“There are obvious reasons for hosting training sessions, like keeping technicians’ know-how up-to-date with the latest developments in trailer refrigeration,” comments Davide Fusciani, Training Manager at Thermo King. “But dig a little deeper, and you’ll notice that training will also keep your technicians satisfied. They’ll find more joy at work.”
We sat with Davide Fusciani and Mick Ward, Head of Engineering at Marshall Fleet Solutions, to discuss the merits of (in-house) training sessions.
We offer the best training in the UK
Apprentice to Expert at Marshall
“At Marshall, we host a wide variety of courses backed by Thermo King – ranging from beginner apprenticeships, all the way to expert courses,” explains Mick Ward. “Apprentices will complete their training inhouse with Marshall as well as attending engineering college courses where they will get to know the basics of transport refrigeration and the cold chain.”
Marshall stands out in two distinct ways:
- Hands-on approach:
“Whenever a new product arrives at our dealership – such as the recently released Advancer or the E-200 electric unit – we will create a unit-specific training course that will look at the unique aspects of the equipment so that we can quickly get this information to our engineering teams.
- Best material:
“We believe that supported by Thermo King and delivered by our fantastic training manager, we offer the best training in the UK for our much-valued engineers. With 95% of our 170 strong engineers being mobile and spread across the length and breadth of the country, it’s vitally important that when they attend our training courses the equipment, they will work on is as up to date and wide-ranging as possible.”
Our engineers are very proud of working for Marshall
I am a Marshall engineer
In-house training is great. But how do you show your customers that your engineers and technicians are properly trained? “That’s one of the most important and most difficult exercises. However, I think Marshall has found a great solution,” knows Davide Fusciani.
“Last year we put together a program of improvements specifically for our engineers, which we launched in January and named Engineer 2020. This consisted of upgrading all the engineer’s tablets and making every van a mobile hotspot – both were to enable the engineers to work as efficiently as possible.
Also, we rebranded all our workwear so that our teams look and feel the smartest, not only in our industry but across all sectors. Lastly, we revised our whole approach to remuneration – creating a scoring matrix that used both soft & hard skills to rate the engineer.
Following this program, we created promotional videos showcasing all aspects including an in-depth look at our training center. Our engineers are very proud of working for Marshall and were keen to be involved in these videos so we included them speaking directly to the camera and saying they were “More than an engineer, they were a Marshall Engineer”.
Several generations at Marshall
“Training is an essential part of life here at Marshall. Our technicians are like family – and often stay here for 30, 40, even 50 years. Sometimes, you can take family quite literally because there are several generations of the same family working here”, remarks Mick Ward.
