{"id":3526,"date":"2019-09-30T16:30:16","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T14:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/?p=3526"},"modified":"2019-09-30T16:30:16","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T14:30:16","slug":"3526","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2019\/09\/30\/3526\/","title":{"rendered":"How Trucking Will Find Tomorrow’s Technicians"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fleets<\/p>\n

Fleets and industry groups are changing tactics to find the people they need to maintain and repair their trucks. Photo: iStockPhoto<\/p>\n

How Trucking Will Find Tomorrow’s Technicians<\/h3>\n

In the past, Tennessee-based truckload carrier Ozark Motor Lines didn\u2019t have a big problem finding technicians to work in its shops. Vice President of Maintenance Glen McDonald explains that there were always a few applications on file to use when an opening came up.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the case anymore. Today, he says, he \u201chas to chase them,\u201d working with high schools and technical schools.<\/p>\n

Ozark is not alone. Trucking companies have to do more and more to not only find the technicians they need now, but to up the number of potential technicians in the pipeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to find people,\u201d says Taki Darakos, vice president of maintenance for Transervice, a New York-based supply chain solutions company. \u201cWe see a lot of folks that are retiring in the next two to five years. We\u2019re looking everywhere. I think in the old days you\u2019d have folks that would come off the street and would develop; they would be the truck or trailer washers looking for an opportunity to grow. We find fewer and fewer of those folks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly 300,000 new diesel technicians will be needed over the next 10 years, according to the TechForce Foundation, a nonprofit that works to raise awareness among school-age students about technician careers. That\u2019s close to 30,000 a year. Penske Truck Leasing alone hired some 2,500 technicians last year, for growth and to replace those retiring or moving to other positions.<\/p>\n

There are a number of reasons fleets are having a hard time filling this need. Low unemployment nationally is making it hard to fill all types of positions. And trucking fleets aren\u2019t the only ones looking for techs.<\/p>\n

Paul Pettit, vice president of maintenance at Arkansas-based PAM Transport, says the technician shortage is easily his biggest concern. \u201cI think the skilled trades decline in the country is definitely felt. And not only am I up against other fleets, but I\u2019m also up against the dealerships,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are only so many kids coming out of school; it\u2019s a very competitive market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Longer term, cultural and demographic shifts have made working in a shop less appealing to young people in search of a career.\u00a0 There\u2019s not the kind of vo-tech training there once was in high schools, and educators and parents push for kids to go to college. Being a technician suffers from an image problem \u2013\u00a0and it\u2019s an outdated image.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not educated our young people about this opportunity,\u201d says Dwayne Haug, who retired from Werner Transportation in 2015 and is now a consultant. \u201cWe have to also make them aware that it is no longer a \u2018greasy\u2019 type job. It\u2019s a very clean job. We deal more with laptops than we do sometimes with wrenches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fleets have been investing in their shops to make them a more pleasant place to work, including better lighting, heating, and air conditioning, and labor-saving machines to make tasks such as changing tires faster and easier.<\/p>\n

Gregg Mangione, senior vice president of maintenance for Penske Truck Leasing, notes, \u201cWe\u2019ve made a lot of investments in technology in our service department driven toward user uptime and complexity of the trucks, and this is attractive to young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Women
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Women are an under-represented demographic that can be targeted for future technicians. Photo: Ryder System<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next generation<\/h3>\n

Fleets are increasingly getting involved with local schools to try to update that image. Penske Truck Leasing, which has nearly 300,000 trucks and 8,000 people in its truck maintenance staff, is going after young people with the help of 16 dedicated recruiters across the country, says Mangione. \u201cThey\u2019ve partnered with our maintenance management and HR professionals and maintain local relationships with roughly 100-plus technical schools across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"
Photo courtesy Penske<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Penske also has joined the TechForce Foundation and its efforts to create the next generation of truck technicians. The FutureTech Success campaign aims to raise awareness with a national multiyear, multimedia effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main goal is to get the messaging out to students, and likewise primarily parents and educators, about the opportunity for technicians,\u201d explains Travis Leybeck, director of strategic alliances at TechForce Foundation, \u201cabout how it\u2019s a highly technical career, that there\u2019s great opportunities, that pay is outstanding, that there is career advancement. These are stories that parents and educators haven\u2019t been hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rene\u00e9 Fisher, Ryder director of maintenance, also emphasizes the importance of getting that story out. Young people, she says, \u201cThey\u2019ve been hearing from friends and relatives and teachers, telling them it\u2019s dirty, that they don\u2019t want to do it. Other folks have been telling our story, and no one tells our story better than us.\u201d When technicians talk to young people about their jobs, that \u201cthis is how they\u2019ve raised their families and come up through the ranks,\u201d she says, it has real impact. Ryder is working with Big Brothers Big Sisters in its hometown of Miami, for instance, \u201cto let them know this is what a shop environment looks like, this is what a mechanic does. A lot of folks really don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Transportation Center, an organization dedicated to attracting, training, and retaining the transportation industry\u2019s workforce, recently hosted a group of 25 students from a high school in the Indianapolis area for a one-day industry-sponsored boot camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe transportation industry has always had a challenge reaching young people and making them aware of the many career opportunities it can offer,\u201d says Tom Weisenbach, chief development officer at the center. \u201cWe included sessions at our training center on career opportunities in the industry and site visits at a FedEx Express maintenance facility and its Indianapolis airport hub. The boot camp was so successful that we\u2019re getting calls from other school districts about hosting their students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of selling the idea of technician as a career is to point out that there is a career path. In the TechForce campaign, Leybeck says, \u201cWe talk about career opportunities \u2013 not only the traditional career ladder, but also a career lattice \u2013 the idea that not only can you move from entry level to master level technician, but you also can move within departments in an organization, to a service advisor or service management position, or end up in training or corporate positions.\u201d<\/p>\n

