The award recognizes more than two decades of leadership in commercial vehicle cybersecurity and network communications standards.
Some awards recognize tenure. Others recognize visibility. The Silver Spark Plug is pays tribute to the people who have materially changed how the commercial trucking industry operates. Mark Zachos received that award this spring in Nashville.
At the American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) Technology and Maintenance Council (TMC) 2026 Annual Meeting and Transportation Technology Exhibition, Zachos was one of four individuals presented with the Silver Spark Plug. The award recognizes professional excellence in commercial vehicle maintenance and equipment. And it honors the kind of sustained contributions that make trucks safer, more efficient and harder to compromise.
TMC Executive Director Robert Braswell put it plainly: winners represent the highest level of expertise and ability in the industry.
TMC 2025-2026 General Chairman Radu Mikai welcomes Mark Zachos to the elite group of individuals in the trucking industry who have been chosen to receive the prestigious Silver Spart Plug award. Photo courtesy of TMC
What the Award Actually Means
To qualify for the Silver Spark Plug, a TMC member must demonstrate clear industry leadership, at least five years of active service in support of TMC programs and tangible contributions — new ideas, practices or innovations that have improved the management and maintenance of commercial motor vehicles. Not just a lifetime achievement award in the ceremonial sense, it stands out as a professional accountability standard with teeth.
Zachos first joined TMC member in 2009. In the years since, he took the lead of the Cybersecurity Issues Task Force within TMC’s S.5 Fleet Maintenance Management Study Group, contributed to the S.12 Onboard Vehicle Electronics Study Group and worked across the Technology and Educator, the Future Truck and the Health Ready Component Standards committees. He chairs — and runs with his DG Technologies team — the Cybersecurity Station at TMCSuperTech every fall. A regular voice on “Tech Talk with TMC,” Zachos joined Braswell on RadioNemo until Dave Nemo’s retirement this year.
It’s an organization that has relied on one person’s expertise, consistently, for more than two decades.
In His Own Words
Zachos traveled to Nashville to workshop cybersecurity protocol and to support the DG Technologies sales team at the exhibition floor. The company set up there to showcase its DGD PRO diagnostics software, the new DPA XL PRO vehicle diagnostic device and the Truck-Connect online suite of engineering and diagnostic tools.
It surprised him to hear his name called. His response was immediate and characteristically direct.
“This honor truly belongs to our entire DG team,” he said. “It was made possible by your dedication to serving our customers. I am proud to act on behalf of all of you at TMC.”
TMC 2025–2026 General Chairman Radu Mihai, in presenting the award, noted that Zachos has spent more than two decades providing leadership and training in cybersecurity and network communications — and worked to build the council’s entire body of thought leadership in those areas.
That framing matters. Mark didn’t arrive at TMC with a finished product. He helped build the intellectual infrastructure the council now stands on.
Why This Recognition Matters Beyond the Award
Commercial trucking is infrastructure. The 8.4 million people employed by the industry keep goods moving to hospitals, stores and factories across the country. The majority of them never drive a truck. The diagnostic protocols that keep trucks running and the cybersecurity frameworks that protect them from intrusion are not abstract concerns. They are operational necessities.
Mark Zachos has spent his career making sure those networks are built right — and that the standards governing them are rigorous enough to hold up in the field. The Silver Spark Plug embodies the trucking industry’s formal acknowledgment of that work
ATA President and CEO Chris Spear called the four recipients examples to everyone in the industry. That’s a fair description – and also an understatement for anyone who has watched Mark work a standards committee.
Mark Zachos is the founder and president of DG Technologies, based in Farmington Hills, Michigan. He chairs multiple SAE and ISO vehicle cybersecurity standards committees and created the Vehicle Cyber Engineering (VCE) program at the University of Detroit Mercy.