All the main automotive dealerships agree on the fact that there is a serious shortage of automotive technicians able to work on today's advanced cars and trucks. In this situation analysts and experts say that simply recruiting more technicians won't help.
The emerging gap between the lost and the recruited technicians is considerable. Ford and GM estimate a need for a total of 15,000 new technicians for their U.S. dealerships over the next five years. The North American shortfall is estimated by Mark Davis, automotive programs manager at Seminole State College of Florida, at more than 25,000 in that same time period. Another problem is that there are not enough training institutions in the U.S. to keep up with the shortage.
A report made by Carlisle & Co., a Concord, Mass., firm that collects and analyzes data for automakers, found that 20 percent of luxury-brand mechanics and 25 percent of volume-brand mechanics leave their jobs each year. They may be leaving to go to another dealership, to an independent shop or even to a nonautomotive job. As for the reasons that cause this situation, the experts point to a key part of the dealership service pipeline: the service adviser system. Communication with the service adviser is indicated by the majority of the consulted technicians, as the main issue they have during their work.
Service advisers rarely come from the technical side of automotive maintenance. A number of dealers hire their service advisers based on their selling ability, no matter what their knowledge of the technical part of the vehicles is. Traditional payment for service advisers compounds the mismatch between them and technicians as well. According to the experts, remedying the situation will require a new focus by dealer principals on management of their shops and some new thinking about investments in salary and benefits, as well as promotion mechanisms that will lead to workplace stability