And of course there are ways to advance while staying in the maintenance track. In addition to advancing from one level of technician to another, shop employees can become trainers, go into parts positions, go into shop management, etc.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to have a process for advancement, and explain to them how they get promoted,\u201d says Old Dominion Freight Lines Training Manager Winston Minchew. \u201cWe have a process, and we make sure that the technicians know about that process, so that also helps retain technicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Averitt Express, it\u2019s not unusual for employees who started out as mechanics to work their way up the career ladder and become service center directors or regional vice presidents, says Laura Wettack, personnel manager at the Tennessee-based less-than-truckload, truckload, and logistics company. \u201cMost of the folks in our upper management have been with us 20 or more years and have grown with the company in different roles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Some
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Some fleets look to on-the-job training and mentorship to attract, grow, and retain technicians. Photo: Old Dominion Freight Line<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Training new technicians<\/h3>\n

So you\u2019ve got the interest of a young person in a technician career; now how do they get there? One of the stumbling blocks is the time and expense of training. While tuition costs aren\u2019t as much as a four-year college, there\u2019s also less financial help available from the government. That\u2019s why Transervice Logistics recently established a tax-free educational assistance program for technicians, which includes payments for school-related fees and tools.<\/p>\n

But some are looking at alternatives to full diesel technician post-secondary technical programs.<\/p>\n

At Monroe Career & Technical Institute, a longstanding high-school vo-tech program in Bartonsville, Pennsylvania, some graduates plan to enter a post-secondary tech school \u2013 but others get jobs as technicians right out of high school. Students who start as freshmen can enter a cooperative education program as juniors, where they work half days, paid, with local companies. \u201cThat\u2019s where they really get a lot of learning,\u201d says Monroe diesel technology instructor Ed Chipalowsky. After graduation, most of them get full-time employment with the co-op company they\u2019re working for.<\/p>\n

Chipalowsky says that while there\u2019s a lot of interest in the program, one of the biggest things fleets can do for schools like his is offer support \u2013 and funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying very hard to develop partnerships with industry,\u201d he says. \u201cI want to see fleets get more involved with supplying them with shirts, with trucks. I would love to have fleets with their banner on the building, students working and learning different fleet preventive maintenance steps. Sometimes the fleets volunteer some of their techs to come in and conduct training classes, and be mentors to the students. But the biggest thing is they have to step up and invest in these schools,\u201d he stresses.<\/p>\n

Ozark Motor Lines and FedEx are among the companies that have partnered with Cummins and its TEC program (Technical Education for Communities), a global initiative that targets the technical skills gap through local vo-tech. The Shelby County (Tennessee) school system has turned Memphis East High School into the East T-STEM Academy (an abbreviation for transportation, science, technology, engineering and math.) It offers on-site dual enrollment classes for students to learn skills around the creation and maintenance of diesel engines. Students can earn an industry certification before they graduate, or can transfer credits to a technical college.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiesel mechanic ranks 208th on the list of majors supported by U.S. government backed loans \u2013 just in front of Public Policy Studies and behind English\/Language Arts Teacher Education,\u201d says Tim Spurlock. \u201cThere are only 173 colleges that offer diesel technology, and the enrollments are quite small. A typical graduating class is less than 20 students. Most drop out before completion due to time and cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer, he says? Companies must grow their own mechanics. That\u2019s why he and Chris Ellis founded American Diesel Training Centers in Columbus, Ohio.<\/p>\n

In a 12-week, hands-on program, ADTC prepares entry-level diesel technicians in preventive maintenance, electrical, brakes and emissions, with an emphasis on diagnostics. It promises to deliver a work-ready tech on day one, teaching what\u2019s important to those employers, and placing the new technicians in jobs with those same employers.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a group at the Technology & Maintenance Council of the American Trucking Associations is working to develop a formal apprenticeship program for truck technicians.<\/p>\n

