December 2021 - 64

Inaugural Best
Young Tech Award
winner named
Chis Taylor stood out for his work ethic,
workmanship, and willingness to help colleagues.
By Amanda Silliker, Editor
W
hen Chris Taylor was
14 years old, his uncle
gave him a 1998 Ford
Mustang that he started fixing
up and teaching himself how
to do basic repairs. Before too
long, he was swapping out the
V6 engine for a V- 8 and then
installing a cam and changing
the rear differential gear ratio.
" It started when I was young. I always
loved play with hot wheel cars and I used
to pretend I was in my own car, shifting
gears and making car noises, " Taylor
recalls. " I grew up in Jamaica and then I
came back here and I always hung around
a lot of people who are into cars. "
When the time came to choose a career
path, Taylor didn't know what he wanted
to do, but he knew he loved cars, so he
followed that passion to the University
Technical Institute in Orlando and
became an automotive technician. Upon
graduation, he received his Ford FACT
certification and was hired at a Ford dealership.
Today, he's a technician in the fleet
management division at Polk County in
Florida, where he fixes everything from
the county's Ford F-150 fleet to ambulances
or a boom on a utility truck.
Taylor is the inaugural winner of the
PTEN and Motor Age Best Young Tech
Sponsored by
64 PTEN DECEMBER 2021 www.VehicleServicePros.com
Award, designed to honor
technicians aged 35 or
younger who are moving
the service repair industry
forward, excel in their
current role, and are passionate
about their work. Taylor, age 31,
stood out to the judges for many reasons,
especially his strong work ethic.
" I even tie it back to being that 14-yearold
tackling that mustang project and the
stuff he did was not changing oil! That
was serious stuff for someone who had
no training. I saw that initiative as a common
thread throughout his career so far, "
says Mike Pressendo, chief marketing
and strategy officer at the TechForce
Foundation, who was one of the judges for
the award program. " He doesn't sit back
and wait to be told to go learn this or do
that, he just jumps in and goes after it. "
Taylor's work ethic was evident to
Robert Biller, fleet management director,
the day he started working in his division.
He was immediately put on the shop floor
and assigned work orders on vehicles and
equipment that he had little or no experience
with, most notably the large M2
Business Class Freightliner chassis used
for their county's ambulances. Taylor did
not hesitate: He went to the OEM manuals
and researched the issues he was dealp
Chris Taylor, 31, is a fleet technician for Polk County in Florida.
ing with, and also dove into the NFPA
books to ensure he was repairing the life
safety equipment properly.
" Whenever he is faced with a job or
equipment where he has limited experience,
he knows his limitations and goes
to the correct reference material in order
to do a proper repair, " Biller says. " As
information gets passed on by mouth, it
gets less and less accurate... So when you
read the manual, you learn how to do it
correctly. It's a refreshing mentality in the
shop... and has resulted in his knowledge
level rising much quicker than his peers. "
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
Taylor's quality of workmanship is
another element that stood out to the
judges. He always performs a very indepth
inspection of the vehicles he
is assigned to repair. He builds lists
of items that need attention and adds
them to the list of repairs on the vehicle's
work order. A simple front brake
job may turn into calipers, brake lines,
or power booster job just by identifying
http://www.VehicleServicePros.com
December 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of December 2021
