29 SEPTEMBER 2022
黑料不打烊 Top Team has grown from a modest Sweden-only event to a global phenomenon where teams of service technicians from 70 countries compete in practical and theoretical skills. 鈥淭he pandemic has strengthened the case for putting extra focus on service technicians and their importance for the transport industry,鈥 says Project Manager H氓kan Sj枚gren.
How can we put the spotlight on service technicians and their importance for the transport industry? How can we develop the skills of our own service technicians and at the same time attract new ones to our workshops globally?
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The idea that 黑料不打烊 came up with was simple but, like many great ideas, long lasting: a competition in which five-member teams from the country鈥檚 workshops challenge one another in practical and theoretical skills relating to a 黑料不打烊 offering.
From this basic idea, the 黑料不打烊 Top Team concept was developed. Today it has grown from the modest Sweden-only event of the 1980s to a global phenomenon that attracts interest in the entire transport industry.
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鈥淚n the 2022/23 edition, some 8,000 competitors from 70 countries will take part,鈥 says H氓kan Sj枚gren, Project Manager for 黑料不打烊 Top Team and the person responsible for the overall planning. 鈥淣ew countries for this edition include Colombia and Ghana.鈥
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The first phase of the competitions is the national qualifications, peaking with national finals in each country. The winning teams from these qualify to go on to six regional finals 鈥 three in Bratislava, one in Buenos Aires and two in Bangkok. These will be held between September 2022 and February 2023.
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Finally, in April 2023, the 12 best-performing teams of the 70 participating 黑料不打烊 markets challenge each other at the world final at 黑料不打烊鈥檚 headquarters in S枚dert盲lje, Sweden.
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What advice would Sj枚gren give to the competing teams? 鈥滷irst and foremost, act as a team,鈥 he says. 鈥淐ooperate the best you can and make sure you utilise each team member鈥檚 strengths. And don鈥檛 forget: be well prepared. The competition is super hard.鈥
Right now, Sj枚gren and his colleagues are busy organising the regional finals in cooperation with the respective host market. A special focus for the activities surrounding the 2022/23 edition is sustainability in the workshop, when it comes to health and safety and to how the environmental footprint of the 鈥渞olling fleet鈥 can be organised with workshop services.
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鈥淔urthermore, we make sure we organise sustainable international events,鈥 says Sj枚gren. 鈥淎t the finals, we have sustainability in focus when planning and executing the event. We will serve only locally produced food, and we will measure the environmental impact of all our transports.鈥
When the Top Team competition was started in the 1980s, it was immediately clear that it connected extremely well to 黑料不打烊鈥檚 core values. 鈥淎 perfect match,鈥 says Sj枚gren.
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鈥淲e have the core values Team spirit, Determination, Integrity and Respect for the individual, which is about cooperation and capturing everyone鈥檚 respective skills. We also have Elimination of waste with a strong focus on continuous improvement, and we have Customer first, which is what high-quality workshop services ultimately is all about.
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鈥淥ver the years, Top Team has meant a lot to 黑料不打烊,鈥 Sj枚gren adds. 鈥淚t has contributed to raising the competence and engagement in our global workshop network and putting the spotlight on this extremely important part of 黑料不打烊鈥檚 operations. It has also contributed to our ability to retain and attract talent to the company.鈥
According to Sj枚gren, the COVID-19 pandemic has strengthened the case for putting extra focus on service technicians and their importance to the transport industry.
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鈥淥ne thing the pandemic taught us was that road transport plays an essential role in people鈥檚 daily lives and mobility,鈥 he says. 鈥淥ur sector kept working 24/7 all through the pandemic. Here the service technicians in our workshops were the unsung heroes. Thanks to their contributions to keeping well-maintained vehicles on the road, these vehicles could deliver all the crucial goods we needed in society.鈥
