Chris Taylor named inaugural winner of Best Young Tech Award

When Chris Taylor was 14 years old, his uncle gave him a 1998 Ford Mustang that he started fixing up and teaching himself how to do basic repairs. Before too long, he was swapping out the V6 engine for a V- 8 and then installing a cam and changing the rear differential gear ratio.

“It started when I was young. I always loved play with hot wheel cars and I used to pretend I was in my own car, shifting gears and making car noises,” Taylor recalls. “I grew up in Jamaica and then I came back here and I always hung around a lot of people who are into cars.”

When the time came to choose a career path, Taylor didn’t know what he wanted to do, but he knew he loved cars, so he followed that passion to the University Technical Institute in Orlando and became an automotive technician. Upon graduation, he received his Ford FACT certification and was hired at a Ford dealership. Today, he’s a technician in the fleet management division at Polk County in Florida, where he fixes everything from the county’s Ford F-150 fleet to ambulances or a boom on a utility truck.

Taylor is the inaugural winner of the PTEN and Motor Age Best Young Tech Award, designed to honor technicians aged 35 or younger who are moving the service repair industry forward, excel in their current role, and are passionate about their work. Taylor, age 31, stood out to the judges for many reasons, especially his strong work ethic.

“I even tie it back to being that 14-year-old tackling that mustang project and the stuff he did was not changing oil! That was serious stuff for someone who had no training. I saw that initiative as a common thread throughout his career so far,” says Mike Pressendo, chief marketing and strategy officer at the TechForce Foundation, who was one of the judges for the award program. “He doesn’t sit back and wait to be told to go learn this or do that, he just jumps in and goes after it."

Taylor’s work ethic was evident to Robert Biller, fleet management director, the day he started working in his division. He was immediately put on the shop floor and assigned work orders on vehicles and equipment that he had little or no experience with, most notably the large M2 Business Class Freightliner chassis used for they county’s ambulances. Taylor did not hesitate: He went to the OEM manuals and researched the issues he was dealing with, and also dove into the NFPA books to ensure he was repairing the life safety equipment properly.

“Whenever he is faced with a job or equipment where he has limited exposure or experience, he knows his limitations and goes to the correct reference material in order to do a proper repair,” Biller says. “As information gets passed on by mouth, it gets less and less accurate… So when you read the manual, you learn how to do it correctly. It’s a refreshing mentality in the shop… and has resulted in his knowledge level rising much quicker than his peers.”

Leading by example

Taylor’s quality of workmanship is another element that stood out to the judges. He always performs a very in-depth inspection of the vehicles he is assigned to repair. He builds lists of items that need attention and adds them to the list of repairs on the vehicle's work order. A simple front brake job may turn into calipers, brake lines, or power booster job just by identifying pending issues. Shop visit frequency is one of the division’s key performance indicators, so identifying issues before they require another shop visit is a very important boost to the division’s measured efficiency, Biller says.

“The other guys would have something come in, say, for brakes and they would take those wheels off and slap some pads and a rotor on there and get it back on the road as fast as possible, missing the brake line, leaky shock and different things that are going on under there. Chris seems to be very adept at catching that stuff and taking care of it when it’s in the shop,” he says.

Technicians are always aware of what the other technicians in the shop are doing, and his co-workers have noticed Taylor is spending a bit more time going beyond the initial problem verification and have started to follow suit, adds Biller.

“Now the other guys have decided maybe there’s not as much honor in getting in and out as fast as possible as is doing an accurate job, he has two younger techs working right beside him and they started to adopt his ways, which is really nice because usually they adopt bad habits!” he laughs.

But Taylor notes he did face some resistance at the start from other co-workers when he was taking his time and not just flying through the repair. They would often ask him why he was doing this or that, but Taylor stuck to his committed to quality.

“In the end, you start seeing the respect. You will see a customer who wants only you to work on your car. In the end it pays off,” Taylor says, adding that he was taught by an instructor in the Ford program to always think of the vehicle you are repairing as one that will be carrying your own family members. “So I always take that extra step because it’s ingrained in me to do the best I can,” he says. “And I’ve always been particular. I’ve always been that type of person that takes pride in what I do.”

In addition to his Ford FACT training, Taylor has a Class B commercial driver’s license and an impressive list of certifications under his belt, including the following:

Automotive Service Excellence (ASE):

A1 Certificate for Automotive Engine Repair
A5 Certificate for Brakes

Emergency Vehicle Technician Certification Commission:

E0 Ambulance Maintenance, Inspection and Testing
E1 Ambulance Design & Performance
E3 Ambulance HVAC Systems, E4 Ambulance Cab Chassis and Powertrain
F1 Maintenance, Inspection & Testing of Fire Apparatus
L1 Law Enforcement Vehicle Installation

Pressendo notes that Taylor’s pursuit of continued education and credentials really stood out among the other Best Young Tech Award nominees.

“If you have a certification, you demonstrate that you have the knowledge and understanding. You can say, ‘I have read the manual and I did this online training,’ but did you get it? Can you apply it? To me that’s what certifications layer on,” Pressendo explains. “Knowledge is valuable, shops look to the person who has the knowledge to fix the challenges problems… I would also say it translates to better income too.”

When asked how he finds the time to keep adding certifications, he says it can be hard, but he makes the time because he knows it’s beneficial to him.

“I like to learn new things every day,” he says. “If you’re not learning, you’re not growing, and I want to grow. I try to soak up everything like a sponge.”

Additionally, Taylor loves to learn new things so he can share that knowledge with his co-workers.

“I know what it’s like to work in a dog-eat-dog environment where no one helps you and you feel alone, so I try to help everyone. I try to be there for them. I feel like we’re all a team. I don’t think about myself; I think about everyone,” he says.

Biller says Taylor can often be found showing the newest technicians how to use the electronic diagnostic equipment to identify customer complaints. He is helpful, friendly, and is setting a great example for the younger technicians at the shop.

Looking down the line, Taylor hopes to be in a management position one day and he is eager to learn more about the “business side of things.” Biller has no doubt he will continue to grow within the organization and will have a very successful career at Polk County.

“He is kind of guy you hope comes out of tech school,” says Biller. “He does what’s told, he does it very well and then he goes above and beyond… He’s always working to improve himself as well as those around them. He’s a well-rounded technician and a pleasant person to work with. He’s everything you look for a technician and then some.”