Two UK teams through to Vista Finals

For the first time ever, two teams from the UK have earned the right to represent their Volvo Truck and Bus Dealerships in the grand final of Volvo’s ultra-prestigious VISTA Championship which will be held on June 26th in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The top UK teams are from Crossroads Truck and Bus at Hull and the Norwich depot of Volvo Truck and Bus Centre East Anglia. If either team wins, they will be crowned World Champions for their service ‘know-how’.

Each team assumes a nickname to add a humorous touch to the proceedings and to aid their identification in the rankings. While the top team from Crossroads enjoys the sobriquet of the ‘Valletta Vikings’, the East Anglians have called themselves ‘The Underdogs’. Team members for Crossroads are Paul Cooper, Andrew Cooper, Simon Nendick and Gary Burn. Norwich is fielding Richard Clayton, Lee Williams and Paul Mead.

VISTA, which celebrates its 30 th anniversary this year, is Volvo’s world-wide championship for aftermarket, parts and service personnel. It is globally the largest service competition by any manufacturer and to get to the final, teams have already competed in three gruelling preliminary rounds.

The competition started in September 2006 with 11,900 entrants in 3,245 teams from 68 countries. With the recent conclusion of the semi-finals, three of which were held for the first time at Volvo’s UK HQ at Warwick, 28 teams made up of 100 competitors from 24 countries have gone forward to the grand final.

Held in eight cities around the world, the semi-finals were highly competitive and exciting with the 28 teams from 24 countries proving to be the most expert in ‘Impact’, the Volvo Truck and Volvo Bus service system and best able to stand the pressure during the intensive theoretical and practical semi-final tests.

These are the 24 countries that will provide the top teams for the grand final:

Sweden (2 teams), Denmark, Finland, Britain (2 teams), Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland (2 teams), France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic (2 teams), Russia, Romania, Israel, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Brazil.

“VISTA 2007 is extra significant since it marks 30 years since it became known as VISTA and 50 years since Volvo’s very first workshop competition,” says VISTA Director Åke Hansson. “To us, VISTA is a gigantic training and development exercise for all personnel in our workshops around the world. To the participants, it’s a great chance to reap the rewards of their expertise. This makes it an excellent incentive in our search for skilled personnel for our workshops.”