The action will be streamed live on Facebook on Saturday, 8 October, from 09:00 CET.
The annual Operators Club Final, organised by Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE), is one of the construction industry’s toughest tests of precision operation.
This year’s event will see 20 semi-finalists from ten countries across the EMEA region (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom) come face-to-face at Volvo CE’s compact excavator facility in Belley, France, for a final round of gruelling, and somewhat unconventional, challenges.
The operator with the quickest time, taking into account any penalities for mistakes, will be named the Operators Club champion 2016.
Last year this honour went to three-time winner Othmar Pletzer from Austria, who successfully managed to guide a length of pipe through a maze on each side of a Volvo L120H wheeled loader bucket in 2:05 seconds. Pletzer will be defending his title once more in 2016.
The Operators Club was launched in Germany in 1998 and is open to operators of any brand of machinery. Today it is has more than 21,500 members and is growing continuously. A new branch has been added this year in the Czech Republic.
Each Operators Club branch runs its own events throughout the year, allowing operators to brush up their skills in a safe environment and share experiences with their peers. Networking opportuntities are also available through local Operators Club portals and social media groups. Other membership benefits include free entrance to exhibitions, such as bauma, exclusive hospitality, factory visits and discounts on Volvo CE merchandise.
“The Operators Club is an excellent way for us at Volvo CE to give something back to operators: they are often our biggest fans,” says Niclas Wahlström, vice-president for Hub West (continental Europe) within Volvo CE Sales Region EMEA and host of the Operators Club Final.
“The club also provides a reliable channel for us to listen to the needs and priorities of those who work with our machines day in, day out so we can design them to be even safer and easier to use, as well as more comfortable and productive,” says Val Ledden, vice-president of Marketing and Sales Support within Volvo CE Sales Region EMEA.
