A Desperate Shortage of Auto Mechanics

[Alan Ollie]

Has anyone tried to get a visa for a German tech? I have had 2 applicants and we do have a shortage. Amex has a dept in south Fl that all thay fo I’d get cheap labor for it work. You can’t tell me we don’t have Enid basic network Americans. It’s such a racket. So if anyone has had experience please tell us about it. Maybe I should open an immigration law firm, lol. Big demand for skilled workers, low supply.

[papshop]

1. Society tells kids to go to college, not tech school.

2.  Most automotive schools do not teach common applicable skills that are needed to repair vehicles.  ( Even the basic of Righty tighty, lefty loosey)

3.  To take a job, some will have to take a pay cut from being on government assistance.  One applicant told us he couldn’t accept anything less than $20 hourly because his government assistance is that amount.

[JoeHenry]

Here is a recent article I wrote on “Techs these days make BIG Bucks, why are we having such a hard time finding them?” This was for our over 3,000 dealer clients but a lot also applies to our over 3,000 independent shops too. <b>But there are plenty of solutions! If you are interested, I put together a workshop on this subject for our clients.  Just request it, Joe Henry of ACT Auto Staffing</b>-

Here is the article:

I receive this inquiry all the time: “These Techs can make big bucks, why are we having a hard time finding them? And why aren’t we getting young people?”

In the movie “Fatal Attraction” Glenn Close’s character (after she finds herself pregnant) sees that Michael Douglas’s character is trying to ditch her. She tracks him down and confronts him with the famous line “I am not going to be ignored Dan!’ Yet he makes every effort to get away.

The auto technician industry is pulling the same gig. We are trying to ignore the problems Technicians face daily.

Here is a typical day that most Technicians face. Would you want this job or recommend your kid be a Technician? ………

*I as a Technician I am required to show up at 8am. And unless I have a carry-over, I don’t pull in my first job in my bay until 8:30 or so. I have now spent a half hour to 45 minutes with no compensation.

*My first job is a newly sold vehicle warranty ticket and the Complaint is “Customer states driver’s seat won’t go forward or backward”, I verify, I remove the seat and seat track and find a penny has dropped into the track locking up the seat rail

*Do I “smoke” the warranty ticket or pry the penny out and reinstall and get paid nothing?

*Regardless, I still have to fill out the Cause and Correction, move the car to the done lot, turn in the keys and see either my Team Leader or Dispatch for keys for my next job.

*The next ticket has some Customer Pay and an inspection sheet. I find the car and pull into my bay, go into the parts department (because my dealership is not one of the very very few that does have a service bay parts ordering and delivery to my bay parts system) where now 5 other of my fellow Techs are in front of me. (BTW, I am not paid for procuring parts no matter how long it takes)

*I rack this car up, start the C.P., do the inspection sheet, see dirty fluids but know we can’t sell the services because about a year ago a hot blond consumer advocate from the local TV station bashed our dealership because some customer turned us in for recommending fluid service on what the factory considers “fluids for life”

*I turn the inspection sheet into my ASA/Service Advisor with other CP work, (I used to have a strong ASA/Advisor but she left and now I have one weaker than circus lemonade) and sure enough, my Advisor informs me “customer says they will do it next time”. Yeah, right …..

*My next ticket is a big warranty job. It is a tough procedure requiring a lot of skill and will take my whole day. The frustrating part is that this job used to pay well so despite the frustration scale being a 9 out of 10, we Techs just dug in. That has now changed. The factory discovered that a tool company saw the problem we Techs had, made a unique, expensive, special tool that we Techs bought with our hard-earned money. Later in the year the factory found out about our time saving tool and now has sliced the time by 20%!

Conclusion: We in the industry keep ignoring the problems, and we know how that turned out for Dan (Michael Douglas’s character). But there are plenty of solutions! If you are interested, I put together a workshop on this subject for our clients.  Just request it.<b></b><i></i><u></u>

 

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