ISUZU SA TECHNICIAN RANKS 4TH

THINKING on your feet, staying calm under pressure and applying months of training and practice. This was what Isuzu truck technician Miles Swanepoel had to do to beat 64 other technicians from across the world in the recent Isuzu World Technical Competition in Japan.

Swanepoel ended in fourth place overall in the individual I-1 Grand Prix’s Commercial Vehicle division of the competition. The top three positions were taken up by technicians from Japan (first), Indonesia (second) and Australia (third). The competition, which was hosted over two days, consisted of individual and team divisions with representatives from 32 participating countries.

The technician from Isuzu Truck

Centre Cape Town said even though he was hoping for a good position in the individual competition, he wasn’t sure where he would end up since the level of competition was very high and every year it’s raised to a higher level.

“As a team, we had to work on a power-steering box, and individually we had to solve problems on a stationary truck, each one with the same fault. In the individual competition it was required of us to carry out the 50-point inspection to identify six faults on the truck, a complete vehicle inspection. We had three minutes to strategise individually without our coach and 17 minutes to apply the practical work individually,” said Swanepoel.