Thatcham Research celebrates Border Force accolade

Thatcham Research has received a South East Deputy Director’s Award from training partner Border Force.

During their long-standing partnership, Thatcham Research has delivered a broad range of training to Border Force officers, including 14-day technical courses for newly recruited officers followed by refresher courses every two years to maintain competency.

The focus of the training, required by specialist Search of Vehicle (SOV) Officers responsible for deep rummaging vehicles, has been to ensure teams are up-to-date with the latest developments in vehicle technologies and architectures to enable best practice when searches are undertaken.

Giles Brooks, Thatcham Research business development manager, said: “We are immensely proud of this partnership, and the mission that sits at its heart to keep Border Force technicians safe while also providing dedicated intelligence to support rigorous and exhaustive vehicle searches.

“Searching modern vehicles is dangerous work, and it gives our teams great satisfaction to know that they are providing key skills to our Border Force colleagues. This ranges from high voltage battery isolation, to ensuring that they have the necessary awareness of airbag deployment risk, refrigerant handling requirements when searching air conditioning systems, and safe practices in addressing traditional fuel systems.

“This makes this award nomination all the more satisfying and significant for our excellent technical training teams, and we would like to sincerely thank the Border Force for this recognition.”