The 2001 Toyota Autobase Technician Skills Awards

Toyota Selects Its Top Spanner Man

Want to know how to undertake a Visual Safety Report on a Toyota Avensis? Or align the wheels on an MR2 Roadster?

Of course any technician at one of Toyota’s 220 UK dealerships can, but Toyota has found the best of the best. His name is Steve Smith of Hartwell Toyota, Wolverhampton, winner of the 2001 Toyota Autobase Technician Skills Awards, Toyota (GB) PLC’s national competition to find the best technician from its UK dealer network.

Now in its 19th year, the Toyota Skills Awards is sponsored from within the Toyota family for the first time via Autobase, Toyota’s in-house aftersales brand developed as an initiative for dealers to help them retain existing customers while stimulating new business in the lucrative 4-8 year old vehicle market.

Over 250 Toyota Technicians from around the country entered the competition completing 70 multiple choice questions in the first stage. The top three entrants from each of the three sales regions made it through to the final phase held at Toyota (GB) PLC’s Technical and Training Centre at Salfords in Surrey in early October.

“The final is an intense full-day competition designed to allow the technicians to demonstrate their basic and advanced skills to the best of their ability,” says John Hoole, Toyota (GB) PLC’s co-ordinator of the event. “We test the finalists on 10 different technical disciplines from problems with brake pads, wheel alignment to completing a Visual Safety Report.”

The Visual Safety Report (VSR), the newest technical discipline in the Skills Awards, is a new initiative introduced by Toyota as a result of a recent report from the Office of Fair Trading on standards of service in the UK car servicing market. The VSR, now fundamental

to every technician’s day-to-day skills, creates a vehicle condition report for each customer highlighting issues and likely costs.

The event also included an afternoon of track driving and other team-based activities making for a competitive affair. “The level of skill shown by the finalists was outstanding, especially considering the pressured environment in which the evaluation takes place,” commented After Sales Director Mike Mead.

“Our industry remains under the spotlight for delivering quality service and it is through events such as the Toyota Autobase Technician Skills Awards that we can demonstrate how Toyota continues to deliver an unparalleled level of customer service.”

As well as the title of 2001 Toyota Autobase Technician of the Year, winner Steve Smith will attend the Pan-European final held in Brussels in November to represent Toyota (GB) PLC. In early 2002 Steve will travel to Japan to carry the UK flag at the ‘Assembly of Champions’.

THE 2001 TOYOTA AUTOBASE TECHNICIAN SKILLS AWARDS

WINNER – TOYOTA DEALERSHIP

• Steve Smith – Hartwell, Wolverhampton

RUNNERS UP

• Simon Breen – Johnson’s Toyota, Liverpool, Merseyside
• Ernie Cowan – Helensburgh Toyota, Argyll & Bute, Scotland
• Paul Field – Coxon, Henley-on-Thames
• Adrian Fuller – Somerset County Cars, Taunton
• Andrew Leggett – Bristo’s Garage, Ipswich
• Steve Sharples – Abbey Toyota, Redhill
• Bryan Shipstone – Ashleys Toyota, Southport, Merseyside
• Paul Taylor – Jeff Brown’s Toyota, Weston-Super-Mare

ENDS