Annual skills competition sees Brisbane technician picked as Australia's best
Toyota Material Handling Australia (TMHA) has announced the winners of its National Skills Contest, with the top award going to Luke Kuschert from TMHA Brisbane.
Taking out the Master Technician of the Year award and the National Technician of the Year award for BT products, Kuschert topped the two-day contest, which tasks contestants to compete in practical and theory-based challenges based upon the company’s Toyota, BT, and Raymond brands.
Fellow TMHA Brisbane employee and 2013 Master Technician winner, Aaron Lang claimed the National Technician of the Year for Toyota products.
The top award for the Raymond brand headed to Victoria, with Rod Villeneuve from TMHA Melbourne claiming the award.
New South Wales was also represented in the winners with TMHA Albury’s Shayne Marsh taking home the National Apprentice of the Year honour.
Of the 160 entrants into the competition, the final 15 consisted of nine technicians and six apprentices from across Australia.
Presenting the winners with their awards at a gala dinner at the Four Points Hotel in Sydney earlier this month, TMHA executive vice president and COO Steve Takacs described the competition as an investment in skill.
“It is always pleasing to see TMHA branches from around the country being represented in the finals, which shows the high level of product knowledge across the country and in turn supports our position as the number one forklift brand,” Takacs says.
“The National Skills Contest has been proven to support high customer satisfaction rates, with less downtime and increased efficiency for all our business partners.
“The Apprentice of the Year component in particular provides the opportunity for budding technicians to test themselves against the country’s best, and allows us to invest in their future and that of the entire TMHA business.”
All winners received a cash prize, plus the Master Technician and Apprentice of the Year will also travel to the Takahama forklift assembly plant in Japan.
Left to right: TMHA Queanbeyan branch manager Allan McCracken, TMHA EVP and COO Steve Takacs, and TMHA Adelaide General Manager Hamish Harper.
Sales Awards
Also presented at the gala dinner, the TMHA’s 2015 National Sales and Service awards were dominated by South Australian and New South Wales-based branches.
The 2015 Metropolitan Branch of the Year award went to TMHA Adelaide for the second year in a row and third time since 2012.
TMHA Adelaide’s grip on the awards continued with the Best Rental Department and Best Service Department awards.
In the other awards, TMHA Queanbeyan won the 2015 Regional Branch of the Year award, TMHA Sydney won the Branch Award for Best Sales Department, and Neil Nand from TMHA’s national corporate accounts team was crowned winner of the 2015 Sales Champion of the Year award.