IVECO Master Technician Tournament 2026 Brings Australia and New Zealand Together
Few things stir up Australians and New Zealanders quite like rugby, cricket, and the chance to prove the bloke on the other side of the Tasman is doing something wrong.
Tournament winner, Matthew Radke, a Workshop Foreman from Black Truck Sales in Toowoomba, rectifies an issue on an IVECO Daily.
So, when IVECO expanded its 2026 Master Technician Tournament to include technicians from New Zealand, it was probably inevitable that what began as a very serious test of diagnostic skill would also acquire a healthy dose of Trans-Tasman rivalry.
After all, Australia and New Zealand have spent decades arguing over the Bledisloe Cup, cricket, pavlova and precisely where Russell Crowe belongs. Adding truck diagnostics to the list seems entirely reasonable.
More than 100 IVECO technicians from across Australia and New Zealand entered this year’s competition, eventually whittled down to nine finalists who gathered at IVECO’s Customer Innovation Centre in Melbourne to discover who really knew their way around a modern truck.
And unlike rugby, there was no opportunity to settle matters by simply running into somebody at considerable speed.
Instead, the weapons of choice were multimeters, PicoScopes, diagnostic laptops and an increasingly complicated collection of CAN-Bus systems.
There are certain people you really want to know what they are doing.
Airline pilots are fairly high on the list. Surgeons are another. And somewhere not terribly far behind them is the technician standing beside your truck with a laptop plugged into it saying, “Hmm, that’s interesting.”
Because when a modern truck decides to have a technological sulk, fixing it is no longer necessarily a matter of finding the oily bloke carrying the biggest hammer.
Modern trucks are rolling computer networks with an engine attached, which makes having properly trained technicians rather important.
That was the thinking behind the 2026 IVECO Master Technician Tournament, which returned this year after the success of the inaugural competition in 2025.
And this time the Kiwis were invited.
Which, naturally, meant what had previously been a technical competition immediately acquired the additional ingredients of Trans-Tasman rivalry, national pride and presumably several conversations about rugby that had absolutely nothing to do with diagnosing an S-Way.
After narrowing the field from over 100 entrants, nine technicians were left – seven from Australia and two from New Zealand – to compete in a series of practical head-to-head exercises.
More than 100 IVECO technicians take up the challenge
More than 100 technicians from IVECO dealerships across Australia and New Zealand entered the 2026 tournament.
The opening stage consisted of three rounds of online questionnaires covering servicing, maintenance and fault diagnosis across the IVECO truck range.
This eventually reduced the field to nine finalists: seven Australians and two New Zealanders.
They were invited to IVECO’s Customer Innovation Centre in Melbourne, where keyboards and multiple-choice answers gave way to something considerably more confronting: actual trucks with actual problems.
And a clock ticking in the background.
Diagnosing modern IVECO trucks against the clock
The finalists completed seven practical exercises involving IVECO Daily, Eurocargo and S-Way models.
Tasks covered programming and CAN-Bus system diagnosis using multimeters, PicoScopes and IVECO’s diagnostic equipment.
For anyone whose electrical diagnostic technique still consists of checking whether the fuse has smoke coming out of it, this is an entirely different world.
CAN-Bus systems allow the various electronic control units throughout a modern truck to communicate with each other. When everything is functioning correctly, nobody gives them a second thought.
When something isn’t, the technician has to work out whether the problem is a sensor, wiring, communication fault, software issue or one electronic module having an argument with another one somewhere beneath the dashboard.
The finalists were judged not simply on whether they found the fault, but on how they went about finding it.
Accuracy and speed were assessed along with methodology, discipline, professionalism and the process used to diagnose and rectify each problem.
Contestants also completed a remote diagnosis role-play using IVECO Remote Assistance Service, reflecting the growing role connectivity now plays in keeping trucks operating.
In other words, randomly replacing expensive components until the warning light disappears was unlikely to score particularly well.
IVECO Master Technician Tournament winner, Matthew Radke (c) with IVECO Head of Customer Services (l) Barry Woods, and IVECO Manager, Customer and Product Support, Jason Mobberley.
Matthew Radke takes the 2026 title
When the diagnostic leads were finally packed away and the scores counted, Matthew Radke, Workshop Foreman at Black Truck Sales in Toowoomba, emerged as the winner of the 2026 IVECO Master Technician Tournament.
Second and third places went to James Bambery, Senior Technician at Adtrans Truck Centre, and Jarrod Hodgetts, Electrician at NZ Trucks in Christchurch.
That meant New Zealand managed to put a technician on the podium during its first year in the competition, which should provide more than enough ammunition for the friendly rivalry when everyone returns next year.
The three place getters received trophies, cash prizes and, perhaps most importantly in any workshop environment, bragging rights.
The awards were presented at an official dinner following the competition.
The three place getters in the 2026 IVECO Master Technicians Tournament were Matthew Radke (c) in first, James Bambery (l) as the first runner up and Jarrod Hodgetts in third.
Why technician competitions matter to truck operators
IVECO Manager, Customer and Product Support, Jason Mobberley, said the expanded competition had received an extremely positive response.
“On behalf of IVECO, I congratulate our winner, Matthew, and place getters, and I thank all who participated in the 2026 event,” Jason said.
“Response to this year’s expanded tournament was extremely positive and having New Zealand technicians join the competition certainly gave it an international flavour, while setting the scene for some friendly banter and new rivalries.”
There is, however, a more serious purpose behind putting technicians through this sort of exercise.
The knowledge doesn’t remain in Melbourne when everybody packs their tools and heads home.
“The tournament provided technicians with an opportunity to test their skills against their peers, which ultimately leads to greater knowledge sharing and professional development across our dealer network,” Jason said.
“The learnings gained from the competition are then taken back to dealerships, benefiting IVECO customers throughout Australia and New Zealand.”
And from an operator’s perspective, that is arguably where the real value lies.
Modern truck technology has become remarkably sophisticated. Electronic braking systems, emissions controls, automated transmissions, connectivity, driver assistance systems and dozens of electronic modules all have to work together.
When they don’t, the difference between a technician who understands how those systems interact and somebody simply chasing fault codes can be measured in hours of downtime. Sometimes days. And, sadly, trucks have an unfortunate habit of costing money while doing absolutely nothing.
IVECO says it plans to further develop the Master Technician Tournament in 2027 and hopes even more technicians will participate.
Which sounds like good news for operators.
Although with Australia and New Zealand now competing against each other, it might be wise to keep the diagnostic equipment well away from any discussions involving cricket, rugby or who actually invented the pavlova.
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