UK Coach Awards organisers have announced that judging of the Coach Awards will be getting under way this month. Over 100 nominations have been received across 14 award categories.

The deadline for nominations for the UK Coach Awards 2014 has been extended until after Christmas. Nominations will now close on Friday 17 January.

Commenting on the decision, UKCA director Chris Cheek said, "We've already had well over 50 nominations for the various categories from coach operators and their customers. But it's a very busy time of year and we recognise how little time everybody has - so the more scope we can give everybody who might want to enter, the bettter."

A new video to promote the 2014 UK Coach Awards has been launched on this web site.

The short presentation runs for just over three minutes and uses a combination of video footage and still images to tell the story of how the awards recognise, reward and inspire - and how the scheme is looking for the people, projects and organisations that really deliver for their customers.

You can watch the video by following this link or clicking the "latest video" button on the left.

The organisers of the UK Coach Awards have said that entries for the 2014 competition are encouraging, but are reminding operators, tour organisers and their customers that there is still time to enter.

UKCA Chairman Allan Edmondson said: "When we launched the 6th annual competition in September, many operators were still busy with their peak season commitments. As we go into the quieter autumn season it's worth reminding everyone that entries are open until December 6. Coach operators can nominate themselves for a number of awards or, alternatively, their customers can nominate companies, drivers and support staff."