Tom Marty and Luc Ouellet recently took home the Top Service Technician Awards at the 2011 Navistar Service-Technician Rodeo in Schaumburg, Ill., after going head-to-head with 10 other commercial bus and service technicians in a series of simulations designed to test technical skills and speed.
Marty, a service technician for Mid-Sate Truck in Plover, Wis., and Ouellet, a service technician for Camions International Elite in Quebec City, Canada, are two of 12 top service technicians from International and IC Bus dealers across North America selected to compete in the fifth annual Navistar Service-Technician Rodeo held at the Schaumburg Convention Center last month.
“Tom and Luc demonstrated the highest skills and abilities in key areas of commercial servicing among the top 12 Diamond certified technicians competing in the event,” says Vaughn Allen, vice president of product customer support for Navistar.
The technicians competed head-to-head in a series of 13 stations designed to simulate service areas for air conditioning, brakes, drivetrain, electrical and MaxxForce engines. Each technician was scored on how quickly and effectively he navigated his way through the stations, diagnosing and fixing the simulated problems.
All of the participants are Diamond-certified through Navistar’s official certification program for its service technicians. In additions, the technicians are all either Automotive Service Excellence-certified or Canadian Provincial-certified.
Participants for the rodeo were selected from an overall group of the top 400 technicians at International and IC Bus dealers. From there, the group was narrowed to 12 participants through online testing, with the highest-scoring technicians in each region of the United States and Canada invited to compete in the rodeo.
Technicians from the following dealerships competed in the rodeo:
• Hunter Truck Sales & Service (Pittsburgh);
• Truck King International Sales & Service (Bronx, N.Y.);
• Hunter Truck Sales & Service (Smithfield, Pa.)
• Roberts Truck Center (Albuquerque, N.M.);
• Maudlin International Trucks Inc. (Orlando, Fla.)
• Rush Truck Centers of Idaho (Twin Falls, Idaho);
• Mid-State Truck Service Inc. (Plover, WI);
• Summit Motors LTD (Taber, Alberta, Canada);
• Lewis Motor Sales Inc. (Barrie, Ontario, Canada);
• Centre Camion Beaudoin (Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada);
• Midwest Transit Equipment (Whitestown, Ind.); and
• Camions International Elite (Quebec City, Quebec, Canada).
“Those participating in this competition have completed all the required and optional trainings and are at the top of their game,” says John Pfennig, manager of global education for Navistar. “They represent our 8,000-plus service technicians from International and IC Bus dealerships.”
