It seems like this post has taken a turn in direction from why people do their own work to why it is difficult to find a good technician (mechanic). After seeing the number of views on this post, I feel compeled to voice my opinion as to some causes of poor service and a lack of skilled techs.
Licensing? Call a plumber to unstop your toilet and he has to have passed a state trade exam and have documented experience of two or more years. Call an electrician to replace the circuit breaker in your electrical panel and he also has to have passed a trade exam and have documented experience. Your auto tech. No licensing, no experience needed. Just buy a set of tools from sears and your ready to go.
Compensation? Almost all techs work on flat rate. They are paid only for the number of hours billed. If a job takes 4 hours to diagnose and the flat rate is for 1/2 hour then the tech gets paid for 1/2 hour. It is no secret warranty work pays about half of the time it actually takes. When I worked as a dealership tech it paid no more than 4/10 of an hour and most cases less to diagnose check enigne lights. I am sorry but I could not get the keys to the car, find the car, test drive the car, diagnose the problem, stand in line at the parts department, replace the part, and return the defective warranty part and return the car to the lot in 4/10 of an hour. Oh, and if the problem cannot be pinpointed, you better make an educated guess and put a part on it anyway so you can get paid something. But if the car comes back ( a comback) you are going to diagnose the problem for FREE cause warranty pays only one time per problem. Additionally, as business slows down as it always does when school starts in the fall and when winter sets in, the tech finds himself standing around most of the day with nothing to do and no money to be made. The dealer owner does not care because the tech is not costing him anything anyway. He just needs to overstaff for the summer busy season. Another point. Overtime pay. Forget it. Technicians are exempt from overtime laws; they fall into the same category as the lettuce and tomato pickers.
Tools? These are bought and paid for by the technicians. Yes, some special diagnostic tools are provided by the dealer but hand tools, power tools, tool boxes etc are paid for by the techs. Any professional tech learns very quickly professionaly quality tools are not bought in the local department store regardless of what the ads say. I would say the average tech has at least 20 grand in tools.
Commission? Everybody's pay including the parts department employees, shop forman, techs, and service manager is based upon hours turned and parts sold. So, If you are in management who is going to be the favorite tech for the week. It is not the tech who is consencious, thorough, careful, ethical, explains things to the customer and fixes the problem right the first time. It is going to be the tech that turnes the most hours not the one that satisfies the customer.
Knowledge? The smarter a tech is usually the more he knows so the more complex problems he is given. He might be paid a dollar or two more per hour than the guy doing straight forward no diagnostic type work like wheel alignments and brake jobs also known as gravy work (fattens the wallet), however; at the end of the week the high tech tech ends up earning much less than the low tech tech. We used to have a saying, "the more you know, the less you make."
Working Conditions? In the summer you work in plus 100 degree shops and in the winter you stand over a warm engine like a bum stands over a burning barrel to get warm. In most cases the only air conditioning you get is when on a test drive. Chemical exposure is an accepted hazzard. Lets see, there is asbestos, chlorinated cleaners, posionous antifreeze, cancerous used engine oil, carbon monoxide, sulfuric acid and the list goes on. Batteries can explode at anytime without warning, tires can explode because some one used a fix a flat, fingers and hands amputated by moving blades and shafts, high voltage can electrocute, loaded springs can kill you, a bursting hose can burn you, vehicles can slip and crush, and the list goes on.
Technology? Equipment continually evolves technologically. More control modules, more sensors, more switches all lead to more potential problems. Tractors and cars are ever changing. When is the last time the human body changed? When is the last time masonary changed significantly? Each model year and model change requires new knowledge. Techs have to study on their own time to stay on the technology wave or they will fall off and be left behind.
I could list several more reasons why it is hard to find a good tech but it should not be hard to understand why it is difficult to get good people to become techs and even more difficult to keep good techs in the business. I spoke to a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) supervisior recently about where their industry finds good HVAC technicians. They find techs who are burnt out on the auto repair industry.
I have read time and time again on this forum people complaining about poor service yet nobody seems to want to pay for good service. How much does your barber charge. Mine costs me $15 per hair cut which takes 10 minutes. That is 90 dollars per hour and I do not think hair cutting has changed a lot nor requires relatively expensive tools and diagnostic equipment and nearly the skills a tech does, but it does require a barber's license. Yet nobody complains about the costs. Then why is it people think it is too expensive to spend $200 for a shop to send out an expensive truck and trailer to pickup and return a tractor to the shop which surely would take more than two hours. YOU TELL ME.
