april2022 - 6

HI TCHED UP FROM THE EDITOR
Sweetening the deal
for shop technicians
To attract more technicians to the trade, maintenance
managers must sweeten life in the shop.
By John Hitch
Editor
@Hitched2Trucks
By all accounts, the technician shortage
has left a sour taste in the commercial vehicle
industry's mouth. I'll spare you the grim
government and non-profit projections and
offer up what your peers have experienced.
According to Fullbay's latest State of HeavyDuty
Repair Industry Report, two out of every
three of the 900 maintenance stakeholders
surveyed found it difficult to hire technicians.
More than half called it their top challenge.
Cue the optimists chiming in with " when
life gives you lemons, make lemonade. "
Maintenance folks like a good challenge, but
the current situation goes beyond that platitude.
It requires tangible solutions.
Finding those won't be easy. For starters,
there aren't that many lemons anymore. Fleet
Maintenance contributor George Arrants, VP
of the ASE Education Foundation, revealed
his organization's internal data found about
40% of auto/diesel tech school graduates
leave the trade within two years (pg. 38).
ASE's strategy is for high schools and trade
schools to partner with industry mentors,
who can nurture students' interest so one
rotten experience as an entry-level tech
doesn't sour them. It's a good plan but only
in the seedling phase.
Along with the lack of labor, shops can't
reliably get the parts needed to make repairs.
In the Fullbay report, 82% of respondents
reported disruptions due to the parts shortage.
Getting ahead of problems with data
and telematics (p. 8) and streamlining DVIR
reporting and work order approvals (p. 20)
can help squeeze out more efficiency.
Those digital solutions may be just enough
to achieve stability. Shops also must find time
to prepare for the impending forced conversion
to zero-emission trucks while currently
juggling a rising complexity of truck technology,
such as with advanced driver assistance
systems. (Our contributor Mindy Long does
an excellent job of describing those challenges
and what to watch out for on p. 34.)
To advance beyond muddling through day
to day and to attract more technicians to the
trade, shops must sweeten the pot.
Fullbay's data indicate this is happening,
according to Jacob Findlay, founder and
chairman of the maintenance management
software provider. He said last year 73%
of independent shops did provide a wage
increase, to the average tune of $13.80/hour.
6 Fleet Maintenance | April 2022
Photo: 514065882 | ivandzyuba | Getty Images
Fullbay Chairman Jacob Findlay advised that
for every $0.50 increase in technician wages,
shops should increase labor rates by $1.
" You would think it would be 100%, given
the period of price inflation that we're going
through, " Findlay reasoned in March at
American Trucking Associations' Technology
& Maintenance Council 2022 Annual Meeting
& Transportation Technology Exhibition. " So,
over a quarter of the shops surveyed [reported]
zero increase in technician wages last
year. And I'm fairly confident that those shops
are increasing turnover and decreasing their
proficiency and recruitment capabilities. "
Not being compensated after being asked to
do so much may be a reason many entry-level
technicians leave within two years. That
could also drive experienced techs away as
well. Findlay advised that for every $0.50
increase in technician wages, shops should
increase labor rates by $1.
" You do need to pay the technicians what
they are worth in the market as a shop, and
the fleets need to be willing to pay a higher
labor rate to keep that shop in business, " he
said. " The fleets will be okay paying those
higher rates because their trucks will be operational
more consistently, and they will make
more money with the trucks. We all cooperate
together and it's a true win-win. "
Findlay, a numbers guy who left an accounting
professor track for the commercial vehicle
maintenance sector, argued that paying higher
wages as the labor quantity goes down " will
create new entrants into the diesel technician
market-it's classic supply and demand. "
That's a start, but with such a stiff job market,
shops need to set themselves apart by heaping
in even more sugar via incentives. The Fullbay
report found 44% of shops offer bonus/incentive
programs and 40% recognize individual
achievements, while one-third provide lunch
and about one-quarter give out gift cards and
other gifts. Shop management data measuring
repair times and bay throughput will come in
handy to decide who deserves what.
Fullbay CEO Patrick McKittrick also intimated
that shops may be getting even more creative
by reinventing the workweek, instituting three
12-hour days and then having four days off.
" That's flexibility that money can't buy, so there
will be things beyond just pay, " he concluded.
I would advise to take it a step further
and figure out a way to gamify the shop.
From what my sources tell me, that's not too
common right now, but it could be done with
existing data and third-party API.
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april2022

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