Cog Swappers to world final

SCANIA TECHNICIANS FROM CHRISTCHURCH ARE headed to Sweden in April to compete in the 12-team final of the global Scania Top Team competition.

The `Cog Swappers’ who won the New Zealand final last year competed in the regional final in Thailand over the February 10-11 weekend, taking a win that brings them one step closer to defending New Zealand’s champion status in the global Scania Top Team competition.

Alongside co-winners Scania Malaysia, the ‘Cog Swappers’ have now qualified to compete in the global Top Team final in Sodertalje, Sweden this April where they will take on 11 other service teams from around the world to vie for a prize of just over $80,000 NZD.

Scania’s global Top Team competition challenges the technical skills of professional service teams within the Scania network, putting them through theoretical and practical exercises that require specialist knowledge, team spirit, and discipline.

These skills play a big part in the day-to-day work tasks at Scania and help solidify “The Scania Way” - a corporate culture based on six core values including customer first, determination and team spirit. Ultimately, these values guide Scania’s actions, support it in creating value for its stakeholders and helping it become the leader in the shift towards a sustainable transport system.

“We’re super proud of our Scania New Zealand Top Team,” says Scania New Zealand Service Director Raul Rodriguez

“They have worked extremely hard to defend their win this time around and we hope to see them achieve this at the final in Sweden. It’ great for us to know that our service technicians are among the best in the world, and we are providing our customers with world-class service.”

The Top Team competition format is designed around daily work patterns with the main objective being to satisfy the needs of the customer. Teams of five are required to complete five practical workstations, each with a 20 minute time limit.

The global Scania Top Team competition started in Sweden in 1989, originally restricted to Swedish workshops. In 1996 the competition grew to the five Nordic countries and extended to 17 markets internationally in 2003. The most recent competition in 2018 saw 70 international markets compete where the New Zealand team was crowned champions.