The first ACTA Road Patrol Training for Excellence was organised in Gaborone, Botswana from 22 to 24 June 2022. Five African road patrol teams from Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa joined the training. The Road Patrol Training for Excellence is a yearly event organised in Europe by FIA Region I and ARC Europe. Less than a year after their first participation in the event, EA 991 (Botswana) successfully collaborated with FIA Region I and ACTA clubs to replicate the event in Africa.

The president of ACTA and EA 991, Simon Modisaemang urged, in his opening remarks, the delegates from African Clubs to take this opportunity to learn and to ask the trainers as many questions as possible. He strongly believed that the technicians in attendance had a lot of potential, and the knowledge received in this 3-day training would help bring African Clubs to the next level.

The event received a lot of support from members of the network. Thanks to best-in-class trainers sent by ANWB (the Netherlands), TCB (Belgium), and AASA (South Africa), road assistance teams acquired lots of knowledge in theoretical and technical training. Topics included customer excellence, safety during roadside assistance interventions, and technical diagnostics. The trainers were particularly impressed by the Patrol teams’ eagerness to learn.

The lessons were challenging and rewarding. Speaking on behalf of the technicians at the dinner hosted by EA 991 for delegates, local business partners, and local media, Joseph Kaguuru Njagi, Road Patrol Manager, AA Kenya, expressed the delegates’ gratitude and their wish to see this type of training become a regular and annual exchange for Road Patrol teams to share expertise and build up an African network for technical assistance collaboration.

In his message addressed to delegates, FIA Region I President Thomas Møller Thomsen encouraged this initiative to raise the overall standard of roadside assistance services by providing an opportunity for exchange on best practices and the latest developments in the market. He praised the success of this training event as “an achievement that illustrates FIA Region I’s mission to empower the Clubs in the region and subregions.”