Third Time the Charm for Rush Tech Rodeo Champ
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS — The 11th Annual Rush Truck Technician Rodeo is in the bag. More than $250,000 in cash and prizes has been handed out, and the new Rush 2016 Technician Rodeo Grand Champion has been named.
CEO Rusty Rush addressed the large crowd on hand at the Texas Ballroom in the San Antonio Grand Hyatt Hotel, consisting of Rush technicians and suppliers, and reiterated his annual message and firmly held belief that it is service that ultimately sells trucks.
“This is a competitive business that is on track to be down 40% next year in Class 8 sales,” he told attendees. “And the only way we can address that issue is by service – keeping our customers’ trucks on the road and making money. And if we can do that for them in a down year, they will remember us when things turn around and get better.”
The Grand Champion, Lucas Manlief, a technician at Rush Truck Center, Indianapolis, Indiana, has competed in two previous Rush Tech Rodeos, placing as a finalist. Manlief described his win as Grand Champion as “very tough but still very surreal” and said he was having a hard time processing the experience.
“But overall, my participation in this event has made me a better technician,” he said, because it has shown him the importance of working through technical issues methodically and following the documented procedures to resolve an issue.
Rusty Rush noted that Manlief took a job at Rush as a technician right out of trade school and has been with the company ever since — for over 15 years. “People need to understand that being a diesel technician is not the old job they imagine it to be,” he said. “It’ is a well-paying job that demands a great deal of expertise and is always challenging and …Read the rest of this story