In 2017, President Trump issued an executive order, Expanding Apprenticeships in America, which created a pathway to new, industry-recognized apprenticeships.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt struck me that as far as technicians for fleets, there probably wasn\u2019t a trade association positioned to take on that task better than TMC,\u201d explains Kenneth Calhoun, fleet optimization manager for Altec Service Group in North Little Rock, Arkansas. \u201cWhen I brought it up to [ATA President and CEO] Chris Spear, he challenged us to be that association.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resulting effort attracted some two dozen people across TMC\u2019s various committees. Ozark\u2019s McDonald is chair of the resulting Technician Apprenticeship Standards Committee, which has developed a draft outline of such a program.<\/p>\n

Calhoun explains that the Department of Labor\u2019s existing apprenticeship program, called a Registered Apprenticeship Program, hasn\u2019t kept pace with industry needs and has too much bureaucratic red tape. That\u2019s why the new industry-recognized apprenticeship program piqued his interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the more progressive states, about half a dozen, have latched onto this and are making the effort to help employers to get to compliance level quickly,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping by borrowing some pieces of the framework [from the existing program], this can work toward state requirements for more formal apprenticeships, which could make employers eligible for some funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Today\u2019s
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Today\u2019s technicians use a computer as much as a wrench \u2013 a message fleets are trying to get across to young people looking for career options. Photo: Transervice<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Military targets<\/h3>\n

Some companies are turning to veterans transitioning out of the military who already have training and experience in heavy-vehicle maintenance.<\/p>\n

Averitt Express, for instance, is aiming a new on-the-job training program at vets with GI Bill benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that has been a game-changer for us is we\u2019re getting folks who have been in the military for two, four, six years, and they are coming to us with those diesel technician skills, and we\u2019re able to translate them into our world very easily with just minor tweaking,\u201d Wettack says. \u201cIf you know how to turn a wrench, we can teach you the other things. What we\u2019ve found is that folks that fit well in the military tend to fit well at Averitt Express.\u201d<\/p>\n

Program participants are trained by Averitt on everything from basic computer skills to assisting with in-depth repairs on tractor-trailers. \u201cHonestly, if you know how to diagnose problems without a computer, a computer is only one more tool,\u201d Wettack says.<\/p>\n

Ryder gives hands-on diesel technician training to military veterans exiting service through its Pathway Home program, begun in 2016. The 12-week training program takes place on base, and graduates are placed in eligible open Level II technician positions at Ryder locations across the country. The program, which started at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, has since expanded to Fort Riley in Kansas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is free to the soldier,\u201d says Fisher. \u201cWe have members of our learning team there locally to train them to make sure they are ready to enter one of our shops as a technician. The reason we\u2019ve called it Pathway Home is we allow those technicians to go where they want to go, or close to it, to get back home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ongoing training<\/h3>\n

North Carolina-based Old Dominion Freight Line doesn\u2019t have a problem recruiting and retaining technicians, according to Minchew. The less-than-truckload carrier has won awards for being a good place to work; recently it was the only trucking company to make Forbes\u2019 World\u2019s Best Employers list. For technicians, a key part of that is training.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnicians want to be trained on the equipment; they want to know about the new technology that\u2019s coming out,\u201d he says. \u201cWe are an ASE-certified training provider, and we\u2019re proud of our program.\u201d In addition to its own team of four trainers, the company has suppliers and manufacturers come to ODFL locations to do hands-on training. And technicians can take self-paced training offered on OE and supplier websites. Regular emails put the latest tech tips and other documents into technicians\u2019 hands. ODFL uses a learning management system, an Internet-based system that allows it to create a short 15- or 20-minute, self-paced course and assign those courses to technicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe set goals for the locations based on that work that is performed. For example, work that all locations and all employees perform, like preventive maintenance, we ask that 100% of the employees take training. Locations don\u2019t need 100% of their trucks trained in HVAC work, so we set a smaller goal for training in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Training\u2019s also a priority at Transervice, which rewards technicians for gaining certifications from the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence, better known simply as ASE. \u201cWe have some that have nine and 10 ASE [certifications], so every February they get a nice post-Christmas bonus,\u201d Darakos says.<\/p>\n

PAM\u2019s Pettit has focused on developing and formalizing the company\u2019s technician training program since he came on board in late 2017. \u201cWe\u2019re going to get better at retaining the technicians we have, training them; the goal is to really keep the guys that we\u2019ve got,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you\u2019re continually training [inexperienced staff], you\u2019re not only tying up one or two technicians to train them, but it also takes a while for them to be able to identify problems proactively. Anyone can see a blown tire, but why is the tire wearing unevenly? The main thing for me is investing in technicians as much as in our equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

by Deborah Lockridge<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.truckinginfo.com<\/a><\/p>\n

FLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT<\/h3>\n

Fleet management is the use of a set of vehicles in order to provide services to a third-party, or to perform a task for our organization, in the most efficient and productive manner with a determined level of service and cost.<\/p>\n

Fleet management activities are shown in the following graph 1:<\/p>\n

\"fleet<\/p>\n

Graph 1: fleet management activities<\/p>\n

The proposal audit analyses and assesses all fleet management activities shown in the graph 1, and its main goals are:<\/p>\n