Is the tech shortage affecting you?

Keith Browning · October 5, 2021

We see it in forums, FaceBook groups, training and in your dealerships. The tech shortage. Lack of talented, motivated young-uns, older guys retiring and of course the "mass exodus" has left many dealerships short handed. My dealership is one of many and it seems to be throughout my area and across manufacturers. Back to "me" I find the lack of help increasingly problematic to not being able to complete big jobs due to being pulled off/away many times to just being overwhelmed. Something has to give and I just don't see it happening.

JoeR · October 6, 2021

This problem is eternal and it won't go away until there is some reform in compensation. Flat rate times are often ridiculous. Low pay and huge tool investments drive away an awful lot of good techs. It seems as soon as anyone is presented with a viable option to wrenching, they take it.

Joe

Steve Mutter · October 8, 2021

It is getting crazy, we have 19 bays and only 10 techs. It's very hard to get anything done because everyone is being ran thin and of course all the up front staff do is complain about how they can get anything done. It is sad because nothing will change. I just keep on doing me and that the best I can do.

mchan68 · October 8, 2021

I know the thread title is about "tech" shortage, but I can tell you at my dealership at present, the big problem we are having is with experienced help shortage. Our old parts manager left just over two months ago after being employed with us since the 80s because he had literally had enough. The owners kept piling more and more on his plate to where he was on the brink of having a nervous breakdown. The replacement manager is a great guy to work with so far, but we now have ZERO experienced parts counter staff serving us and customers. On any given day of the week, either the manager or the new counterperson is constantly coming to my bay, to ask me for the base part number of something. So a daily occurence is techs, lining up at the counter to wait for our oil and oil filter during the morning rush. Forget about the longer wait time to get a price and availability for any part for jobs you want to upsell. Oh..... and we lost our lone tranny tech to Covid, after an outbreak at our shop. Thankfully, I've tested negative four times this year throughout this pandemic.

Keith Browning · November 15, 2021

And now my only team mate is leaving. I did just acquire a new apprentice. 25 years old, served in the military (and acts like an adult) and has a head on his shoulders. THIS one looks like a winner but it's going to take a lot of work and time.

mchan68 · November 16, 2021

....... and, we've lost a parts driver, parts counter person and two young, newly licensed techs as of this week due to the requirement to be double vaxxed to remain employed.

forddieseldoctor · November 23, 2021

One of our monkeys put a short block in a fusion. Broke the original oil pump and destroyed the tone ring on the crank pulley. Replaced oil pump and pulley. Put it all the way together and it don’t start. He couldn’t figure it out so they gave it to me. It’s getting another oil pump, crank pulley and we get a new tool for aligning the crank pulley. And management doesn’t wanna chew on him for this mess because they are afraid he will walk out.

mchan68 · November 23, 2021

9 hours ago, forddieseldoctor said:

One of our monkeys put a short block in a fusion. Broke the original oil pump and destroyed the tone ring on the crank pulley. Replaced oil pump and pulley. Put it all the way together and it don’t start. He couldn’t figure it out so they gave it to me. It’s getting another oil pump, crank pulley and we get a new tool for aligning the crank pulley. And management doesn’t wanna chew on him for this mess because they are afraid he will walk out.

LOL. That looks like a 1.5. I've done hundreds of those by now and I'm having a hard time figuring out how that could've happened. Even more so, how to get the crank sensor properly aligned without the the tool.

forddieseldoctor · November 23, 2021

I told him when he showed up this morning that he didn’t have the crank locked against the peg when he torqued the bolt. He argued with me about it claiming that he did. I looked right at him and told him to quit lying to my face.

batmantech · November 24, 2021

Zach that is how it goes here too. You try to help the guy out show them what went wrong so they do not repeat it. And what happens... You are the bad guy.

"don't say anything ,they might leave and there is no one else"

forddieseldoctor · November 25, 2021

I think he’s as good as fired right now. (I’m pushing the subject very very hard) I helped him time it properly and i laid out all the bolts I took out the night before after he left. Told him where they all went. Then I walked away to go do other stuff. We found half the bolts in the garbage can after he left. And we found a bunch of parts that he didn’t even bother to put in the engine when he replaced the short block. Plus a bunch of missing hardware and brackets that we think hit the garbage last week.

