Mack Trucks, Inc. recently selected the winners of its second VISTA Team competition to find its top dealer service technicians, a seven-month event which challenged contestants’ in-depth and hands-on knowledge of Mack’s products and service procedures.
Adam Bennett, William Pedretti and Hugh Sperbeck of La Crosse Truck Center, Inc., La Crosse, Wisconsin were crowned as Mack’s top service technicians at the Mack North American VISTA Competition, held at Mack’s North American Institute in Greensboro, N. C.
VISTA is designed to reward Mack dealer service personnel who demonstrate excellence in technical skill and proficiency. Mack dealerships are encouraged to field as many three-person teams as they wish, with each team usually consisting of parts and service personnel.
The biennial competition consists of three rounds of online testing, which narrows the field down to the top team for each of Mack’s six sales regions. Each online test consists of 20 multiple choice and one “creative answer” question. The tests are “open book” and all answers can be found using current parts and service information, emphasizing the need for technicians to stay up-to-date.
The three top-scoring teams of the regional winners qualified for the championship fourth round, held in Greensboro. The other teams in the championship rounds were from Mountain West Truck Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, and TranSource, Inc., Colfax, N.C.
The winning La Crosse Truck Center team, nicknamed “Granite,” was selected after a final round that included parts lookup and service questions, and hands-on challenges, including troubleshooting mechanical or electrical issues planted on two Mack trucks and a Mack MP8 engine. The problems had to be identified and repaired within a set period of time for the competitors to get full marks.
