First Day of SuperTech Kicks Off in Orlando
ORLANDO, Fla. — Contestants at 2014 SuperTech at the Technology & Maintenance Council fall meeting Sept. 22 began an intense first day of competition with a 100-question test and identifying maintenance problems at 11 stations intended to test their hands-on skills.
Of the 133 competitors, 112 will advance to the second and final day Sept. 23 and get their hands on the real equipment at 14 stations.
The competition is so sharp that FedEx, which is fielding 12 contestants, staged a two-day boot camp for their technicians on the eve of SuperTech.
“The goal here is not only to recognize technicians for the job that they do, but allow the individuals to look at themselves and understand their strengths and their areas of improvement in a positive fashion through a competition,” contest Chairman George Arrants said.
Though the event is a horse race of sorts to crown the nation’s top diesel technician, it also is a way for fleets to identify deficiencies or “pain areas” in maintenance to shape future training, Arrants said at a media briefing Sept. 21.
After all, if the top competitors at SuperTech are having difficulty with a specific problem and in need of additional training, then “the other 99.5% back at the shop probably need the same thing,” he said.
This year, contest officials are adding a problem on drive belts, TMC Technical Director Robert Braswell said.
“Because of the improved materials in drive belts, you can no longer always necessarily visually identify whether the belt is bad or not,” he said.
But electrical problems continue to challenge maintenance techs more than any other,” Arrants said.
“One of our stations will be electrical, where we’re still struggling,” he said. “And some of our other stations that have electrical components, they’re still struggling also. We’re making some strides, but we’re still struggling.”
Opinions on the difficulty of the testing were mixed Monday after the morning round of the competition. Zachary Basinger, a mechanic with Garner Transportation Group who works in Findlay, Ohio, placed third in his state competition, but said he was finding the national contest far more difficult.
Although he’s been a tech for 10 years, Basinger said he had never seen the TMC recommended practices book that is included in the test.
But others felt confident they were doing well.
Andrew Dilmuth, a FedEx Freight shop tech from Jacksonville, Florida, said the competition is a good way to expand a tech’s knowledge, but nonetheless, like his fellow competitors, he’s out to win.
“You don’t think we’ve got a pot going?” Dilmuth said.
Dilmuth and his 11 fellow FedEx techs were chosen after an internal company contest with more than 700 company techs fighting for 12 spots.
Most of the techs in the competition didn’t get to Orlando without spending many hours outside of their eight-hour day studying their craft. “You don’t just walk into a competition with 700 people without preparing,” Dilmuth said.
One could expect that some competitors, having made it to the national level, might even get a little big-headed.
“You'd think so anyway until you get here,” said Brody Warner, a tech with Wal-mart Transportation LLC in Buckeye, Arizona. “But we’ll tell you tomorrow if we do.”
Bradford Calfee, a tech with Wal-mart in Newport, Tennessee, a 24-year veteran, said the competition is in some ways different than on the job.
“Back at the shop when something comes in you just know what to go do to it,” Calfee said. “Here it’s not about already knowing it, you’ve got to go through the process to get there.”
John Green, a Des Plaines, Illinois, freight mechanic for Con-way Freight, was one of the top 10 scorers out of hundreds of his fellow techs who competed for one of only 10 spots.
This is his fourth year in the competition and he says he’s better prepared. “My first time I was like a deer in the headlights,” Green said.
An individual has to be open to change to be a good tech, Green said.
“A lot of us spend our free time studying up on this stuff,” Green said. “The more you know the better off you’re going to be.”
He’s been a tech for 24 years and has seen a lot of changes.
“It’s gone from trucks with no computers to 10 or 11 computers,” Green said. “You have to understand electronics pretty well and one computer communicating with another one. Everything’s interactive. The days of changing gears and sprockets and pulleys are gone. Everything’s gone from the mechanical end to electronic end.”
Green said a qualified tech these days has to be good with computers and at diagnosing problems using a structured process.
“There are a lot of things you can overlook, and if you overlook one step it throws you off and you have to start all over again,” Green said.
But Dilmuth said the advantages of being a top-notch technician are many. Not only is it challenging work offering decent pay, it’s a chance for a free trip to Disneyland, he said.
