Technology is now able to remove more and more administrative items off a Used Car Managers plate, on a daily basis. It reminds of 20 years ago, when technology allowed multiple lease options to be calculated in seconds. Prior to that, all leases were calculated manually, with a calculator & desked with a green Sharpie. There is a similar transition happening now with Used Vehicle inventory management & appraising. There are some that do not want to let go of the past, and the legacy way of doing things.
In the current market there is a limited number of technicians with many groups and stores expanding their departments the shortage is being felt even greater. Adding to this difficulty finding local talent is becoming an even greater issue forcing employers to try and attract talent from outside of their market. Another issue we are facing is the lack of transparency when dealerships are advertising to technicians. We are witnessing dealerships offer hourly wages significantly above others, however, when a pay plan is fully explained a technician could make more overall at a slightly lower wage yet more hours paid, which could be misleading.
Our most challenging trend with respect to recruiting Technicians in today’s market over the next few years is making sure we continue to keep local high school, community college and apprenticeship pipelines open to replace many of our long-time and very high quality current techs with. It’s important to make sure we are staying in front of and building relationships with those in positions to advocate for us when the time is right.
In 2022, we’re seeing the beginning stages of a recession caused from the fallout of COVID. Every recession offers huge opportunities to gain market share because of predictable patterns/trends. Every previous recession most businesses scale back and do what they feel is necessary to keep things afloat and minimize the impact – that’s easy. This opens the door for significant growth and gaining market share. Companies that go on offense before and during a recession will come out the other side big winners.