FedEx Freight’s Mark McLean Repeats as SuperTech Champ

This story appears in the Sept. 29 print edition of Transport Topics.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Mark McLean Jr., the 2014 SuperTech Grand Champion, would be the first to admit he had a tough critic during the intense two-day competition: himself.

The 26-year-old FedEx Freight technician was so overcome with emotion that he fell to his knees speechless when he was presented the prestigious award on Sept. 24 for the second consecutive year.

“I’m relieved,” McLean said after the awards ceremony. “I put so much pressure on myself and expected so much out of myself. I wanted this win so bad.”

In addition to winning American Trucking Associations’ Technology & Maintenance Council SuperTech overall title, McLean also took first place in the drivetrain, service information and wheel-end skill stations.

He also led the two-man FedEx Freight team, along with Matthew Nolan of Windsor Locks, Connecticut, to victory in the team competition.

“Mark exemplifies everything that the TMC SuperTech competition and TMC were founded to highlight: professionalism, deep technical knowledge and practical application of skills,” said Carl Kirk, ATA vice president of maintenance, information technology and logistics.

McLean, who works out of Newburgh, New York, said all 134 competitors were highly qualified, capable of standing on the winner’s platform.

“We’re all on the same level here,” McLean said. “Everyone has the knowledge. Maybe I had a little bit of luck.”

He led a FedEx sweep of the top three overall finishers, with Eric Vos of Boise, Idaho, placing second and Charles Kerr, of Schertz, Texas, placing third.

Jeffrey Nesheim, a Ryder System tech from Carol Stream, Illinois, scored highest on the written test.

While getting to SuperTech was tough enough, placing in the top 10 scorers was even more difficult. Over two days, competitors were required to complete a 100-

question knowledge test, work through 11 computer stations and 14 hands-on, real-world stations that required some well-honed diagnostic skills.

Being one of the winners guaranteed not only bragging rights, but also a bevy of awards ranging from expensive diagnostic tools and trips to NASCAR races to generous gift cards and tool cabinets.

But even those techs who did not win will take back to the companies they represented a wealth of technical knowledge and ideas for training programs, said Mike Delaney, president of WheelTime, a SuperTech sponsor.

Delaney said support for the 10-year-old competition has grown as fleets have learned that it helps “connect the dots” between investment in training and improving their bottom lines by reducing repair “comebacks” and rejected warranty claims, while increasing productivity and customer satisfaction.

“Ten years after inception, SuperTech is changing the way companies are doing business,” Delaney said.

SuperTech also influences the type of training fleets provide for their techs, said George Arrants, SuperTech chairman.

The skill problems that competitors ace this year could disappear or get a new twist at next year’s SuperTech. The ones that techs have difficulty with sends a clear message to motor carriers that more training is needed, Arrants said.

Many of this year’s SuperTech competitors were proud to make it to the big show, but at the same time in awe of the level of difficulty.

Zachary Basinger, a mechanic with Garner Transportation Group who works in Findlay, Ohio, placed third in his state competition, but said he was finding the national contest far more difficult.

Although he’s been a technician for 10 years, Basinger said he had never seen the TMC recommended practices book that is included in the test.

But others felt confident they were doing well.

Andrew Dilmuth, a FedEx Freight shop tech from Jacksonville, Florida, said the competition is a good way to expand a tech’s knowledge, but nonetheless, like his fellow competitors, he was out to win.

 “You don’t think we’ve got a pot going?” said Dilmuth, who won the preventive-maintenance inspection station. He said his fellow FedEx techs were chosen after an internal company contest with more than 700 company techs fighting for only 12 spots.

The technological complexity of the competition was a reminder that the men and women who diagnose and repair diesel engines can no longer legitimately be considered as simply “grease monkeys.”

“It’s gone from trucks with no computers to 10 or 11 computers,” said John Green, a Des Plaines, Illinois, tech for Con-way Freight. “You have to understand electronics pretty well and one computer communicating with another one. Everything’s interactive. The days of changing gears and sprockets and pulleys are gone. Everything’s gone from the mechanical end to [the] electronic end.”