On 30 September, registration opened for the world’s largest and growing service market competition, VISTA, the Volvo International Service Training Awards.
This year up to 20,000 technicians from Volvo Trucks and Volvo Buses global dealer network are expected to participate. Through teamwork and competence development VISTA aims to attract and maintain skilled technicians.
Even though VISTA is a competition, the main objectives are to encourage teamwork to build team spirit and pride, while also inspiring self-improvement and competence development. It’s a way for service market personnel to increase both their knowledge and the quality of their work which, in the end, leads to improved customer service and greater customer satisfaction.
Highly skilled and motivated technicians enable Volvo Trucks’ workshops to carry out fault diagnosis and fix trucks’ problems in a timely manner while also meeting high quality standards. These skills are key in helping customers achieve maximum uptime for their trucks.
“A top-of-the-line service network is crucial for our customers’ truck business,” says Roger Alm, President of Volvo Trucks. “VISTA shows how important our mechanics are and, at the same time, the competition improves our skills so we can deliver outstanding service provided by the best service crews in the world.”
VISTA is growing from year to year and the expected 20,000 attendees from the global Volvo dealer network will work together in around 5,000 teams. The competition is a way for Volvo Trucks to address the worldwide challenge of both recruiting and retaining competent workshop technicians.
“The VISTA World Championships give the teams an opportunity to show the world what they are capable of and compete against the very best in front of an audience of tens of thousands. VISTA is more than a competition, it is a celebration of teamwork, diversity and talent, and this is what makes VISTA unique,” explains Anna Rogbrant, VISTA Project Manager.
About VISTA
VISTA stands for Volvo International Service Training Awards, which started in 1957 and was originally a competition only for Volvo technicians in Sweden. By 1977 it had reached out across all continents, attracting authorised Volvo dealers from all over the world. Today VISTA is a biennial event and the biggest competition for service market personnel in the world.
VISTA is open to Volvo Trucks and Volvo Buses dealerships and their technicians worldwide. To qualify, participating teams need to complete two parts comprising theoretical and technical questions.
In the most recent competition held during 2017-18 a total of 240 teams qualified for the semi-finals, which were held in Gothenburg, Sweden. The top 40 teams then competed in Curitiba, Brazil in June 2018 at the VISTA World Championships, with the Estonian team ‘Viies Ratas’ ultimately winning the competition.
