Darren Trask, NZ’s newest qualified Hino Spirit Master

Darren Trask, Technical Services Representative of Hino Distributors (NZ) Ltd, has just become the third person In New Zealand to qualify as a Spirit Master – the highest technical qualification awarded by Hino. Darren is one of only six technicians trained to this level in Oceania.

A Spirit Master is the role model for Hino technicians and the title proves the quality of their service capability. Its purpose is to improve the technical capability of Hino technicians in order to offer quality services to all customers, and to build the working motivations and loyalties of Hino technicians to Hino brand.

As a Spirit Master, you become a role model for other Hino technicians demonstrating optimum service delivery. It takes a number of years to work your way up the qualification ladder from Junior Technician to Spirit Master. At each stage you complete an e-learning course supplemented by on-the-job training and ongoing Hino training delivered at Sime Darby’s Auckland-based National Development Centre during the compulsory one-year standdown period. Once a technician has achieved the HS-2 Professional Technician status, they are then invited to apply for the Spirit Master qualification.

Darren was encouraged to start the course in 2018 by his manager, Simon Wilson. He also had the support of Mitsutomo Nakajima (Jimmy) from the overseas service division of Hino Motors Japan. Jimmy san played a vital role in working through the red tape and getting the ball rolling. Representatives of Hino Motors’ Training Department were interested in setting up Hino NZ with the Hino e-learning platform. At that stage, the Junior Technician training was the only one available – perfect for Darren to begin this journey. “Since 2018, Hino Motors have designed and released the Senior and Professional Technician training onto the e-learning platforms in English, and it seems that I have been the guinea pig to test these courses for the New Zealand market,” Darren notes.

In October this year, Darren’s name will go up on the HQS Spirit Master Member Board at Hino’s Training Centre in Tokyo, Japan – alongside every qualified Spirit Master across the world. New Zealand currently has two names on the board: David Beech and Simon Wilson.

“The main logic behind the Spirit Master qualification is to create role models for other technicians – and to demonstrate the quality of Hino Service,”” comments Darren. “I plan on using everything I have learnt to ensure other New Zealand technicians enrolled in the Spirit Master course have a good chance of getting their names on the board. By doing so, we prove to our customers that we provide extremely high-quality service.

Hino Motors Japan Training Centre, ‘Chainon 21’, & the HQS Spirit Master Board