GREENSBORO, N.C. — Service technicians from Volvo Trucks North America dealership Pare Centre du Camion Volvo in Levis, Que. emerged victorious at the Volvo VISTA 2009 competition last month.

VISTA is a hands-on competition to select the top dealer service and parts personnel, and to highlight technician excellence. It is also an effective way to maintain a high level of technical skill and proficiency in the Volvo dealer network, the truckmaker says.

Daniel Blais, Benoit Raby and Mario Labrecque of Pare Centre du Camion won the VISTA competition for the second time. Their first win was in 2003.

A total of 148 three-person teams from 85 Volvo dealers competed in the latest VISTA challenge. Each team usually consists of a mix of service and parts experts.

There were three rounds of competition involving technical questions and a strong hands-on element in which contestants had to troubleshoot pre-determined faults placed on two Volvo trucks and a Volvo D13 engine.

Since the VISTA program began in Scandinavia in 1977, Volvo has seen a strong correlation between dealers with teams in the final round and high customer satisfaction indexes.

Meanwhile, Volvo’s sister company, Mack Trucks, organized its own VISTA event of the first time. That competition was won by Mountain West Truck Center of Salt Lake City, but another Quebec dealer, Mack Ste-Foy, was a regional winner who made it into the top three.