New Horizon - Issue 3 - Turf

A day in the life
Service Technician Apprentice Luke Haggaty
Luke collects the parts for the job, from the Parts department. In
the meantime, Max would have called the customer to let him
know that Luke will be on his way and gives a suggested ETA,
so the customer is kept informed. Today, over 70% of service
and repair work is carried out on the farm premises. Luke drives
his own workshop vehicle which carries his tools and any special
equipment, plus replacement parts, oils and filters etc.
Luke Haggaty (left) and Service Manager Max Portnall reviewing
the first job of the day.
Top quality career opportunities for qualified or nonqualified
service technicians exist within the Hunt Forest
Group in all sectors of our business, including agriculture,
construction, commercial, residential and off-road vehicles.
With six branches covering most of the South of England,
geographical locations for employees can be very flexible.
Many young people looking to start their career, can follow
a structured apprenticeship programme that will prepare
them for a varied and stable, long-term career opportunity,
with serious potential for career growth
Let’s take a look at a typical ‘day-in-the-life’ of an apprentice
technician. Luke Haggaty, 22, has just completed his threeyear
apprenticeship programme with Hunt Forest Group,
having spent time at Lackham College studying motorsport
engineering, while working part-time at the Tilshead branch of
Hunt Forest Group (HFG). He then decided to focus full-time
in the agricultural and construction machinery sectors at HFG,
undergoing thorough training at John Deere University covering
John Deere products and technology. John Deere is the largest
manufacturer of agricultural and grounds-care equipment in the
world. Luke, now has some of the highest qualifications in our
industry.
Luke also underwent GreenStar training - which is essentially
John Deere’s integrated solutions technology which uses
GPS and data management, that is used to record machine
performance and field efficiency for advanced crop production
management. GreenStar is used on over 70% of the farms in the
UK today. So Luke’s job is highly regarded and valued.
Apart from John Deere, Luke also had exposure to product and
technical training on other brands of product marketed under
the HFG umbrella. These would have included other world
leading brands such as Kramer, Yanmar, Isuzu, Kuhn, Amazone
and many others.
Most on-machine diagnosis today is carried out using a laptop
with diagnostics software. Luke has undergone thorough
training on this system and is capable of identifying any potential
problems on a wide range of machinery. In using the laptop
to run through a code-checking process, this will likely show
an actual or potential fault, therefore isolating the problem,
meaning a prompt repair. However, there may be an underlying
reason for this fault and the software helps Luke to investigate
other components, directly related to the fault.
If additional parts are required, these can be ordered directly by
Luke to the Parts Advisor, from Luke’s laptop while he is on farm
and would normally be available same-day, or on a next day,
overnight delivery service. This minimises machine downtime.
Most faults today, tend to be minor electrical issues, that might
require the replacement of an electrical component, but once
identified and replaced - the machine system undergoes an
additional diagnostic test to ensure all is well.
Luke will then sign-off the job and confirm completion directly
with the customer. Because of his in-depth product training,
Luke can explain to the customer what had happened, how
it was fixed and if there were any other advanced notices of a
potential, medium-term component failure.
Luke will then write-up and complete his job ticket, which is then
passed to Max, as his Service Manager - Max then providing
Luke with the next task for immediate follow-up.
Luke’s skills and training means he is likely to work on a wide
range of machineries such as tractors, combines, forage
harvesters, sprayers, balers, material handlers and many more.
However, if he wanted to, Luke could specialise in one or two
product sectors, which would give him ‘specialist’ status and he
would be one of the ‘go-to’ technicians within the company. With
such a large amount of educational and instructional expertise
from an ongoing product update programme, Luke would in the
long term be able to position himself for Service Department
management opportunities in the future. And, he’s only 22.
If you’re looking for a stable and enjoyable career and would like
to consider joining the Hunt Forest Group either as a fully qualified
technician or, would like to consider an apprenticeship to launch
your career, please contact us at; careers@huntforest.com
Today, as a qualified technician, Luke receives his daily instruction
from Max Portnall, the Service Manager at the Tilshead branch,
who gives Luke a job ticket and they discuss the necessary
machine issue, which could be a breakdown, a component
failure or a regular machine service.
HUNTFOREST.COM 13