November 2022 Technician of Influence Award Winners

APPRENTICE TECHNICIAN

Josh is an apprentice technician on our afternoon shift at Lewis Motor Sales. He is always first on shift to arrive, often quite early. As an apprentice, he gets a broad range of tasks and always completes them competently and efficiently. He can be found doing anything from scanning a drive-up engine light appointment, doing advanced welding on items broken by customers, cleaning DPFs, or any other repair jobs we have in the shop.

Josh will always stay late to finish a job, whether requested or not, and his attention to detail results in quality work without comebacks. He can also frequently be found helping others, whether it be with ideas, tools, a helping hand, or a lift assist for us old guys, making him a great team player. 

One specialty he is proud of is being the go-to guy for all the servicing and maintenance needs of a large number of the Canadian Forces MILCOTS trucks, which requires attention to detail and often digging deep to source the correct parts and procedures.

Josh has put in the time to become Master Certified. He is also signed up to start Cummins training. Josh can be trusted to handle himself on road calls, alone in the shop, and in any other situation we’ve put him into. If he knows what needs to be done, he will start the process and get the truck back up and running. Josh is always concerned about doing a good job for the customer and his own satisfaction, resulting in clean work with no comeback in my memory. He is especially fast on oddball MILCOTS jobs like front drive axle servicing and heavy suspension work. Josh also has a mechanical passion outside of work involving his Jeep and the outdoors.

SERVICE TECHNICIAN

Byron came over from the auto industry looking for a change and walked in the door with a great attitude and a willingness to learn. His years of experience working on cars have translated well into the Navistar world. He is always asking questions to better himself as a tech and he does a great job sharing what he has learned with other techs. Byron has devoted his time to helping other up-and-coming technicians to learn and grow in the industry. He is always willing to help out with overtime to help meet customer demands. He has been known to jump in and share his diagnostic skills with other new techs who need some direction.  

Byron has obtained his Master Certification through Navistar and continues to take extra training. He is scheduled to go to EV training and has completed all of his Cummins training as well. Byron has stayed late to ensure that buses were fixed and ready for delivery to the customer to ensure we meet our ETC goal. He has worked six days a week and extra hours each day for months to help meet customer expectations and get vehicles back on the road. Byron's efficiency is consistently over 100% and continues to grow as he gets more experience. He has had an extremely low number of comebacks for being new to this industry, which has demonstrated his dedication and the thorough level of care he puts into his work. 

Byron is married with two kids and spends as much time with his family as possible when he is not at work. He is a great dad and a great person, and we are very lucky to have him work with us at Midwest Transit Equipment

SERVICE TECHNICIAN

Tom has been a model employee from the day he was hired at Syossett Trucks and has been a great asset since then. We had a customer with a telematics unit that was not operating properly. Tom not only worked later to get the repair done on time, but he also visited their site a few days later to confirm the repair further on his own time. Tom has been given multiple jobs that were incredibly difficult and time-consuming, and he has always come in under time and fixed problems no one else has been able to diagnose. He has become such an important technician to our customers that we tend to send him to facilities to make repairs and triage trucks for our customers. He has even visited our customers to check on their equipment on his own time, making the customer his #1 priority and delivering exceptional customer service. On one specific job, he had to drive more than a dozen times to a customer location and made the repair as convenient as possible for our customer. We do not normally do road calls or repairs outside of our facility, so the fact that he does make those trips and is more than capable of completing any job given is a real demonstration of how great a mechanic he is. 

Tom is a very experienced and intellectual technician with the ideal personality of a leader. Therefore, he has become the go-to man in the shop with any problems beyond the general scope of repairs. Although he helps every other technician within this location, he is still capable of completing his work on time and correctly. He can greatly assist and drive other technicians to follow the right problem-solving and diagnosis to complete jobs within a timely manner and with little to no wasted time or parts. Tom is our main tech, not only with general repair jobs but also with most of our warranty repairs. He works determined to come within the warranty-specified items. The only downside to Tom’s efficiency and knowledge is the fact that everyone comes to him with questions or help. This slows him down but in the same breath speeds up the rest of the shop; so, in the end, he is not only completing his work within the time given or close to it, but he is driving the rest of the shop to complete their work faster and with fewer mistakes, making him our top producer.

LEAD TECHNICIAN

James is a dedicated employee of Highway Motors and the Navistar product. He goes the extra mile to take care of our customers and to live up to the Navistar standard. James is our most trained tech, holding diamond certification on the Navistar side, as well as being completely certified in Cummins. James stays up to date on all training and he also supports the other techs, encouraging them to stay caught up in their training. James has been with Highway for 22 years, and in all that time he has always strived to promote the Navistar product and name. 

James is a diamond-certified tech, lead man, and triage tech, and he handles the hard cases that come through. James also works at helping dispatch work as well as assisting other techs who may be struggling with a repair. James's focus is always on the customer, trying to ensure to give the best repair possible and as quickly as possible. James takes pride in the Navistar brand and does his best to promote customer service. James’s knowledge of triage and the accelerated lane has kept our customers moving and reduced dwell time. James is quite often able to direct workflow to other techs, starting them in the right direction of repair. James’s knowledge of the FCAP repair, live schematics, and Cummins Guidanz makes him one of Highway's most valuable producers.
 
James strives to be the best he can be, and he also encourages his fellow technicians to do the same, to promote quality craftsmanship, and take pride in their work. Highway Motors would be lacking without James's experience, attitude, and commitment. I can’t say enough about the pride James has for Highway Motors and Navistar. He pours his heart and soul into his work and strives to give every customer the best possible experience he can because he knows his work and craftsmanship are a direct reflection on the International brand.