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(Rush Enterprises)

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When Riley Doyle entered the 2024 Rush Tech Skills Rodeo in December, his expectations were realistic. As a technician with Rush Truck Leasing with two years of experience, Doyle wanted to use the time to gather knowledge.

“I didn’t know what to expect going into it” he recalled. “I’m not here to win but to learn as much as possible.” However, Doyle did win, placing first in the Rising Stars division, a category for technicians who have two years or less of experience.

Doyle is among many technicians who have recently entered the profession and were fortunate enough to have the support of fellow workers and leadership to thrive in auto technology. As for Doyle, he noted that didn’t attend a conventional trade or vocational school but rather grad­uated from the school of hard knocks. He started his journey by working on tires, grew a love for becoming a technician and worked to become a competitive technician for Rush.

All the while, he was nurtured by a supportive staff and managers who helped him achieve his first-place finish last year.\

“It’s invaluable. I can’t even put a price on it,” Doyle said. “It’s so important to have someone to learn from, and you have to be willing to learn and listen,” Doyle said, adding that humility is key to success in the beginning of a tech career.

“You can’t go in thinking you know all that. When they give you criticism, sometimes it’s not going to be the friendliest criticism,” he explained. “You got to be able to take it and take your opportunity, because when you mess up sometimes, it might be a big mistake. You have got to learn from that.”

We’re thrilled to announce our 2024 Rush Enterprises Tech Skills Rodeo All-Around Grand Champion, Christopher Purcell!

Please join us in giving him and all other champions and competitors a round of applause. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this special event. — Rush Truck Centers (@rushtruckcenter)

Chief Operating Officer said techs like Doyle are crucial to the company’s vehicle service division, and the Skills Rodeo is an ideal way of recognizing and promoting the skilled technicians in the organization.

He noted that in addition, Rush’s methodology of recruiting from diesel technician schools has deepened over the past couple of years; the truck dealer visits high schools and vocational institutions to seek out students interested in the profession.

“We’re going in there and hiring these young people to our apprentice programs, bringing them into the dealerships or working part time,” Wilder said. “We’re giving that next-level experience before they might even go to a diesel tech school or stay with us the long term for that. That’s one of the things we’ve been doing in the last couple of years. We’re seeing improvement.”

Along with working trade schools, industry leaders are seeking veterans to pursue careers as technicians in a field where they increasingly needed.

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“We have an incredibly robust training network with our dealers through our corporate home. We’ve jumped into it with the online training and keeping everybody fresh and refreshed,” Mack Trucks North America President John Randall told Transport Topics, adding that the company has master tech training and provides facilities for continuous education.

“We have to make sure they are in tune with the latest and greatest on everything we’re doing,” he continued. “We do this with customers as well to make sure that they’ve got everything they need to sell.”

Randall noted that keeping technicians satisfied means making sure that they have everything they need to diagnose and fix the problem.

“Of course, we work with our uptime center to make sure that we have a good cadence of understanding problems and then repairing them,” he said. “We need to work with everybody, whether it’s ex-military or trade schools, we’ll bring technicians into the industry, which is another challenge that we see.”

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��Jennifer Horta started as a receptionist at Fleet Services by Cox Automotive before becoming a mobile technician manager. (Fleet Services by Cox Automotive)

Similar to Rush’s Doyle, ’s Jennifer Horta took the road less traveled to becoming a technician. Currently, a mobile manager for fleet services, Horta started as a receptionist.

“I think that lasted three weeks,” she said. “I got promoted to doing billing, then I worked in the shop doing their billing for about another 2½ months. And I was like, “What else do you have for me?’ ”

Horta worked her way up to become a leader of technicians. She attributed her rise to the mentors who guided her in training she described as “getting my hands dirty.”

“I really had to go out into the field with them and whatever they were doing upon service, whether it be I was greasing the units or I was checking the brakes, these were things I knew how to do,” she said. “I did whatever I could to kind of gain their trust in that aspect.”

Once Horta started working more with the technicians and proving her worth, she gained more respect.

“I don’t mind getting dirty with them,” she said. “That’s what took the role to another level, where we were kind of able to work together a lot better.”

But her secret weapon as a leader comes through in her administrative know-how to assist the technicians on her team.

“Since I have that background, I’ll work with them, whether it’s helping them create estimates or working on getting some parts,” Horta said. “I help them in any aspect of the job to make it smoother for them so that they’re able to focus more on actually doing the mechanical side of things and get the job done.”

Although she didn’t necessarily envision a career in auto technology, she was raised around it. Her father was a mechanic who introduced her to the industry via jobs at International and Fleet Services.

“I kind of just went with the family thing, and I liked it,” Horta said. “I think it’s very entertaining, and it’s something different every day.”

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Henry Jordan started in the construction industry before his career as a technician. (Fleet Services by Cox Automotive)

That variety is important to keep technicians engaged, said Harry Jordan, mobile technician leader at Fleet Services by Cox Automotive. Jordan started in construction and worked his way up through trial-­and-error and hands-on learning with the company. He noted the most effective way to ­retain technicians comes down to learning, encouraging and recognizing.

“Learn what that driving force is. Encourage them to be successful for themselves and ultimately the team. Recognize their achievements and their effort,” Jordan explained. “We all have different motivators that keep us going. Most technicians have families or responsibilities that drive them.”

Having participated in and judged Cox Automotive’s Top Tech competition, a qualifier for the event, Jordan is a proponent of skills development via competition.

“Technicians come away with more knowledge than they had before starting. Being recognized for your skills during and after competitions is a great motivator and can be a gauge for where your areas of improvement are and what training would benefit you most,” he said. “Having your leadership acknowledge your hard work in your field is a great motivator, and I believe it helps retention.”

Jordan explained growth is the biggest challenge that he’s noticing in the tech field. Having the support from mentors and leadership is important for technicians to move forward in their careers.

“We cannot let our technicians look back and see that they have been stagnant in their careers,” he said. “I have seen a lot of growth within our organization, and I believe that our technicians want to be a part of that.”

Jordan advised future technicians looking to advance in their careers to be patient and learn the organization and its principles.

“Take those core values and make them your own,” he said. “Be a part of what drives the organization forward.”

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