Trends & Traits of Today’s Technicians: The 2001 Professional Automotive Technicians Survey, Ed Sunkin, Underhood Service, March 2001
Welcome to Underhood Service’s Professional Automotive Technicians Survey. This is the first year Underhood Service has published a survey that focuses just on the technician, so you may notice results within this profile vary from repair market surveys printed in the past. Those surveys generally focused on shop owners and managers, and not necessarily on the technicians. There are times, however, throughout this profile that we do show shop owner comments and results for comparison purposes.
This study was undertaken to provide information on a wide variety of topics that concern automotive technicians in the U.S. The results equip our readers with a more complete understanding of individuals working at a variety of independent auto repair facilities. We feel this greater understanding of technicians’ beliefs, motivations and backgrounds is helpful to the many readers of Underhood Service and those considering a career in this field.
In General
On average, we found that technicians working today have been a professional mechanic/tech for about 23 years (27 years for shop owners/managers). The number of years a tech has worked at their current shop is about 10.8 years (17.7 years for shop owners/managers).
The average age respondents began working as a technician is about 19.4 years. The average age of the responding technicians is 40.7 (47.6 for owners), and 73.3% of the techs who responded are married. The average age of the technician in this profile may seem high; it should be noted that we asked that this survey be completed by the shop’s "experienced" technicians.
When it comes to ASE certifications, 39% of responding technicians hold certification, with close to 21% saying they plan to attain certification in the future. Our survey showed a little more than 57% of shop owners hold ASE certification, and 15.4% plan to seek certification.
When we asked technicians if they are a specialist in their shop, 73% said they do not consider themselves a specialist, rather they do all types of repairs. Of the 27% who consider themselves a specialist, Figure 1 shows the breakdown of work. Note: Underhood specialists perform tune-ups, emission, driveability, air conditioning, cooling and related work. Undercar specialists handle shock, brakes, steering, suspension, alignment, exhaust and related work.
Work & Pay
When we asked how technicians are paid, 28.9% reported they are paid "hourly only"; 26.3% are paid "salary only"; 10.5% are paid "hourly plus a percent of labor and parts"; and 34.2% reported "other." Most technicians who reported "other" wrote in they are paid a "flat rate" for service work.
Of the techs who are paid by the hour, the average pay reported was $21 per hour. Personal annual income from technicians working in a shop averaged $33,055 a year. The average total household income reported by techs was $44,459.
According to our results, technicians work about 42.3 hours a week, and 34.4% said they work weekends and evenings. Shop owners reported they work about 52 hours a week, and 61.2% of owners said they’re in the shop on weekends and evenings.
The average total value reported of hand tools a technician owns was $27,825, and it’s estimated that techs spend about $184 a month on hand tools.
Benefits
Fringe benefits have been a concern for technicians. As you can see in Figure 2, uniform service and paid vacations top the list of technician fringe benefits. (Respondents were asked to check all that apply.)
Surprisingly, 23.3% of respondents said they receive no fringe benefits. For shop owners looking to keep technicians in this day of shortages, this may be an area to focus on.
It also should be noted that 92.3% of the techs reported that they work on their own vehicles at the shop after hours, which to some may be viewed as a fringe benefit.
Career Choice
So why did technicians choose this career? Most respondents (71.6%) said it was because they liked working on cars. About one-third (33.4%) said it was because they had a family member who was a technician, 9.5% said they felt it seemed like a good career, 6.8% said they knew someone who was a tech, 6.8% said they learned this work in the military and 1.4% answered a technician-wanted ad. Unfortunately for our industry, zero respondents said their school counselor suggested automotive mechanic/technician as a career choice.
Most technicians appear to be happy with their current job. According to respondents, only 7.9% said they were actively seeking employment as a technician at another shop. Most technicians reported they have worked at more than three shops during their career.
Interestingly, 56.4% said were recruited to their current shop by the owner, 2.6% said they responded to an ad, 5.1% said they heard about the opening from another tech at the shop.
It also was reported that 21.3% attended college, 10.7% graduated from college and 42.7% received a technical/trade degree from a secondary institution.
Information Service
We asked techs if their shop has a PC-based repair information system and were surprised by the results. More than half (53%) responded "no." Of the 47% of shops that do have PC-based repair information systems, the average number of times a shop uses the system a week was 25.
On average, technicians prefer personal training (see Figure 3), training seminars, repair manuals, PC-based systems and trade publications as their top five most useful information services.
