There are a number of approaches shops can take when conducting a skills competition for their technicians. Organizations such as Ryder System, Walmart and TA Truck Service have a proven track record when it comes to conducting successful technician skills competitions.
TA Truck Service Top Tech Challenge
By the TA Truck Service Training Team
If you want to perform well on the big stage, it doesn’t hurt to have a dress rehearsal. In-house technician skills competitions provide this type of preparation for TA Truck Service technicians.
TA Truck Service is the maintenance and service division of TA and Petro Stopping Centers, a full-service travel center.
Established in 2014, the TA Truck Service Top Tech Challenge is an internal skills competition designed for the most adept TA Truck Service technicians within the company to compete. The Top Tech Challenge incentivizes obtaining new skills and certifications through competition and prizes, and gives top talent in the field the chance to be recognized by employees at the home office, while simultaneously preparing them to compete externally.
With the benefits come hard work. Planning an internal competition can be a huge undertaking. At TA Truck Service it happens over the course of about six months. From deciding competitor qualifications and how many individuals are invited to compete, to determining what hands-on and written stations to include to best prepare the technicians for the national competition each year, the training team has a considerable job planning the annual event.
Each of the 20 competitors must be an ASE Certified Master Technician, and must be one of the top scorers on a 100-question ASE-style written exam. Each year the training team fine-tunes the stations included in the competition and how they are scored. Having TA Truck Service representatives serving on TMC, running a station at TMCSuperTech and keeping at the forefront of new diesel repair and maintenance technology helps make these decisions easier.
At the Top Tech Challenge competition, the technicians’ scores from each station are compiled to determine the winners, who are recognized at a banquet following the two-day competition. Along with winners of state technician competitions from that year, the top finishers at Top Tech Challenge comprise the TMC SuperTech team representing TA Truck Service. Each year, the team goes on to be a top contender at the national event.
The positive impact of internal competitions reaches further than TMCSuperTech.
In the past four years, TA Truck Service has won 22 individual TMCSuperTech station titles and had multiple top finishers in the overall event. This performance can be attributed to the success of the TA Truck Service Top Tech Challenge.
For 2017, TA Truck Service had 10 top three overall finishes and 35 station wins from the state diesel mechanic competitions leading up to TMCSuperTech. These technicians work hard to balance their full-time positions with training and traveling to compete.
The excitement of the competition and the notoriety of the winners inspire technicians in the bays to pursue additional training and certification, and to provide more expertise to when working with professional drivers every day.
Ryder Top Technician Recognition Program
By Erica Schueller, Editor-in-Chief
“The Ryder Top Technician Recognition Program is an annual program designed to identify, recognize, and award Ryder's best technicians across the organization,” Bill Dawson, Ryder System VP of Maintenance and Engineering, says.
Ryder is a commercial fleet management, dedicated transportation, and supply chain solutions company.
The 16th annual Ryder Top Technician Recognition Program was held in Nashville this year. For the first time this year, Ryder United Kingdom held its own Top Technician Recognition Program, joining this year’s U.S. finalists for the championship.
“Our 5,000-plus technicians are valued keys to the company’s overall success,” Dawson says. “We wanted to both recognize and shine a light on the knowledge and skills our technicians use every day to service our customers.”
In order to run a successful skills competition, Dawson says it is imperative to evaluate and understand the goals of the company, and to include all levels of the organization with the process, including leadership.
The company-wide event is managed by Ryder System’s Maintenance Learning and Development Team, chaired by Dawson. All Ryder System technicians are eligible to participate, so long as they meet a pre-determined set of requirements by the end of the previous year.
“The competitors go through four stages of testing over six months, with increasing levels of difficulty,” Dawson explains. “Top scorers are chosen at each level to proceed to the next level. The third level is the first hands-on competition and is held in six different locations across the country for the top 60 scorers.”
Winners from each of the six locations are sent to the championship round. The championship round includes 10 hands-on tests covering categories such as vehicle electronics or preventative maintenance.
The first-place winner receives a cash prize of $50,000 and title of “Top Tech” for the year. Finalists also receive cash prizes and recognition.
“The final competition consists of 10 rigorous, hands-on skill tests including vehicle electronics and preventive maintenance,” Dawson says. “The title of “Top Tech,” along with a cash prize, is awarded to the first-place winner. All finalists receive cash prizes for their exemplary performance.”
“We have noticed a boost in morale among our technicians and an overall engagement boost among employees in roles not directly connected to technicians,” Dawson adds. “It is truly an “All Ryder” event that spreads pride across the organization. We’re able to showcase that we have the best technicians in the industry.”
Wal-Mart Transportation technician competition
By Erica Schueller, Editor-in-Chief
“Walmart has been conducting some form of a technician competition since the mid-1990s, and has evolved to the program we run today,” Eric Benge, Senior Regional Maintenance Manager, Walmart Transportation LLC, explains.
Walmart Transportation is a subsidiary of retail company Walmart Stores, Inc. and manages and maintains the company’s private trucking fleet operations.
Benge says the competition started after employee requests to conduct some form of evaluation, and compare performance and knowledge among peers.
“This group is naturally competitive and saw the opportunity to showcase their skills in a friendly competition,” Benge says.
All technicians within the company are welcome to participate in the skills competition. Starting at the local level, the top two winners of each shop advance to a divisional competition, Benge says. The top 10 winners for each division then go on to compete in the company’s national competition. Walmart Transportation also encourages all competing technicians to participate in their respective state trucking association championships as well
The national event is organized by the Corporate Fleet Maintenance Team, while local competitions are conducted by the respective Service Shop Leadership teams.
Winners for each round are determined by their performance based on a written ASE test and hands-on skills challenges.
“We work with our suppliers and vendor partners to develop a technician event that is relevant to the equipment and challenges they work on every day,” Benge says.
Conducting company-wide technician skills competitions “creates an environment to measure skill level, recognize top performers, and identify training opportunities for continuous improvement,” Benge confirms. “[It] encourages and rewards self-development (and helps) build relationships with our vendor partners.”
