August 2024 Technician of Influence Winners

Service Technician

Kody has already achieved a lot in his young career. After graduating high school, he went into the construction field. A few years later, his brother talked him into joining us at Ascendence Truck Centers where he also works. At that time we had our first Uptime student enrolled in the 2022- 2023 Uptime class. After just four months working here, we could see we had something special in Kody, so we signed him up as well. Since then, it's been nothing but upward progress for Kody and his career here at Ascendance.

Coming from the construction field and living in Rural Wisconsin, Kody is a well-rounded tech and he is willing to work on anything. He has a special charisma and can get any room or shop laughing in a matter of seconds. Our service advisor once handed him a job with a Brand X truck: Kody handed it back to them and said, "I am an Uptime graduate, I only know how to work on Navistar brand." After the service writer walked away with a confused look on his face, Kody laughed and said, " I was kidding, I work on them all, work is work."

Being an Uptime grad, he understands Uptime and the importance of getting the truck back on the road. He comes in on Saturdays when needed, stays late, and is always willing to come in early when asked.

Even though Kody is in the early stages of his career, you can often find him coming off the tool truck with his hands full of tools and a big smile. If asked what he bought, his reply is usually something like, "Need more tools to make more money and keep trucks on the road." Kody is 100% International certified online, hands-on certified in CV, EV, HVAC, DLB, and A26. He is fully Allison certified in 1000, 2000, 3000 & 4000 series and working on getting certified in Cummins ISB, ISL, and X15. This is pretty impressive for less than 2 full years of working with us and being only 21 years old. Since graduating Uptime, Kody’s average proficiency has been 91%. He is a technician our customers can count on to be there and get the job done right the first time and in an acceptable amount of time.

Idealease Technician

Jared has almost  10 years with Cumberland Idealease, committed to completing the best work he can. I have worked with Jared for 8 of those years and have learned a lot from him about Cummins engines, Thermo King reefers, and International trucks. When Jared is asked for help by me or other techs, he doesn't hesitate to help in any way he can. With new techs who are still in school or have just graduated, he will inform them about what tools they need, the extra training that will help them, and ways to complete repairs to reduce downtime for the customer.

Many times I have seen Jared postpone his lunch for a customer needing a repair, not stopping until the customer was back in the truck and ready to drive off the lot. No job is too small for him, even washing and cleaning the inside of rental units and doing PMs.

Jared works the night shift, directing the other techs on the shift on what needs to be completed for the next day. For trucks that come in during 2nd shift, Jared decides what will best work best for the customer/company. Jared has worked past the end of his shift to complete a truck that a customer needs that night or the next morning. The second shift would not be running like a well-oiled engine if it wasn't for Jared's leadership and guidance.

Jared also stays up to date with the industry technology from International, Cummins, and Eaton.  He found a recall with Eaton last year before the dealership techs were even aware of it. The dealership was able to start servicing that recall before other locations and before any issues impacted customer trucks. Customers were able to schedule their trucks and avoid unexpected downtime. Because Jared found out about that recall so early, our dealership was paid at a higher warranty rate before Eaton reduced the rate.

A fun fact about Jared: we play EA Sports 24 Pro Clubs together with another friend and we reached rank 761 in the WORLD!