The driving skill contest aims to increase excavator operators' awareness of environmental protection. Photo: Courtesy of the event organizer

After getting through 32 city-level and four regional matches, the 24 finalists (from more than 6,000 original competitors) came together to fight for the titles of "Operator Idol," "Popular Idol" and "Lucky Idol" in Pudong New Area last Friday. They are all excavator operators and the prize they each won was the opportunity to use a Volvo excavator for a year for free. This was Volvo's First National Eco-operator Contest and it took place in Jinqiao.

After experiencing the three sections of the competition, including shoveling stones and piling blocks, the competitors also had to complete other tasks such as spearing balloons (in the preliminaries). The most fuel-efficient operator was Ren Wanli who won the title of "Operator Idol."

Railway line man

The 33-year-old operator from the Beijing competition region has 13 years' experience as an excavator operator. He has been involved in the construction of several railway lines and facilities. "I am very proud of my achievements working in the industry," Ren said.

Luo Dong, president of Volvo Construction Equipment, sub-region China said: "The operators who took part in this competition are highly skillful. There are over one million excavator operators in China, and they vary a lot in their skills. If 80 percent of them can adopt fuel-efficient skills and abide by the concept of fuel efficiency in their daily work, the aim of our competition can be achieved."

Li Fangyu, general manager of the Volvo CE marketing and sales support department said: "Compared with an average operator who has no concept of fuel efficiency, a fuel-efficient operator can save between 5 and 30 percent on the fuel used. If each operator sticks to operating and maintaining the equipment with expertise and skills in a fuel-efficient manner, 14.40 billion liters of fuel - equivalent to 3.76 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions - could be saved."

The competition was launched by the Volvo Construction Equipment Company, co-organized with the China Construction Machinery Association, and supported by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Department of Energy Conservation and Resources Utilization in Beijing in June of this year. The contest has aroused widespread attention from both the industry and the wider community. Through multiple offline and online formats, the contest attracted more than 87,000 registrants, 580,000 online participants, and more than 110,000 followers to its microblog page.

Greater efficiency

 The driving skills contest, which integrates Volvo's globally recognized driving technique training courses, also revolves around the theme of fuel efficiency. It places a great deal of emphasis on educating excavator operators in China and on environmental protection from various perspectives, while developing and enhancing their fuel-efficient driving awareness and skills. This encourages, and urges, front-line operators to join the ranks in developing a low-carbon economy and contributing to the construction of greener cities.

"We will hold the contest for three successive years, while the online and offline training courses will continue to be open to operators," added Li.

Volvo CE's Corporate Communication Senior Vice President Klas Magnusson said: "The fuel-efficient strategy is a long-term strategy which adheres to corporate citizenship, and uses the core values of 'quality, safety and environmental protection' as a benchmark. The 'Operator Idol' contest is one more milestone in Volvo CE's commitment to being fuel-efficient and to promoting green economic development. We hope that this contest has helped many excavators enhance their fuel efficient driving skills and increase their awareness in fuel-efficiency and other relevant fuel-efficient skills."