Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/388078
74 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2014 EQUIPMENT: TECHNICIAN SHORTAGE suburban kids, and although their computer skills leave many baby boom- ers scratching their heads in bewilder- ment, they are reviled at the thought of getting grease under their fingernails. Dell's upbringing has more in common with the Greatest Genera- tion. She'd done her homework before starting her education and understood clearly that she was entering a field that offered her an unlimited career track and the potential to make a good living, but she was surprised by the amount of onboard computers and electronics systems on today's trucks. "I had no idea how fast computers are taking over trucks and how more important they're going to be in the future," she says. "I thought I was just going to be turning wrenches. I wasn't aware of how important computer skills were going to be in order to ac- curately diagnose problems and keep these trucks rolling." Even in this modern age, Dell says her decision to go into a field typically seen as "men's work" raised a lot of eyebrows. Guy Warpness, president of WyoTech Laramie and one of Dell's mentors during her diesel training, says Dell represents the future of heavy- duty truck technicians. "We are on the cusp of a major technician crisis in this country to- day," Warpness says. "Women are an untapped resource that could help us meet that crisis head-on and eventu- ally turn it around. But if this industry doesn't start thinking and acting dif- ferently – and that includes recruiting women and bringing them into the workforce as technicians – things are going to get a lot worse before they get any better." A 'desperate' situation For most fleets, today's technician shortage is a source of major head- aches, downtime and lost revenue. "If the current trends continue, we are fast approaching a day when American consumers could see food shortages in supermarkets because trucks aren't able to get produce to market," says Dwight McAlexander, a retired Volvo engineer who now consults the company on maintenance issues. While that may sound extreme, McAlexander says the numbers back him up, describing the situation as "desperate" and one that "has been getting worse for several years now." The trucking industry isn't attracting enough new technicians to replace those that are retiring, he says. "That's not factoring in the fact that trucking is just not seen as an attractive career opportunity," McAlexander says. The American Trucking Associations predicts a shortage of between 5,000 and 10,000 heavy-duty diesel techni- cians in the next five years. "This is a problem that is about to get exponen- tially worse," he says. It all boils down to image and pay, says Chuck Roberts, who heads the Au- tomotive Youth Education System for the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. "Image has always been a problem for the automotive ser- vice industry in the broadest sense pos- sible – that 'grease monkey' stereotype – and I don't think that's been helped by educational policy in this company," Roberts says. "The high value placed on college prep paths hurts technology education." This is a problem that is about to get exponentially worse. – Dwight McAlexander, retired Volvo engineer and consultant Guy Warpness, president of WyoTech Laramie and one of Kate Dell's mentors during her diesel training, says Dell represents the future of heavy-duty truck technicians.