Truck Parts and Service | Heavy Duty Trucking, Aftermarket, Service Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/290319
6 Industry Event Roundup One of the most interesting aftermarket discussions at this year's Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) annual meeting in Nashville was a technical ses- sion about the technician shortage. The shortage isn't going away — but the Council has completed a recom- mended practice (RP) to help service providers deal with it. "Your people are your best asset. You should be working to keep them en- gaged in your business," says Navistar's Brian Mulshine, co-author of the RP. Along with Service Provider study group Chairman Ken Calhoun, vice president of customer relations at Truck Centers of Arkansas, Mulshine spent a majority of the technical session walk- ing attendees through his new RP and the reasons why it's worth considering in their businesses. Mulshine says one of the most com- mon mistakes service facilities make with their staff is communication. They don't communicate job opportunities, areas for growth and advice for techni- cians aspiring to move forward in their career. He says that needs to change. Em- ployees deserve the right to know when opportunities for career advancement are available. A senior tech might still end up in that new position if he applies and is best fi t for it, but Mulshine says it is better the tech decide to take that next step than a manager force it upon him. Calhoun says service providers also should be active in speaking with their technicians and advising them on their performance, opportunities for improvement and advancement. He says young technicians are especially recep- tive to feedback. "They want that constant feedback and recognition," he says. They like knowing what they are doing right and wrong so they know where they can im- prove and grow. Service providers who don't offer that risk losing those young employees to complacency or worse, competitors. T R U C K P A R T S & S E R V I C E | A p r i l 2 0 1 4 TMC takes on technician shortage TMC debuts interactive website The Technology & Mainte- nance Council (TMC) has released TMC Connect, its new interactive content- rich website (www.tmccon- nect.trucking.com). TMC describes the site as a collaborative and social networking site that allows members to access TMC in- formation about TMC initia- tives, RPs and other industry maintenance and service tasks currently being addressed by the council. TMC says members use their organizational member- ship information to access the site. Once logged in, they have the ability to create a profi le (the site allows LinkedIn profi les to be imported to the site) and customize it to ad- dress topics of interest. From there, TMC says members can search for peers and use "Contact Request" to create colleague networks. But the site is more than social networking. TMC notes the site also allows members full access to RP and study group/task force news, updates members on upcoming ATA and TMC events, webinars, confer- ence calls and discussions on relevant topics. The heavy-duty right to repair discussion became the center of an actual debate at the Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) annual meeting last month in Nashville. The technical session was held as part of TMC's S.12 Onboard Diagnostics study group; and included panelists from all sides of today's right to repair debate. All sides of the heavy-duty debate were given an opportunity to speak dur- ing the session before opening up the fl oor to questions and comments. Once fl eet audience members began to speak up, their support for the aftermarket became apparent. One fl eet representative showed support of aftermarket technicians when he said he believed his fl eet's aftermarket service providers are as qualifi ed or more qualifi ed as his dealer's techs. But the most adamant discussion came right out of the heart of the debate — customer satisfaction. OEM, independent aftermarket and fl eet representa- tives noted the importance of uptime during the discussion. One fl eet manager recalled a decision made by a major automotive OEM to offer all of its diagnostic information before the Massachusetts' law and national MOU were signed simply on the basis of customer satisfaction. Customers would appreciate their willingness to provide them any informa- tion they needed, he said. Another fl eet took the conversation even further: "The only reason we're having this conversation is because [fl eets] are having issues with our dealers." Dealers are swamped fi ghting off this winter right now, he said. Fleets are waiting several days to get trucks in just to be diagnosed. If a service provider can help there, why not take advantage of that, he said. "[Dealers] are overwhelmed. We are overwhelmed. We need to get that truck back on the road." Fleets support aftermarket in Right to Repair debate