Houle’s victory was not just for honor. He also took home the grand prize of $50,000 cash. The second- and third-place winners, Peter Finn of Holland, Michigan, and Cameron Hughes of Kitchener, Ontario, each received $10,000. There were nine total finalists.

Driven by a good challenge

Houle began his career as a heavy-duty technician 11 years ago right out of trade school. He’d known for a long time that he wanted to work on big commercial vehicles, which is why he enrolled in the heavy-duty diesel program.

“A big reason I wanted to work on bigger vehicles was to save my back,” Houle said. “You don’t have to do a lot of bending when working on semis, etc.”

Another factor was that the trucking business was already in Houle’s blood. His grandfather was a truck driver, and Houle used to accompany him on trips while growing up.

When asked what he likes most about coming to work every day, Houle chalks it up to one word: variety. As a Ryder technician, he sees many different makes and models come through his shop. That helps keep things fresh and interesting while also driving Houle to continue learning new things so he can take on new challenges.

“We just never know what we’re going to find,” Houle said. “I really like having the opportunity to step in and help when another technician in our shop is having a hard time. Sometimes other shops send a truck here that they’re having trouble with. I love being that guy who has to try and figure something out.”

Houle has worked for Ryder ever since he finished trade school 11 years ago. Along with the variety of vehicles he gets to work on, he values the opportunity to continue growing through training.

“Starting right out of trade school, I was literally at the bottom,” Houle said. “I was mainly doing oil changes and PMs. But training has always been available, and most of it has been dealer-level training. So I kept learning and growing.”

Alley also shared that Houle has the distinction of being a Ryder-certified aftertreatment technician. “That is a designation not all Ryder technicians have,” Alley said. “In fact, only about 10% have earned that certification. There is a lot of training involved with this, which shows the work people like Jean-Sébastien are willing to put in.”

A lot of work went into winning the Top Tech competition this year as well. As the runner-up last year, Houle was able to learn what his weakest points were. He naturally spent extra time preparing for those skills stations over the many months leading up to this year’s competition on August 13. But when it comes to Top Tech, there’s only so much preparation you can do. You ultimately have to rely on your training, skills, and instincts as a technician.

“You have to try mentally preparing for everything,” Houle said. “It’s hard because you don’t know which OEMs will be there or which direction the issues will go. In fact, the first time I’d ever heard about Wabash was when they told me about it at one of the skills stations. So I worked hard to prepare myself as much as possible, but you can never be fully prepared.”

In any event, Houle’s preparation and contest performance were enough to earn him this year’s Top Tech crown. What is he planning to do with his $50,000 grand prize? That remains to be seen. But he’s leaning toward a Disney vacation with his family once the dust settles.

It’s an appropriate pick for the MVP of Ryder’s maintenance Super Bowl.