Tauranga's Brenton Page representing New Zealand at The Caterpillar Asia-Pacific Regional Qualifier for the Global Dealer Technician Challenge held in Melbourne. Photo / Supplied
Tauranga's Brenton Page representing New Zealand at The Caterpillar Asia-Pacific Regional Qualifier for the Global Dealer Technician Challenge held in Melbourne. Photo / Supplied
Boats, excavators, bulldozers - Tauranga’s Brenton Page spends his days servicing all manner of big machines working for Caterpillar dealership Terra Cat.
Now the heavy diesel field service technician’s talents are taking him overseas – not for a new job, but to compete against some of the best in hisbusiness.
Page flies out on Thursday to represent New Zealand at the semifinals of the Caterpillar Global Dealer Technician Challenge in Málaga, Spain.
Page finished on the podium at the Asia-Pacific qualifier in Melbourne, when he went up against nine of the best Caterpillar technicians in the region.
His third placing earned him a spot in the next round of the multi-year, worldwide competition.
Page earned his spot on the national team after entering an internal competition between technicians at Caterpillar, a global manufacturer of construction, mining and other engineering equipment.
Competitors face a set of challenges involving troubleshooting machinery faults.
“They put in real-life active faults to simulate a real troubleshooting issue and then we’ll watch and monitor as each technician has a set amount of time to diagnose them.”
Page has worked as a heavy diesel field service technician for 11 years and said he loves his job.
“Every day is different. One day I could be working on a boat and the next day I could be out in the bush working on an excavator or a bulldozer.
“There’s always new equipment, machines, and faults. Every single day involves learning something new.
“I enjoy the challenge. Every job has its reward. The main one for me is to get the guy back up and running.”
The podium at The Caterpillar Asia-Pacific Regional Qualifier for the Global Dealer Technician Challenge held in Melbourne: Second place, Rhys Bishop from Hastings Deering, representing Queensland; first place, Leon Archibald from WesTrac, representing Western Australia; and third place, Brenton Page from Terra Cat, representing New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
Page entered the industry as an apprentice at a trucking company.
His dad was a truck driver, so he had always been around trucks and machines, but he didn’t want to go into driving.
Out of the machinery he worked on, the construction gear was his favourite.
He said this was because the marine work involved a lot of cleaning, and the forestry work was isolating.
Participating in the international competition would open up a lot of doors for Page to progress in his career.
It would also be his first time travelling overseas further than Australia, which he was excited to do with his wife, who would be supporting him on the sidelines.
He felt nervous going into the competition, as it would be the next level up.
He was also feeling “a whole lot of excitement”, and said even if he did not place, he would still be proud to get this far in the competition.
Page said he had a process for how he does things in the competition, and said that was the key to how he made it to the semifinals.
Terra Cat spokesman Simon Makker said if the Melbourne round was anything to go by, “Brenton will face a gruelling five days of competition in Spain, facing a range of technical problems he’s likely to encounter in the real world”.
Page has a chance to head to Las Vegas if he qualifies for the next round, to take on the world’s finest technicians at the grand final in March.
“I would be extremely stoked if I get into that top five and get through to the finals over in the States, but also if I don’t make it, it’s not going to be the end of the world.”
Even if he didn’t make it into the top five, to qualify for the round in Spain, he was ranked in the top 10 in the world.
Ayla Yeoman is a multimedia journalist based in Tauranga. She grew up in Taupō and studied at the University of Auckland, gaining a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in communications and politics and international relations. She has been a journalist since 2022.