When discussing the Internet as an information source, 70.8% said they have access to the World Wide Web. Of those who have access, 9.3% use the Internet at work only, 48.8% at home only and 41.9% have access at both work and home.
The most popular use for the Internet by technicians is access to parts manufacturer websites (35%), specific service and repair help (32.5%), general training (27.5%), buying tools (25%), access to OEM vehicle manufacturer websites (25%) and access to iATN (22.5%).
View From The Outside
How technicians are viewed outside the industry is a great concern for technicians. Many technicians believe they are still viewed negatively by customers and the public. (In fact, earlier in this survey we saw it was reported that none of the techs participating in the survey were recommended to a career in automotive technology by their guidance counselor.)
When asked "Besides more pay or benefits, what would it take for you to stay committed to your current job for the long run?", most of the responses written in revolved around "receiving more respect" and "being respected for our knowledge."
How technicians feel about their career also is reflected in the chart on page 35. We asked technicians to rank the following statements using strongly agree (1), agree somewhat (2), no opinion (3), somewhat disagree (4) and strongly disagree (5).
When added up and averaged, we received the following indications. As you can see, for the most part the averages remained in the "strongly agree" to "agree somewhat" categories for technicians. We feel that technicians are generally happy about the shop where they work. Average numbers for shop owners tended to be a bit higher. This may be because shop owners have more responsibilities and more pressures to make the business profitable as compared to technicians.
We hope you enjoyed this survey on automotive technicians. If there are any comments you have, or questions you would like us to ask in future surveys similar to this one, feel free to respond using the prepaid comment card listed in this publication, or by emailing me at esunkin@babcox.com.
For more information and archived repair market surveys from past issues of Underhood Service, as well as the other Babcox Tech Group magazines ImportCar and Brake & Front End, visit www.underhoodservice.com and use the "Search Back Issues" function on the website.
Growing Opportunities for Women Today, with 15 years of experience as an automotive service technician, Kittinger, who works for husband-and-wife shop Hawthorne Auto Clinic, is a pioneer in a growing career opportunity for young women. "I’ve always enjoyed taking things apart and putting them back together," Kittinger said. "With the electronics changing all the time, my job is always more mentally stimulating, more challenging and more interesting than ever before." Kay Troupe, president of Melior, Inc., Birmingham, AL, an automotive training company, said she sees a need to advise young women to take advantage of this lucrative, non-traditional occupation. "A growing shortage of 60,000 auto service technicians and a permanent shift toward high-tech electronics has created significant new opportunities for women in automotive service," she said. According to the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, in 1999 only 1.7% of auto service, body repair and related technicians were women. The total was only 20,000 of almost 1.2 million. The Automotive Service Excellence certification group noted that in 1997, only 2,500 (1%) of the 250,000 technicians who took certification tests were women. Troupe, who had two women trainers on her staff of instructors, added that at a 21st century auto service facility, women can offer and capitalize on their strengths. "My background in human resources shows me that women tend to be more attuned to customer service, to paying attention to details, to better listening and to being more empathetic." On the technical side, "as auto systems become more and more computerized, the work is not the old-style dirt and grime, but more and more high-tech, electronic and math-based tasks that women can easily master. And they can enjoy the constant challenge of keeping their skills updated," Troupe noted. She noted, too, that the rewards are significant for a career that requires only an associate’s degree. Melior’s latest estimates show that a new technician can expect to earn between $25,000 and $35,000 a year, a technician with five years of experience $45,000 to $50,000, and a master certified technician $60,000 to $80,000 or more. Troupe and Kittinger both agree that the traditional discrimination against women in the field is a thing of the past. In fact, the reverse may be happening more and more. Elaine Brockback, long-time owner of Ger-Brock Automotive & Co., also in Portland, explained many women customers visit her shop because it is owned by a woman. "They seem to trust that another woman won’t take advantage of them," Brockback said. And Kittinger says that as a working tech, she has never been pressured or hassled by her male co-workers and only once can she remember a customer questioning her ability. Through working with a local community college, Kittinger now serves as a mentor to both men and women in a unique degree program. An apprentice student takes classes for a semester and then works full time with Kittinger for a semester and graduates with a degree - and a practically guaranteed, well-paying job - in two years. Melior’s Troupe concluded, "With the dramatic shift in our culture and with the growing shortage of qualified technicians, young women can find in automotive service a challenging career with opportunities to grow, strong job security, quality salaries and benefits and improved working conditions." Courtesy Melior, Inc. and Andrea Foreman Public Relations |