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 its first participation in the event, FIA Member Club Emergency Assist 991 (Botswana) successfully collaborated with FIA Region I and ACTA Clubs to replicate the event in Africa.

In his opening remarks, FIA Region I ACTA Sub Region and Emergency Assist 991 President Simon Modisaemang urged the Delegates from African Clubs to take this opportunity to learn and 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 three-day training would help bring African Clubs to the next level.

The event received a lot of support from FIA Member Organisations. Thanks to best-in-class trainers sent by FIA Member Clubs Koninklijke Nederlandse Toeristenbond (ANWB — the Netherlands), Touring Club Belgium (TCB — Belgium), and the Automobile Association of South Africa (AASA — South Africa), road assistance teams acquired knowledge in both 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.

Speaking on behalf of the technicians at the dinner hosted by EA 991 for Delegates, local business partners, and local media, Automobile Association of Kenya Road Patrol Manager Joseph Kaguuru Njagi 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 practice 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 sub regions”.