The mechanic as hero?

This latest video from Scania is a promotional item for the Top Team competition the Swedish truck maker runs every year. The idea is to make the idea of being a truck technician exciting, to make the guy or girl who fixes trucks a hero figure.

Getting the message across to young people today about how exciting it is working on a truck in a truck workshop is a pretty tall order. Anything which makes the whole idea of being a mechanic in the trucking industry has to be applauded.

One of the technicians featured in the video, Tim Johansson was interviewed after the video was made. He has worked as a service technician for almost four years. He was a member of a team which won the Swedish section of the Scania Top Team competition, in which teams of technicians compete by achieving diagnostic and repair tasks in the best time. In the grand final, teams from all over the world compete for the overall Top Team title.

“Working with the team gave me a head start in my profession,” said Johansson. “It was a great learning period for me.”

In 2013, the global Scania Top Team title was taken out by a team from the Scania dealership at Prestons in Sydney. The final was between teams from Australia, Finland and New Zealand.

“Unbelievable,” said team leader Phillip Sage at the time of the Australian team’s victory. “It’s the best experience ever. We had great teamwork. We said to each other, ‘Never give up!’ We never got stressed. We knew we could do it.”

Heroes indeed!