Arkansas Trucking Association

2014 TMC SuperTech

The 10th annual SuperTech was held September 22-24 during TMC’s fall meeting at the Dolphin Resort at Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Mark McLean Jr., a FedEx Freight technician from New York state, finished as grand champion for the second year in a row.

Mclean and other competitors were lavished with tools, merchandise and gift-card prizes. McLean and the two runners-up, also FedEx Freight technicians, will get to attend Nascar races during next year’s season.

Prizes were also awarded to the winners of the 15 skills stations. Arkansas’ own Eric Rusk, McKee Foods Transportation earned the top score at the HVAC station.

The Technology & Maintenance Council’s SuperTech competition recognizes and improves technicians’ skills, which is why big fleets back the program so solidly and why their mechanics win every year.

Mike Delaney, president of the WheelTime network of service shops, interviewed maintenance managers on why they participate in the annual technician event. Delaney looked for answers to two questions: "One: How has SuperTech impacted the way you train and develop technicians? Two: What business results can you attribute directly to your SuperTech efforts?”

Maintenance managers from participating carriers said their companies now select and train techs like SuperTech does, including using certification tests from ASE, a national automotive testing organization. Techs who have competited help train younger colleagues and act as mentors. This increases everyone’s knowledge and betters their performance, Delaney reported.

“Winning at SuperTech today means diagnosing more complexity, more accurately and more quickly than ever before. It means knowing – not thinking – that your trucks won’t come back. And it means taking team-based leadership to new professional levels to guide the next generation of techs. Ten years after inception, SuperTech is changing the way companies are doing business,” Delaney said.