Two UK teams compete in VISTA Championship

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 are being held today (June 26th) in Gothenburg, Sweden.

It is 50 years since Volvo started a competition for service personnel and 30 years since that competition became known as VISTA – Volvo’s worldwide competition for aftermarket, parts and service personnel. Held every two years, the competition is now bigger than ever with the winners being crowned ‘World Champions’.

This years’ competition started in October 2006, with the first, theoretical round attracted 11,849 entrants made up of 3,245 teams from 1,010 dealerships in 69 countries. Following the third round in February 2007, the number of teams progressing to the semi-finals was reduced to 160 and now, after nine months of competition in workshop expertise, the final of VISTA has at last reached the final, to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden today (26th June).

The contestants are mainly workshop technicians and parts personnel – from Volvo Truck and Bus dealerships worldwide – and today’s final will be a full day of difficult practical tests in which the ability to co-operate and a knowledge of ‘Impact’, the Volvo service and parts information system, will be key factors.

The top UK teams are from the Hull depot of Crossroads Trucks and Bus and Volvo Truck and Bus Centre East Anglia of Norwich. Each team assumed a nickname to add a humorous touch to the proceedings and to aid their identification in the rankings. The top team from Crossroads (Paul Cooper, Andrew Cooper, Simon Nendick and Gary Burn) go under the sobriquet of the ‘Valletta Vikings’, whilst the East Anglians (Richard Clayton, Lee Williams and Paul Mead) have dubbed themselves ‘The Underdogs’.

“VISTA is a fantastically exciting experience for the competitors,” says Volvo Trucks CEO Staffan Jufors. “To Volvo, it’s a highly comprehensive and important training initiative. According to our calculations, VISTA 2007 represents a training input of 275,000 hours involving most of our service personnel worldwide.”

He added, “VISTA helps to enhance the status of the service trade and enables us to attract the best talents into our workshops at times when competition for labour is tough, especially in markets where we are enjoying strong growth. Customer service is an increasingly important competitive parameter. Ultimately, it improves the quality of our workshops, to the benefit of our customers.”