Each year for the past decade Rush Truck Centers has sent its best technicians to compete hear to head in the Tech Skills Rodeo. This year 300 techs from across the network tested for a chance to make the trip to the finals in San Antonio. More than 160 techs and parts specialists made the trip.
A contestent and an official discuss a problem at the Rush Truck Centers 10th annual Tech Skills Rodeo in San Antonio. Photo by Jim Park
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A contestent and an official discuss a problem at the Rush Truck Centers 10th annual Tech Skills Rodeo in San Antonio. Photo by Jim Park
While Rush Truck Centers celebrates its 50th year in business, the company's annual Tech Skills Rodeo competition is 10 years old this year. A field of more than 160 technicians and parts specialists, along with their spouses and partners, from the company's 120 dealerships descended on San Antonio, Texas on Sunday. The competition began bright and early Monday morning.
Mike Beeson, managing vice-president of service operations and customer solutions at Rush Truck Centers says over 300 techs and parts specialists tested at their home dealers just for the privilege of going to San Antonio. By the end of Day 1, the field had been whittled down to just 25.
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"Over the past several months, techs from across the chain have been studying and writing tests back home to qualify for Monday's semi-final round," he says.
Techs are competing in medium- and heavy-duty chassis-specific categories. The medium-duty division features Hino, International, Isuzu and Peterbilt chassis. The heavy-duty competition features International and Peterbilt chassis, as well as powertrain components from Cummins, Eaton, Paccar MX and International.
New this year is the Rush Rising Star competition. It's limited to level 1 and 2 technicians and is intended to showcase the up and coming talent within the organization and to give the new techs a taste of the competition.
Phil Adams, a Paccar MX specialist from Albuquerque, NM, told truckinginfo.com that this year's competition seemed a little more straight forward than last year.
"They threw us a lot of curve balls last year; lots of clues that led nowhere and that got me lost a few times," he says. "I was able to sort out the problem more easily this year, but I think there were still a few wrinkles."
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Techs who qualified for the competition following the in-house testing were able to compete in their specialities, which include all the truck brands in the RTC network (Peterbilt, International Navistar, Isuzu, Ford and Hino). Many of the competitors also have component specialities, such Cummins, Navistar, Paccar and Eaton.
At the end of Day 1, the list of competitors who made the cut and will advance to the finals was whittled down to just 30. They will go on to compete on Day 2 in the finals with a chance to improve their scores with some wildcard testing, which could be just about anything, not necessarily their speciality.
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