A lifetime keeping Mack trucks on the road

From the B Model era to modern electronics, longtime mechanic Geza Janzso spent nearly five decades watching Mack evolve while staying rooted in the work he loved.

Mack excellence takes many forms. It shows up in aerodynamics and driver comfort, but also in the people behind the trucks — those who build them, service them and keep them working long after they leave the assembly line. For Geza Janzso, that commitment was never abstract. Over a decades-long career as a Mack mechanic, he lived it every day.

Janzso began his Mack career in 1967 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. His uncle, Roy Schenayder, persuaded him to join him at “the branch.” Janzso left his job and started what would become an illustrious career at the Mack Trucks Factory Branch on Union Boulevard. But just as that path was beginning to take shape, it was interrupted by the military draft in June 1968.

“Everyone was drafted in those days,” Janzso says. “I spent a tour in Vietnam in the Mekong Delta.”

After completing his military service, Janzso returned to Allentown in June 1970 and resumed his work as a mechanic with Mack giving him a front-row seat to an important moment in Mack history.

“Zenon Hansen was the president of Mack Trucks at that time, and he had this idea to upgrade all the branches,” Janzso says. “TransEdge was the pilot to model all the dealerships after, so when I came back from Vietnam, I got to work in the most modern dealership at the time.”

That experience became another marker in Janzso’s long connection with the brand. He still likes to point out that he worked on B Model trucks in those days, and over the years, he watched Mack technology evolve dramatically as demand for its trucks grew.

“It has been like day and night from when I started with Mack,” Janzso says. “When I started, it was wires, fuel, an engine and a transmission, but now it is all electronics.”

Janzso is quick to note that those changes have been for the better. Even as Mack trucks have evolved, he says the brand has stayed rooted in the qualities that mattered most from the beginning.

Looking back, Janzso sees a turning point in the moment Mack broadened its reach and began capturing larger segments of market share.

“In the beginning, Mack was focused more on fleets and construction rather than a concentration on over-the-road customers,” Janzso says. “I think the turning point for Mack came about when they began increasing their attention on over-the-road, owner-operators and long haul. The technology aspect made that possible.”

Today’s standards call for structured classroom instruction alongside hands-on training, but Janzso says the learning process looked very different when he started. Much of it happened in-house, with experienced technicians and mechanics passing knowledge down to those just entering the field.

“Things are different now,” Janzso says. “Back then, the younger guys went to the older guys for help and with questions.”

Janzso looks back on a career spent performing a wide range of work as a Mack mechanic. Mack’s durability and long vehicle life made that possible, and advances in technology, comfort, and reliability only deepened what he never saw as just a job.

“I don’t know how it is for the younger generation, but for me, when I came to work, it was not like I was coming to a job,” Janzso says. “I was getting paid to come do a hobby.”

Janzso also credits Mack with giving customers more than one life out of a truck. Over the years, he saw many vehicles repurposed again and again as operators found new ways to put them to work.

“Macks have a second life,” Janzso says. “If a customer had a road tractor or something similar, a lot of our customers would give it a second life by converting it into another type of work truck.”

Often referred to as a Mack “encyclopedia,” Janzso maintained a busy work bay of wires, tools, hoses, and other parts, kept close at hand for second-life projects and anything else that made its way to his service area. With years of experience, coworkers still stand amazed at Janzso’s ability not only to disassemble Mack trucks but to put them back together with no manual in hand.

Janzso may have retired in 2025, but he did not disappear into any retirement cliché. While his work and former colleagues remain important to him, family is now at the center of his time. He and his wife, married for more than 50 years, enjoy time with their two daughters and five grandchildren. Even so, Janzso still checks in on the latest from Mack. He considers the next generation of mechanics fortunate to find the work that gave him the same pride and passion he experienced for five decades.