Volvo VISTA 2016 Compeitition

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Volvo Trucks USA Press Release  /  May 26, 2016

VISTA (Volvo International Service Training Award) is an international competition open to all aftermarket professionals within the Volvo Trucks’ and Volvo Buses’ global service network.

Currently it is the world’s largest competition for aftermarket personnel, with the last competition involving over 17,000 participants from 93 countries. Participants improve their skills, new friendships are formed, and for many it is an experience of a lifetime.

The semi-finals concluded on February 11, 2016. Thirty-two teams remain but only one will win it all at the VISTA World Championship Final on May 31 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

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Aussie Volvo teams set to contest VISTA World Finals

Prime Mover Magazine  /  May 26, 2016

The world’s best aftermarket professionals in Volvo’s service network, including two teams from its Australian dealer network, are set to meet at the World Finals of the Volvo International Service Training Award (VISTA) 2015-2016 in Gothenburg, Sweden, next Tuesday 31 May.

President of Volvo Group Australia, Peter Voorhoeve, said he is thrilled to have two Australian representatives, the VCV Townsville Barras from Queensland and the VCV Sydney Chullora Blues from New South Wales, competing in the World Final. “I am so proud of the men and women who make up the Townsville ‘Barras’ and Chullora ‘Blues’ for representing Australia in the VISTA global final," he commented.

"These technicians and workshop personnel provide world-class customer service day-in, day-out. For these teams to be recognised on a world stage is fantastic.” – Peter Voorhoeve, President of Volvo Group Australia.

The Volvo VISTA 2015-2016 biennial event has seen more than 18,500 participants take part in one of the largest competitions for Volvo’s aftermarket personnel. The challenges include teams of two to four aftermarket professionals competing in three theoretical rounds where the teams have to answer 30 questions in each round, covering the aftermarket area of the Volvo business and operations.

“Vehicle development demands that the mechanic’s training keeps pace,” said Kent Medin, instructor at the Volvo Trucks school for mechanics. "This requires a totally different kind of knowhow today in areas such as mechanics, electronics and IT systems. Consequently, mechanics today have much higher status than they did before."

VISTA has grown from being a local competition for Volvo’s mechanics in Sweden in 1957 to a global event spanning 98 countries today. The Asia Pacific region has also developed into the second largest region in terms of participation rate, with over 4,000 participants representing 15 different countries taking part in the 2015-2016 edition.

The top 32 teams will then move on to the World finals which will also be held in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 31 May at the Volvo Trucks global training centre.

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Australian teams impress at Volvo VISTA world final

Prime Mover Magazine  /  June 2, 2016

Bringing a half-year long global competition to a close, Finland’s ‘Harju’ team has won the final round of the Volvo International Service Training Award (VISTA) in Sweden this week.

Challenging technicians and service personnel to demonstrate teamwork and problem-solving ability in a real life workshop environment, VISTA is considered one of the world’s most demanding and sophisticated competitions for heavy vehicle workshop personnel.

It is the biggest competition of its kind in the world and has brought together more than 18,000 participants from 96 countries as part of the 2016 installment.

“This is unbelievable – I’m extremely proud and happy for my team,” said Immo Harju, Team Leader of Team Harju, after a tense showdown held on the outskirts of Volvo’s hometown of Gothenburg.

“VISTA is always a very hard competition. If you want to be successful, you must keep learning everyday. Even during the world final, we have been learning new things – so to win it again is amazing.”

The final round also saw two Australian teams compete in Sweden’s west: ‘Team Barras’ from Townsville and the ‘Chullora Blues’ from Sydney had come out on top of a demanding qualifying contest that was held across the entire Australia Pacific region, starting last spring.

The qualifying rounds saw them answer a suit of theory questions over three rounds held in September, November and February. After that, they went on to the regional semi-finals in April, where they qualified for the final round in Sweden, where the best 32 teams competed for the crown.

According to Volvo, having two Australian teams advance to the final was especially rewarding to see, pointing out that the Award’s focus is not so much on competing, but on skill development and continuous improvement for the company’s global workforce.

While neither Team Barras – comprising of Linda Casey, Mark Borm, Michael Stock and Sunil Pinto – or the Chullora Blues with Harikrishna Sayana, Pravin Bhogade, Pednekar Subhash and Aravind Dondapati made the top three, the skills developed during the contest far outweighed the final ranking, said Sayana. “We’re here to learn and prove that Australia can keep up with the best,” he told CRTNews. “Being under the top 32 out of almost 5,000 teams means we’ve already won.”

Sayana also pointed out that the "Hollywood-like" welcome the local Volvo team gave the participants already made everyone feel like a winner, with both Australian teams "excited" to be able to travel to Sweden and experience first hand "what Volvo is all about" – a privilege often reserved for management and sales personnel.

Agreed Claes Nilsson, President of Volvo Trucks: “VISTA is a competition that has only winners. The most important result is the competence development that the competition promotes,” he said.

“The primary goal of VISTA is to develop and improve the participants’ knowhow, skills and ability to cooperate. This in turn leads to improved quality in the work carried out at workshops around the world. Ultimately this means that VISTA contributes to improved customer service and increased customer satisfaction.”

Nilsson also said VISTA was a “way of showing how much we value the hard work carried out in our workshops the world over. It’s also a way for us to invest in the feature that our customers value the most – world-class service.”