Canadians win North American round of Volvo Trucks VISTA competition

The top technicians working on Volvo trucks in North America are Canadian.

A team of four technicians from Babine Truck & Equipment in Prince George, B.C. outperformed 208 other teams to win the 2012-2013 Volvo Trucks North American VISTA (Volvo International Service Training Award) World Championship semi-finals.

The Babine quartet – Tyler Kronebusch, Dan Orser, Matthew Giesbrecht, and Clarence Oosterhoff – now claims a spot among the best 32 teams in the world and will compete at the World Finals on June 25 in Gothenburg, Sweden, Volvo’s hometown.

The event, billed as “not your average competition,” started last August and included three rounds of online competition involving technical questions. The field was narrowed to five teams representing Volvo dealers in the U.S. and Canada who traveled to Volvo Trucks’ North American headquarters in Greensboro, N.C. for the final round. The other finalists were all American.

In Greensboro, the finalists were tested on their knowledge of service and parts literature and ability to look up parts and service information within the Volvo system. Contestants also had to troubleshoot pre-determined faults placed on two Volvo trucks and a Volvo D13 engine.

The VISTA competition, designed to recognize technician excellence, began as a national event in Scandinavia in 1957 and went global in 1977.

This year 16,710 people forming 4,391 teams from 93 countries participated worldwide.

To see a brief video from the North American VISTA competition, click HERE.