Twelve FedEx Freight fleet maintenance technicians will competein the nation’s premier skills competition for professionalcommercial vehicle technicians at the Technology & MaintenanceCouncil’s National Technician Skills Competition – TMCSuperTech –next week in Orlando, Florida.
The three-day competition features a three-part written challengeand various hands-on skill challenges. A predetermined number ofcompetitors will advance to a final day of hands-on skillchallenges which will determine the Grand Champion.
The skill challenges include work stations which focus on a rangeof concentrations technicians face in the shop each day. Thestations will test competitors’ knowledge of such things as shopsafety, preventative maintenance, engines, brakes, electricalsystems and more.
Work station champions and the TMCSuperTech Grand Champion willbe announced during an awards banquet on Tuesday, Sept. 19.
FedEx Freight fleet maintenance technicians earned theiropportunity to represent the company at TMCSuperTech through theirperformance at the company’s internal skills competition known asTop Wrench. The 12 technicians advancing to TMCSuperTech had thebest results among 750 participating FedEx Freight fleetmaintenance technicians.
The 12 technicians who will represent FedEx Freight in Orlandoare Philip Barlow (Jacksonville, Fla.), Kelby Bentley (Greensboro,N.C.), Larry Coatney (Harrison, Ark.), Mark Galliand (Baton Rouge,La.), Troy Hiatt (Des Moines, Iowa), Mark McLean Jr. (Newburgh,N.Y.), Doug Nickles (Rock Island, Ill.), Joseph Paul (Des Moines,Iowa), Phillip Pinter (Detroit, Mich.), Jamie Smith (Cincinnati,Ohio), Matt Sloan (Jacksonville, Fla.) and Steve Weaver (Rochester,N.Y.).
McLean was the TMCSuperTech Grand Champion in both 2013 and 2014.FedEx Freight has swept the top-three finishes at the past fourchampionships.
“We are extremely proud of the group of technicians who willrepresent FedEx Freight at TMCSuperTech this year,” said MichaelHoffman, vice president of Equipment and Maintenance at FedExFreight. “SuperTech, along with our internal competition, TopWrench, allows our technicians to showcase and hone the skills theyutilize to keep our fleet well maintained and running safely eachday.”
Also as part of its support of STEM initiatives, FedEx Freight issponsoring several student technicians, some of whom are militaryveterans, at FutureTech, TMC’s National Student TechnicianCompetition, which will be held in conjunction withTMCSuperTech.