A team from Australia has taken second place overall in truck maker Scania’s International service competition, know as Top Team, coming in close behind a team from Sweden where the competition took place last weekend.
The Swedish and Australian teams battled it out in what Scania officials labelled a nerve-wracking final, with the local team taking home a bundle of cash to the amount of EUR50,000 or around $AUD80,000
The Australian team was made-up of six personnel from Scania Dandenong in Melbourne, who won through after clinching the national title in November last year before winning the regional final in Bangkok earlier this year to secure their place in the World titles at Scania HQ.
The competition was contested by 12 teams service teams from around globe who qualified through national and regional finals to make it to international Top Team World Final.
Scania says it took an outstanding and exceptional performance in both theoretical and practical challenges to make it to and through the finals with more than 8,000 service technicians and parts experts from across 60 countries having contested national and regional titles before the final 12 teams were selected for the finals.
The finalists for the competition came from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, and Germany.
While the the team from Sweden finished in first place the Scania Dandenong Team from Australia were a close second with an other team of our trans Tasman friends from New Zealand taking third, while the 2023 title holders from Germany finished in fourth. The Australian team placed third when they last contested the Top Team final in 2023.
Since its inception in 1989, Scania’s Top Team contest has developed from a national training event into a global training program today with the focus on practical and theoretical skills.
Scania says the contest is important because its service teams are vital for its success.
“Their dedication, knowledge, and efficiency give value to our customers, making sure that their vehicles stay out on the road and the Scania Top Team competition is one way to highlight the importance of service personnel,” said Swedish team member Simon Olofsson
“What makes the competition such a great experience is to challenge ourselves, learn new things, and work through situations we do not normally face in our daily work,” he said.
Scania says its Top Team contest begins at the team’s workshop with theoretical challenges, with the best teams advancing to the national finals where theoretical exercises are supplemented with practical ones.
Winners of the national finals meet at the international regional finals and rom here the 12 teams who make it to the world finals are tested on a range of competition exercises requiring knowledge, team spirit, and discipline, with the program following a format of daily work patterns, including the most essential objective being to satisfy the customer’s needs.
