Oct

Road Patrol Training for Excellence 2017

03 October 2017 > 06 October 2017 Vransko, Slovenia jvervaeck@fia.com

FIA Region I and ARC Europe Group held the Road Patrol Training for Excellence on 3-6 October in Slovenia with 16 road patrol teams from all over Europe. Following three days of training, ANWB from The Netherlands was awarded the title Road Patrol Team of the Year, TCB from Belgium in second place and HAK from Croatia in third place.

Laurianne Krid, FIA Region I Director General said: “As car technologies evolve, roadside assistance must be in constant evolution to offer the best service to Mobility Club members. The Road Patrol Training for Excellence gives a unique opportunity to road patrol teams to compete, thus improving and deepening their skills.’’

Alexander Zerzaihi, Network and Operations Director ARC Europe Group, said: “ARC Europe Group is known for its quality service as a provider of roadside assistance. The Road Patrol Training for Excellence helps improve our standards even more and fulfill our ultimate goal, getting motorists back on the road.”

This year ADAC, Germany, TCS, Switzerland and AMZS, Slovenia joined the team from the AA, UK at as trainers for the participants.

Participation is limited to sixteen teams and registration is done on a first come, first served basis. The event will include both training and assessment sessions. During the assessment, the participants are organised in Club teams and receive points based on performance. The teams are expected to identify the cause of breakdown on various vehicles and to repair them.

Criteria for evaluation

• Safe way to address the breakdown
• Customer service
• Time spent for the repair
• Usage of the knowledge acquired during the theoretical sessions
• Teamwork
• Own automotive technical knowledge
• Success of repair

Number of participants

One team per Club with:
1 member of road patrol
1 road patrol trainer
1 interpreter (if required)

• Patrol: He/she should not have participated at least in the last edition of the Road Patrol Training for Excellence.
• Patrol Trainer: He/she should not have participated at least in the last edition of the Road Patrol Training for Excellence.
• Exceptions: Should an organisation have only one trainer among their employees, this trainer is entitled to enrol and to participate 2 years in a row in the RPTfE.
• However, it is up to the organisation committee to assess the enrolment case by case to make the final decision.
• Interpreter: The interpreter helps his/her team whenever the language is a barrier to understand the training knowledge and enables the communication with the trainers during the assessment. There is no restriction for the interpreters to participate in the RPTfE several times.

Please note that while the interpreter can be present during the assignments, only the team members (road patrol member and road patrol trainer) are strictly allowed to perform the assignments. The guests are not allowed to be present during the assignments. This means that neither the interpreter nor the guests are allowed to solve the assignments. Should a team not follow this rule, the organising committee might decide on disqualification. There will be a clear perimeter indicating the area that can only be accessed by the participants and 1 translator and that guests are not allowed to enter.

Technical coordination Team (Trainers)

• Safe way to address the breakdown
• The Automobile Association (AA)
• Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil Club (ADAC)
• Auto-Moto Zveza Slovenije (AMZS)
• Touring Club Switzerland (TCS)
• The training and assessment sessions will be in English. The teams who do not speak English are encouraged to come with their own interpreter. Translation into other languages will be provided for the highest requested languages and depending on possibilities on the spot.

Patrol Cars / Roadside Tools
Participants should come with their own fully equipped road patrol cars and diagnostic devices. The teams will be asked to use road patrol equipment during the assignments of the contest. Having own equipment might increase the chance of success. The host organisation AMZS could, however, make available few provisional road patrol cars for the teams who are unable to bring their own. This should be requested by the Club and it will be up to the organisation committee to assess the request case by case to make the final decision.

All participants are required to bring their own diagnostics tool, even if they cannot come with their own road patrol car.

During the event, there will be an exhibit of the road patrol cars and the roadside assistance tools. This is a great opportunity to share best practices and to learn from each other.

Transfer from hotel to training centre
Punctuality is a very important aspect of the competition. Participants and guests will be transferred by bus from the hotel to the AMZS training centre. Please note that the busses will leave strictly on time, meaning that participants showing up late will need to arrange transfers by themselves.

Prize
The organisations who belong both to FIA Region I and to ARC Europe Group are eligible to be granted the “Road Patrol of the Year 2017” award based on their performance during the assessment. Each participant will receive a certificate of participation.

Registration
In order for the organising committee to welcome the participant in the best possible way, the participants can only make changes to their travel arrangements until 2 weeks before the event. Changes made after 19 September 2017 will need to be paid for by the Club (€100 per change).

Costs
The participation fee for the training is €150 per team (1 member of road patrol, 1 road patrol trainer and 1 interpreter, should the team require one). Any additional Club staff wishing to take part can do so for a discounted registration fee of €100.

Dress code
Training and contest: patrol uniforms (the training and the contest will be in- and outdoors).
Social program: casual and rain jacket/coat