On 17th May 2017 a British team representing Woodwards Truck and Van Centre, Wigan – Team WOW – took third place competing against twenty-four international teams in the closely contested final of RTEC – Renault Trucks’ international aftersales challenge. The event, held in Lyon, the birthplace of Renault Trucks, was won by Team Hannover of Germany, with Swiss Team RTIS second, while another UK entrant from Renault Trucks Chiltern of Dunstable took a very creditable 9th place overall.
This was the second Road to Excellence Championship (RTEC) international aftersales challenge final, the culmination of a year-long challenge involving some 5,285 candidates in 1,421 teams from 49 countries in head-to-head competition.
Commenting on the success of Team WOW, Jon Hill, Dealer Principal of Woodwards Truck and Van Centre, said: “Following the initial national rounds, we were delighted that Team WOW was selected to represent the UK in the final. Back at the dealership we followed the competition avidly and were absolutely thrilled to learn that Team WOW and the UK had been awarded third place. This is a monumental achievement given the numbers involved, we’re all very proud of them and couldn’t wait to welcome them home!”
During the final, the 24 four-man teams faced six 45-minute tests, requiring them to perform complex maintenance and repair operations under real conditions. These carefully prepared practical challenges were designed to test and develop the skills of the competing teams in fields of expertise such as monitoring hydraulic steering systems, engine failure diagnosis, oil analysis, electricity, the used truck labelling procedure, as well as being faced with customer problems, such as unusually high fuel consumption.
The performance of the finalists was appraised and marked by experts from Renault Trucks all over the world. Collaboration and teamwork were also recognised, as the ability to work effectively together and use the strengths of each team member were essential for completing the challenges within the allocated time.
In the end, it was the team from the Renault Trucks distributor in Hannover, Germany, that was awarded the prize for the ‘Best Renault Trucks aftersales team’, with the distribution-repair team from Basel in Switzerland taking second place
‘Team Wow’ had previously competed in the last Finals in 2015. The team comprised Brad Warden, Matt McCall, Gordon MacDonald and Neil Bishop (Team Leader), who commented, “We failed to gain a place on the podium during the first RTEC challenge, but we learnt from the experience and this year we worked more methodically and with less stress, which helped us to win this much-appreciated third place.”
Neil continued: “We’ve had a fabulous time throughout the whole RTEC experience, we met some old friends and made new ones whilst in France and to top it off came home with a great result. We couldn’t think of a better way of showcasing the talent that works for the Renault Trucks network here and across the world than through RTEC, we can’t wait until the next competition in which we will hopefully get to the finals for the third time!”