YukonTyler · November 25, 2021

On 11/16/2021 at 6:12 AM, mchan68 said:

....... and, we've lost a parts driver, parts counter person and two young, newly licensed techs as of this week due to the requirement to be double vaxxed to remain employed.

you guys have a vaxx requirement at the dealership? that is wild to me. i wouldn't expect that in small to mid-sized private industry.

my wife is about to get shit canned from her teaching job here in the Yukon over 'failure to attest' to vaccine status. can't say that i blame her. 10 years in the trade and she's ushered out (along with colleagues) without ceremony. and the Yukon is the only jurisdiction in the country to bring in a vaxx requirement for teachers. meanwhile, there is a well-publicized shortage of teachers in the Territory. it boggles the mind.

cbriggs · November 27, 2021

I left the dealer in march of this year. Myself and a friend ( also a ford tech) bought a 6 bay facility and opened our own shop. We have ourselves and 1 other tech right now, with a combined 40 years at Ford between us. We have another tech starting next week that has 15 years experience with Ford too. At 55 years we have about 45 years more ford experience than the local dealer shop staff combined. Ford was getting to be too much to deal with mentally. I will say, I have way more on my plate now, and way more stress, but overall I am way happier being away from all the BS of a dealer.

Fredsvt · December 18, 2021

I switched jobs,(indy) due to the shop I worked for for 23 years closing in late June. It wasn't unexpected.

I moved to a shop in the same town as the old one, a much, much more busy, and definitely better run shop.

We were 5 guys, one guy went out on disability (neck surgery) and may or may not return. We need at least 2 or 3 more guys.

Since I started, we're booked out 5 weeks. Next month, we lose another guy who's retiring.

Even finding younger guys, for tires, oil changes, alignments and simple stuff seems to be proving difficult.

Ford Doctor · December 19, 2021

It's definitely industry wide. And we just lost another Senior Master Tech in our shop who went to a Lincoln dealership. He left because of the way the shop is being run, or not being run depending on the perspective you choose to look at it. It blows my mind that even now, some shops do little to entice techs to WANT to work there. Some dealers just won't pay, clean up the facility and update the equipment or manage issues before they become problems. It's really difficult to find new people so why does it seem as though some places do little to retain the people they have? :scratch:

tonybullitt · April 6, 2023

I left the ford dealership I worked at in September 2022. Been a ford tech since Jan 4th 1999 was 3 months short of 20 years at that dealership. 15 year senior master. Lived 4 miles from the dealer and helped all my coworkers. Including parts, sales, quicklane and other techs. Alot wasn't going good with the way management was running the place. It got to the point my kids would ask me was it a normal day or actually a good day. They pulled me offa job to look at a recently sold one that sales had sent to an outside shop. I told them what was wrong with it and the sales manager pulled out his phone called outside shop hands the phone to me and says explain to him how you figured it out. I said I am not training my competition. Sales manager stormed off got the owner. They called me into the office and started lecturing me about being a team player and said don't you agree. I said I can't work here anymore. They tried to have meetings with me to see if I would reconsider and I said no. I gave written 2 week notice. I was a great employee the last two weeks and left. I wanted to be a ford truck tech since I knew what a ford truck was lived 4 miles away made good money. But life is to short to deal with dealership bullshit. At least that dealership. I took some time off and got caught up on some farm work. I ended up getting a job at MN DOT. I miss being a ford tech but haven't regretted leaving the toxic work environment I was in at all. My fse and the ford rep for tech recruiting/retention went to lunch with me my second to last day and after I told them about why I quit they both told me they agreed I needed to get out.

Keith Browning · April 12, 2023

On 4/5/2023 at 10:39 PM, tonybullitt said:

... My fse and the ford rep for tech recruiting/retention went to lunch with me my second to last day and after I told them about why I quit they both told me they agreed I needed to get out.

WOW! Did they expand on their thoughts?

tonybullitt · April 17, 2023

On 4/12/2023 at 5:34 PM, Keith Browning said:

WOW! Did they expand on their thoughts?

They said they were not able to suggest staying or trying to attract other techs if the work place is like that. They did have a meeting with owner and he blamed the service manager. Basically a pass the buck tactic. I still talk to the fse and he tells me all the time I can go work at a different dealership.