At Cycle & Carriage, the exclusive motor dealer of the prestigious Mercedes-Benz, automotive technicians are trained to diagnose solutions for mechanical, electrical and electronic systems.

By Roland Tan

You don’t have to be a motoring enthusiast to recognise a Mercedes-Benz. The German marque is renowned the world over for high standards of engineering excellence and rugged reliability. It is a prestigious brand name, a status symbol immortalised in countless movies and advertisements.

And if you’re familiar with Mercedes-Benz, chances are you’d also be familiar with Cycle & Carriage (C&C). The company is the exclusive dealer of all Mercedes-Benz vehicles in Singapore, in addition to its distributorship of Mitsubishi, Kia and Citroën vehicles, and just like the famous Mercedes-Benz, C&C has a long history of service excellence to boast of.

The excellent record comes from the company’s constant commitment to providing professional services benchmarked against the best industry practices. For example, the Mercedes-Benz Center (MBC) at Alexandra Road is a 25,000 square metre facility that houses a showroom, an event hall, conference centre, boutique, gallery mall and a café all under one roof.

The principal of Mercedes-Benz, DaimlerChrysler, operates the Asia Pacific Regional Training Centre, known as the DaimlerChrysler Training Centre (DC-TC) at Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim. Very significantly, this is the only training centre of its kind outside of Germany and Dubai.

The DC-TC provides accredited training to those who aspire to become a part of the automotive industry. It offers a one-year apprenticeship programme for trainees with a relevant National Institute of Technical Education Certificate (NITEC). Through such programmes, C&C aims to equip technicians with the skills needed to meet its customers’ high expectations.

Self-reliance

“I have a Higher NITEC in automotive technology from ITE,” says 28-year-old Daniel Sim Chee Keong. “I learnt about the apprenticeship scheme during an ITE job fair and signed up for it. I’ve always been interested in cars, and my interest has led me to this career.”

Reflecting on his training at DC-TC, Daniel remarks that it had been very different from his time at ITE. Unlike ITE where he could rely on instructors for guidance, DC-TC emphasises a culture of “self-reliance” instead. Reference and course materials are readily available, and the trainees learn to apply such information directly to the technical problems they encounter.

The main objective of this approach is to encourage each trainee to be as independent as possible, to take ownership of the problem-solving process. In effect, this would be as close to a real working environment as a trainee can get, where real-life technical problems don’t always have “textbook” solutions.

Of course, this does not mean that the trainees would be left to fend for themselves! As Daniel says, “During the one-year apprenticeship programme, we study full-time at DC-TC and are paid an allowance.”

Fast learner

Previously, there was a three-year traineeship programme that is offered to those who do not have relevant NITEC qualifications. Chong Cheea Siang, 28, is one person who has benefited from this programme. Chong is a Malaysian who has previously worked as a draftsman, a junior technician in construction and in a transportation company. He has always had a passion for the automotive industry, but he did not join at first because of his lack of relevant qualifications. As such, he was happy to learn about the traineeship programme, and promptly joined after learning that it would provide all the training and certification he would need to become an automobile technician.

He was clearly a fast learner. Chong was one the six best trainees in his class of twenty people, and was selected to join the Electronic Automotive Technician (EAT) programme.

The EAT programme is a full-time course that equips each trainee with more in-depth knowledge about automotive electrical engineering over a period of six months. By the end of the programme, a trainee will have working knowledge of electronic components such as pollution reduction gadgets, Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) systems, satellite videos, night vision devices, massage and intelligent seats, and so on. These are but a few examples of the nearly 60 electronic systems and components that can be found in a Mercedes S-Class vehicle today.

The course was quite challenging, but Chong emerged as the top EAT trainee in his batch, and he is now a full-fledged MBC technician today.

“Working as an automotive technician is like being an actor behind the scenes. Although we don’t face the customer, we have to ensure that everything is done to a customer’s satisfaction,” says Chong with a smile.

Think and repair

More importantly, the emphasis on service quality means that it is no longer enough for an automotive technician to simply replace or install faulty vehicle components. A technician’s job scope has become larger and more sophisticated, as he is now required to investigate problems and think of solutions on his own.

Or as Chong puts it, “A modern technician is someone who thinks and writes with his left hand while performing repairs with his screwdriver in his right hand.”

He adds, “Our customers have very high expectations. When we perform troubleshooting, we make sure that we solve the problem for good. We are trained to solve mechanical, electrical and electronic problems. Each time I make a correct diagnosis, I gain confidence in my quality of work.”

Of course, providing service quality is not a solo effort. Teamwork is equally important as the ability to work independently. “For example, whenever I encounter troubleshooting problems, a colleague would willingly sacrifice his free time to help me out,” says Daniel.

“Every time when I’ve completed a task, the group leader in the workshop would give me feedback. If it’s a job well done,that gives me a lot of satisfaction,” smiles Daniel.