Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/860257
EquipmentWorld.com | August 2017 47 August 2017 | EquipmentWorld.com 47 A s with the weather, everybody complains about the lack of diesel equipment technicians, but nobody seems to be able to do anything about it. The demand for diesel technicians is growing at 12 percent a year, yet trade schools aren't training nearly enough students to meet the demand. Contractors and fl eet managers can't do much about the state of vocational education, but the help everybody needs just might be sitting right under their noses. They're called "proxy techs," and they're already working for you. A "proxy" is someone who has the authority to represent someone else – for example, a medic fi lling in for a doctor on a battlefi eld. A proxy technician is an operations person who has the additional responsibility of performing or overseeing certain maintenance and repairs on equipment. They are normally rewarded or receive extra compensation as an incentive. A proxy tech can be anybody in your company: operators, laborers, supervisors or truck drivers. With a little guidance, they can perform small, simple, routine maintenance tasks that take up much of a techni- cian's workday. This frees up your trained and experienced technicians to tackle more complex problems and major repairs. While many, if not most, of your employees may say they're pedal- to-the-metal all day and don't have time to work on equipment, don't forget there are plenty of rain and weather-related delays in which many on the crews are sent home. Properly trained proxy techs could use this downtime to strengthen fl eet maintenance. Additionally, don't overlook the fact that plenty of young people are willing to work overtime or weekends to earn extra cash. And if you're using operators to do proxy tech work, it only stands to reason they're going maintenance | by Preston Ingalls Help for your overtaxed maintenance team PROXY TECHS Crews don't need to be idle when the machine is. Train them as proxy techs so they can perform minor maintenance, freeing up time for your experienced diesel techs to do more complex work.