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Thirty-year-old vehicle mechanic, Kevin Lampert, from Liechtenstein, has won the 2017 edition of the BusTech Challenge, the popular Olympiad for bus technicians organised every two years by the Daimler Buses service brand, Omniplus.
Kevin floored other competitors from 16 European countries in the internal competition between authorised Omniplus service outlets and lifted the golden winner´s trophy in Neu-Ulm. Michel Hoeve from the Netherlands secured second place while the bronze statue went to Joris Keymeulen from Belgium.
Taking a deep breath after the awards ceremony, Kevin Lampert said in a modest tone : “I was definitely surprised to take first place. But I’m honoured and now even more motivated to continue offering the bus operators first-class service.”
A total of 768 participants, 216 of them from Germany, participated in the popular competition for bus technicians last summer. That was over 80 service employees more than in the previous competition. In three preliminary rounds of the contest, now being held for the fourth time, the employees had to answer a complex catalogue of online questions at their sites on various aspects of buses and coaches and their function, maintenance and repair.
During the final round in Neu-Ulm, the 16 respective national winners demonstrated their practical skills. At different stations, they performed tasks such as diagnosing faults, rectifying malfunctioning door controls, exchanging high-pressure fuel pumps and painting body parts – all under the scrutiny of service specialists, who set a strict time limit for each task.
Head of Marketing, Sales and Customer Services Daimler Buses, Ulrich Bastert, said the BusTech Challenge motivates the employees all over Europe.
“With “Compete with friends” as its motto, the competition was fair, and showed that our employees are happy to take on the daily challenges in bus and coach service. With the tasks we set, they were able to deepen their knowledge much further. Our operations and, in turn, our customers, feel the benefit of this,” Bastert said.
Omniplus service outlets in Europe
Omniplus offers comprehensive services for Mercedes-Benz and Setra buses and coaches through its more than 600 authorised service centres as the brand offers the largest bus-specific service network in the whole of Europe. All in all, 500 Customer Service & Parts employees and more than 200 service locations all over Germany ensure high availability of buses and coaches right around the clock.
The employees of the Daimler Buses service brand also train bus and coach drivers all over Europe in handling safety, economic efficiency and driving proficiency.
