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  • Open for Business
    By Amanda Schuier - Wednesday April 15, 2009
    Nebraska SuperTech is now accepting competitors!  And, not only are we accepting registrations, we already have a few people signed up. This is quite a relief to everyone in the SuperTech Steering Committee.  It’s nice to finally see all of our work coming to fruition. Of course, there have been hiccups along the way. But one of the things the STSC has done really well is come together to work through the hiccups. I think that’s the key for any of you who are trying to plan a competition- get a great group of volunteers who are committed to the cause to get together to help. Make sure to have people from many different backgrounds if you can, because that will make your group that much more knowledgeable.  Back to the registration...

  • Fleet Management Certification
    By Mark O'Connell - Wednesday April 8, 2009
    The other day I got an interesting press release entitled: "Rocky Mountain Fleet Management Association® Endorses CAFM, CAFS Programs." The news was of interest because we here at Fleet Maintenance actively support state and regional fleet maintenance groups like the Rocky Mountain Fleet Management Association (RMFMA), and because we are big fans of the CAFM and CAFS programs offered by the National Association of Fleet Administrators (NAFA). I was happy to see the headline because it made me think that someday every fleet maintenance council in the country may recognize these programs as the standard for fleet management education and certification, and I think this industry needs that. We have a lot of great organizations in this...

  • What's Good for General Motors...
    By Mark O'Connell - Wednesday April 1, 2009
    Like all editors in the automotive and trucking business, I typically hear from my marketing and public relations friends at General Motors fairly regularly, but lately the giant has been eerily quiet... I'm sure they have more important things to worry about these days. The news this week that the Obama administration had sought--and received--the removal of Rick Wagoner as CEO of GM, must have come as quite a shock to rank and file GM employees. It's too early to say what this change might accomplish, but I think it can be argued that after 30 years at GM, Wagoner may have outstayed his welcome. Who knows, maybe it will even be worth the reported $23 million payoff Wagoner is receiving from GM to get someone new at the helm.

  • Report From Skills USA
    By Amanda Schuier - Wednesday April 1, 2009
    This past week, many of the members of the SuperTech Steering Committee traveled up to Norfolk, Neb., for the annual Nebraska Skills USA competition. I want to tip my virtual hat to the high school and college students who participated this year. There were over 40 students.  Students pursuing a career in diesel technology competed in 12 different skills stations this year. Even though these students are not professional technicians, they still attempted to tackle scenarios we would give to real-world professional technicians.  Hopefully, after a few years working as a successful technician in Nebraska, these students will have the chance to compete in a state SuperTech competition. And isn’t that our goal- to create talent from a...

  • The Big SCR SCaRe
    By Mark O'Connell - Wednesday March 25, 2009
    By now, you should know what SCR and DEF stand for, but if you don't I'll recap: SCR stands for Selective Catalytic Reduction, the technology that most of the major diesel engine manufacturers have chosen to meet the EPA's 2010 diesel engine emissions standards, and DEF stands for Diesel Exhaust Fluid, the urea solution that is injected into the aftertreatment system of a truck with an SCR engine.  Last week at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, KY, you could hardly go five minutes without someone talking about SCR and DEF, and the conflict that has erupted between the OE's that will be using SCR and DEF in 2010 (Daimler, PACCAR, Cummins, Volvo and Mack) and those that will be using "enhanced EGR" (Navistar/International). The...

  • Publicity Matters
    By Amanda Schuier - Wednesday March 25, 2009
    Publicity matters when you’re launching a first-ever competition. Not everyone will have the luxury of partnering with a national magazine like Fleet Maintenance when planning a competition, so in that regard, I wanted to touch on several things we’ve done in Nebraska that are tools anyone can implement.  One of the easiest things you can do is talk about SuperTech, which is completely free. It’s really that easy: you talk about SuperTech. You talk to fleets, you talk to dealers and you talk to potential sponsors. You ask them if they’ve heard about SuperTech. If they have, you ask them what they think. If they haven’t, you give them an introduction to the competition.   Another easy thing to do is get different groups of...

  • Can You Live Without This Tool?
    By Mark O'Connell - Monday March 16, 2009
    I don't normally talk about products here in my blog, but an interesting situation came up the other day. A gentleman contacted me to talk about a vehicle maintenance product that he invented several years ago. He was having trouble getting attention for his product, and wanted some advice on how to reach the fleet maintenance market. What surprised me about this man's story is that his product addresses an age-old vehicle maintenance problem that has, I'm sure, cost the fleet industry a great deal of money over the decades. He told me has tried to sell it through mobile tool distributors with no luck. "With a production capability of nearly 30,000 tools per month, two manufacturer part numbers, acceptance world-wide by thousands of techs...

  • The 2010 Diesel Emissions Debate Heats Up
    By Mark O'Connell - Wednesday March 11, 2009
    It's getting ugly. That's the only way to describe the "debate" over the differing technology paths chosen by diesel engine manufacturers to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) 2010 diesel emissions standards for the reduction of NOx to 0.20 g/hp-hr. As things stand today, there will be two competing technologies offered by engine makers next year, but the battle for supremacy has already reached a fever pitch. Without going into which manufacturer is offering which technology (by now pretty much everyone in the trucking industry is aware of the players and their strategies), I will say that never before, in 8+ years of working in this industry, have I been as beseiged with information, opinion and spin as I have been...

  • The Best of the Best
    By Amanda Schuier - Wednesday March 11, 2009
    One of the great successes we’ve had throughout the state of Nebraska is the willingness of many different people to get involved with SuperTech on many different levels. This week, I wanted to touch on what Nebraska fleets and dealers are doing to get involved. Several companies have already started the process to get an internal company competition started. I believe a few of them will have a competition running by next year.  This year, Omaha Truck Center, the dealership group I work for, will be hosting its first ever UltimateTech competition in mid-April. I recently had the pleasure of traveling to all of our dealership locations to talk about SuperTech, and about our desire to start our own company competition. With the help of...

  • Work Truck Show Bursting at the Seams!
    By Mark O'Connell - Thursday March 5, 2009
    It's nice to have something good to report every now and then, and today's news is pretty hard to beat. The National Truck Equipment Association (NTEA) has seen very positive turnout for their Annual Meeting and Work Truck Show, being held this week in Chicago. On the first day of the show, NTEA's Meeting and Member Services Director, Steve Carey, was awfully happy with the crowds. According to Steve, registrations are up over 1,500 over last year's show, and as of the first day, approximately 6,000 attendees had already checked in. These aren't the official numbers, but the point is that a lot of people see the value in attending an industry event. And, based on the seminars I attended, the people who have made the investment to attend...