Training and Services Join Product Offerings for Paving Success
BY AsphaltPro Staff
For the New Year, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and construction industry associations offer not just new paving machines to enhance your bottom line in 2021. These folks have research and development going full tilt, of course, but they also have new dealers joining their distribution channels, new services to make your life easier, and new software and training to augment offerings of the past.
For example, the Association of Equipment Distributors Foundation (AEDF), Schaumburg, Illinois, offers a testing program to support heavy equipment technicians. Since January 2018, the program has resulted in the addition of 1,405 AEDF certified technicians.
This milestone in certifications serves as an industry program model to alleviate North America’s diesel technician workforce shortage while simultaneously supporting the foundation’s goal of producing 5,000 AED certified techs by 2024. This ambitious goal intends to increase the pipeline of qualified techs via the AEDF technical standards and helps techs showcase their skillsets to peers, superiors and employers.
AEDF Executive Vice President and COO Jason Blake stated: “The foundation is extremely proud to have certified this many technicians to date, but there is still more work to be done.”
The AEDF Certified Technician Test includes 160 questions developed by industry leaders, testing students’ knowledge of essential industry standards and technician best practices derived from AEDF’s six core competencies. Techs who become certified:
demonstrate their commitment to the heavy equipment industry; and
stand out from their peers in the applicant pool.
This program allows techs to show off their skills and receive a certificate proving their expertise after completing the program.
For more information, visit http://aedfoundation.org/certified-technician-program/.
Travis Long of Murphy Tractor and Equipment has achieved the Wirtgen Master Technician certification.
An OEM offering technician training to employees is Wirtgen Group, Antioch, Tennessee. Travis Long, a veteran service technician for Murphy Tractor and Equipment Company, Park City, Kansas, was one of two inaugural graduates to receive “Master Technician” certification from the Wirtgen Group, a John Deere Company. He shares this honor with Troy Graham of Tractor & Equipment Co.
To achieve this certification, Long successfully completed five weeks of in-person fundamental training at the Wirtgen Center for Training and Technology in Nashville; and completed over 200 hours of additional technical training. The inception of the certified technician program through the Wirtgen Group was a short 18 months prior to Long’s graduation.
“We are very pleased to have Murphy Tractor be one of our select distribution partners to participate in and have one of their employees, Travis Long, complete the full Master Technician course requirements,” said Jan Schmidt, vice president of product support. “He is one of two inaugural graduates in what we anticipate to be a long standing elite program, showing the commitment and understanding of the unique requirements necessary to support Wirtgen Group customers with our distribution partner’s fullest capabilities.”
Doug Jacobson, Wirtgen product support manager for Murphy Tractor, indicated that this certification provides additional value to the Murphy Tractor customers who own Wirtgen Group equipment. Jacobson also recognized the commitment and time required to reach this level of certification.
“Travis’s hard work and training paid off as he tied with another technician to become the first Wirtgen Master Technician in the United States. This is no small achievement, it required extensive travel, training and long hours of work to reach this milestone certification. I, as well as well as all his peers at Murphy Tractor, congratulate him for this well-deserved accreditation.”
Murphy Tractor and Equipment is one of the largest John Deere Construction and Forestry dealers in North America. Established in 1982, they operate 30 locations in six states.
For more information, visit www.murphytractor.com.
Training and education are just one facet of the services OEMs and associations can offer this winter. Take a look at the paving-related goods from the OEMs to follow.
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