Top diesel technician Heidi Inkster is proving hard to beat after claiming the top prize in the 2019 Hino Skills Competition national final for the second consecutive year.
The competition is jointly run between Hino Distributors NZ and its after sales support partner, Truckstops.
It saw 38 Truckstops technicians test their knowledge of the Hino product with the top three making the national finals held in Auckland on October 23.
Nathan Douglas (Truckstops Wellington), Aniceto Dimaculangan (Truckstops Auckland) and Heidi Inkster (Truckstops Wellington) each worked hard for three hours to find and fix faults on 300, 500 and 700 Series Hino trucks. The competition was friendly but fierce with each contestant intent on taking out first place.
At the awards dinner, Hino NZ general manager Darren Salt announced that by the narrowest of margins, Heidi Inkster took first place yet again.
Nathan Douglas came in second and it was very close between all three contestants requiring the stopwatch to determine a winner.
“The three finalists this year worked to a very high standard and did an amazing job under pressure,” Hino NZ technical manager Simon Wilson says.
“It’s not easy identifying and fixing faults when there is a live audience, a judge watching your every move and a camera strapped to your head.”
Meanwhile, Salt says 2019 has been “an exciting year for Hino New Zealand with the introduction of the new 500 Series Standard Cab and the raft of safety features it brings to the market”.
“Our skills contest provides us with an opportunity to raise the technical knowledge across our entire after-sales network for current and new product,” he says.
The Truckstops top apprentice was also recognised with Nicola Kaliopasi from Truckstops Auckland taking out first place.
“We were pleased to see a number of apprentices competing in this year’s event and felt it important to specifically recognise Nico for his efforts,” Truckstops general manager Kevin Smith says.
“Our apprenticeship programme, supported by our national development centre, allows us to nurture and develop our people by providing a clear and rewarding career path across the Truckstops nationwide network.”
The event was also supported by Hino Japan. Hino Motors senior general manager Masahide Kagawa and manager Kazutoshi Watanabe made the trip specially for the event.
“We are extremely focused on providing a high level of service – both sales and after sales – to our Hino customers and to achieve this we must work together,” Salt says.
“This event, supported by Hino Japan, builds upon the strong relationship between Hino NZ and our after-sales support partner, Truckstops,”
Douglas has been invited to attend Hino Australia’s event in November to go head to head with one of Australia’s top Hino technicians and Inkster will attend the world prize giving in Japan early next year.
