The year 2007 promises to be a breakout year for TMC's National Technician Skills Competition—TMCSuperTech2007. With the competition being held in Nashville, TN, competition organizers are anticipating more contestants than ever for the event which is now in its third year.
"Nashville is a prime location for TMCSuperTech, given the fact that it is centrally located amongst an area of the nation with the highest concentration of trucking fleets. So many of the contestants will be able to drive to the event and we believe that will only help to increase the number of people that will vie for a spot in the Hands-on Skills Competition," said Robert Braswell, TMC technical director.
TMCSuperTech2007 is organized by the volunteer members of the Council's Professional Technician Development Committee (PTDC). This year's chairman of the PTDC, Lee Long, says he is very excited by all the developments that are leading up to the 2007 competition.
"I'm very excited about so many things with this year's competition. First of all, we've been able to add two more workstations—a second electrical station and a new station pertaining to competing a shop repair order. I'm also excited about the increased amount of participation by fleets and suppliers. It's more than we've seen thus far," he said.
Long, manager of fleet services for Southeastern Freight Lines, said he is also encouraged by the increased number of people wanting to be judges and station organizers. He's also encouraged by the number of companies stepping up to offer workstation prizes and competition equipment. "The laptop incentive for each of the 84 hands-on finalists is a really nice bonus this year for the technicians," said Long.
Both Long and Braswell say they are also glad to see so many state trucking associations beginning to launch state competitions in support of the national event. "I'm pleased to see several state maintenance councils reactivating because of the national competition. Holding a state SuperTech-styled event is breathing new life into them," said Mr. Long.
