Ken Freund
I’ve always been crazy about anything with an engine.
After years of pestering my father, he finally let me drive a car - at nine years of age. At 14 I taught myself to drive stick shifts and then how to ride motorcycles. Later, I also learned to fly and have had my pilot’s license for 22 years. Working on, riding, driving, restoring, photographing and writing about all these wonderful machines has always been my passion. I've been an auto vo-tech and smog test instructor, certified master technician, vehicle inspector, shop foreman, service manager, service director, and shop owner. Over the years I’ve owned about 35 bikes and 50 cars and trucks, a lot of which I wish I had never sold!
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Who Will Fix Our Trucks?
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is a growing shortage of good technicians throughout the motor-vehicle industry. Very few young people are choosing vehicle technician as a career path. There are a number of reasons for this, and not everyone can agree on all of them, but I’m going to supply a short list of them anyway for your consideration:
To be successful, a technician needs to be highly intelligent, with computer and electronics savvy, excellent mechanical knowledge, diagnostic skills plus manual strength and dexterity. However, many schools seem to encourage only those with poor grades, behavior problems and/or at risk to dropping out, into technician training.
The auto repair business offers relatively low pay and benefits, and dangerous, tiring work. Many mechanics develop back, neck and carpal tunnel problems, and injury rates are up there with mining.
Unlike many other industries, automotive techs are expected to buy and maintain most of their own tools. Often, they get paid by flat rate, which is a fixed amount based on “book” times, which doesn’t consider rust, corrosion or other factors. It also means when there’s no work they don’t get paid.
Many shop owners don't like to or can’t afford to constantly send techs to school to keep up with the latest technology. Other industries which do offer training attract automotive techs.
Another one of them is status and public perception. When I was a tech and people asked me what I did for a living, I could often sense them looking down their nose at me when I told them.
One way that shops get good technicians is by hiring them from other shops and dealerships, by offering them higher wages, more benefits, or improved working conditions. But of course that doesn’t create new technicians, it only redistributes them and raises costs. Good for the techs, but not for the consumers.
The overall effect is going to be higher prices for service, longer waiting times and quite possibly higher comeback rates. I don’t see this situation changing anytime soon. Demand may push wages higher, but it appears that foreign workers are filling in the shortfall, as it has happened in the nursing field.
Do you have any practical solutions?
