Team GB crowned Volvo Masters champions
Volvo CE customer support team in Warrington wins Volvo Global Masters competition
TESTING the knowledge and competence of parts and service personnel worldwide, the team from Volvo CE’s Warrington customer support centre has won the final of the Volvo Global Masters competition.
The final, held at Volvo CE’s Training Centre in Eskilstuna, Sweden, featured eight teams from Indonesia, India, China, Brazil, Holland, the US and the UK.
The aim of the long-running competition is to increase the interest, knowledge and skills among the company’s service and parts technicians worldwide. It achieves this by creating healthy competition between dealerships in a bid to find the most skilled technicians around the world whose vast expertise is an essential part of the business.
The competing teams were judged on their technical and parts systems knowledge, proper handling of tools and demonstration of Volvo’s core values in action. Moving from test station to test station, the teams were faced with different challenges to tackle involving different model types across the Volvo CE range and their understanding of CareTrack – the company’s unique telematics system installed on all general-purpose equipment.
At each test station the team was given a work order and 10 minutes preparation to discuss how they might approach the problem. For example, on the excavator station, contestants might be told the customer had been complaining about the slow boom-up speed.
This was the only information they were given; the rest was down to how they would overcome the problem. Meanwhile, parts technicians were given questions to answer, testing not only their knowledge but also their ability to use the information available to answer them.
The title of Volvo Masters 2014 went to Volvo CE GB represented by Billy Heywood, Matthew Needham and Chris Walkers, with Mark Armsworth in support as team coach. In second place was Team Rudd Equipment from the US, while team Kuiken from the Netherlands came third.
‘Each team had already proven themselves to be worthy champions, having won through a series of local, national, sub-regional and regional finals since the competition began in May 2013,’ said Pål Torgersen, director of global competence development at Volvo CE.
‘As expected, it was a close race to become the Volvo Masters of 2014. Out of initially about 3,000 participants in the first round, 24 parts and service technicians had qualified for the global final and all merit recognition. My particular congratulations go to our deserving winners from Great Britain.’
Willie Watson, Volvo CE GB support centre manager, added: ‘We are immensely proud of our team bringing this high accolade for the first time to Great Britain and more specifically to the Warrington support centre. Winning this trophy has given everyone here a sense of pride in their achievement.’
