Representing Navistar’s commitment to customer uptime, technicians from Arizona, Ontario, Canada, and Yumbo, Colombia, finished first place within their category at the 2019 Technician Rodeo. The annual competition, which is hosted at the company’s Woodridge, Ill., product support center, tests the skills and speed of service of its top technicians throughout its dealer network.

In the 13th iteration of the event, Brandon Wesselius of Lewis Motor Sales, Inc., in Owen Sound, Ontario, walked away with the Top Service Technician award for truck, and Nathan Reed of RWC International in Phoenix, earned the top award for bus. In the global competition, which brings all the regional winners throughout the Americas together to compete for top bragging rights, Victor Velasco of Navitrans S.A.S. in Yumbo, Colombia finished in first place.

“We are extremely proud of not only this year’s winners, but of all the technicians who qualified as finalist for our 2019 Technician Rodeo,” said Carlos Junquera, Director of Product Support at Navistar. “Each highly skilled technician perfectly reflects our company’s commitment to technical excellence and the importance of providing the best customer uptime in the industry.”

This year’s competition showcased 20 top service technicians from International and IC Bus dealers across the Americas, with six taking part in the global and bus competitions and eight in the truck competition.

All of the participants are Diamond Certified through Navistar’s official certification program for its service technicians. In addition, all the technicians from the U.S. and Canada are all either Automotive Service Excellence certified or Canadian Provincial certified.

The participants were selected from an overall group of the top 900 International and IC Bus technicians. From there, the group was narrowed to 20 participants through online testing, with the highest-scoring technicians in each region invited to compete.

Winning Techs

Technicians from the following dealerships were represented in the truck competition:

• Riverview International – California

• Lewis Motor Sales – Ontario, Canada

• Lakeside International – Wisconsin

• Maudlin International Trucks – Florida

• Summit Truck Group – Arkansas

• Mid-State Truck Service – Wisconsin

Technicians from the following dealerships were represented in the bus competition:

• Southwest International Trucks – Texas

• Roberts Truck Center – New Mexico

• Truck King International – New York

• IRL International Truck Centres – British Columbia, Canada

• RWC International – Arizona

Technicians from the following dealerships were represented in the global competition:

• CADISA Chihuahua – Mexico

• Sun State International – United States

• La Antillana Comercial S.A. – Dominican Republic

• Diamond International Trucks – Canada

• Sierra Norte Monterrey – Mexico

• Navitrans S.A.S. – Colombia

“These participants have completed all of the required and optional training we offer our technicians and represent the best-of-the-best of our 9,000 plus service technicians from International and IC Bus dealers across the Americas, the highest of any commercial truck and bus manufacturer,” said Junquera. “Each one provides a key strategic advantage for our company, as they each are able to repair vehicles right the first time and get customer vehicles back on the road quickly.”

*Editor's Note: Summit Truck Group was updated to the correct state of Arkansas.