Congratulations! Team Poland won the “Global TechMasters Truck 2019” championship

“Can you pinch me so I can check I’m not dreaming?!” says Andrzej Stawski grinning from ear to ear. Yes it is true! Team Poland won the “Global TechMasters Truck 2019” world championship for Mercedes‑Benz customer service which is held every two years in Stuttgart by the Customer Services & Parts division at Mercedes‑Benz Trucks. Andrzej Stawski, who is visibly taken aback as he holds the silver trophy in his hands, was the coach of his team. The winners’ photo was a matter of pride for the team of five who proudly carried Poland’s red and white flag.

– Sibylle Bauder, Head of Mercedes-Benz TruckTraining for Customer Services & Parts

Tough tests – just like in real-life situations.

Diagnostics technician Jacek Littek is currently leaning over a screen. It’s his job to track down a reconstructed customer complaint: the shift times when accelerating are too long, and when driving downhill, the truck partially exceeds the maximum speed which has been set. The duo has just 60 minutes for the task. A clock projected onto a mobile partition wall is already counting down the remaining time. On the other side of the wall, the Finnish team is busy with the same task.

“The cases which we’ve reconstructed here can happen at any time in the daily work of our technicians,” says Andreas Körner. The team leader from Mercedes-Benz TruckTraining also helped design the tests. With a wink, he adds: “We don’t serve up the problems on a silver platter to the participants – that’s the whole point of having a world championship competition!” In other words: participants have to show what they are capable of – and in doing so they also need to demonstrate their team spirit!

What exactly that entails can be seen quite well from the “pit stop” task where impact wrenches are rattling away and the participants are shouting out their orders. Here, everyone is expected to co-ordinate with one another and help each other out. The task in question is to change the two interior wheels on the rear axle of an Actros. And it’s a race against the clock – after all, the real situations from which these tests are derived would also need completing as fast as possible. When working on the task, all of the requirements for road and work safety have to be observed, otherwise time penalties will be issued.

Here, the Polish colleagues are up against the Russians and the Austrians. They spent the past three days in a sort of training camp to prepare for the event. But despite their serious nature, just like all other teams present in Stuttgart, they too are having a good portion of fun as they work. “It’s a bit like the Olympics,” says service advisor Armin Schett. “If we’re not good enough to get a place on the podium, it’s not the end of the world.” At the end of the competition, the team of four come in around halfway up the rankings table.

– Sibylle Bauder, Head of Mercedes-Benz TruckTraining for Customer Services & Parts

The task which Armin Schett and the service advisors from other countries had to complete isn’t any less challenging than the wheel change: sitting at a desk, each participant is faced with a “customer” who describes a problem in the drivetrain of their truck and the task is to handle the complaint in a superior and customer-oriented way. An examiner checked to see how well they managed to give the right answers and ask the right questions within the scope of the competition. The examiner observed the proceedings at close quarters and continually took notes.

This task in particular makes it very clear what the Global TechMasters competition is all about: “Both when advising and when working in the workshop, or for Service24h, we need the best-qualified and most motivated people out there,” says Sibylle Bauder, who isn’t just Head of Mercedes-Benz TruckTraining for Customer Services & Parts but is also responsible for this world championship competition. “We’ve been very impressed: such a competition really does bring that home to you. Both for the participants themselves and for any of their colleagues who are familiar with the event!” That’s why, in the end, you can be sure of one thing: at Global TechMasters, there’s only one winning team – everyone!

Photos: Lisa Joechler