Working with schools and embracing the next generation are ways to find and keep new, qualified technicians.
It’s not them, it’s you.
Culture changes and learning to how to embrace the next generation of truck technicians is the best way to combat the industry’s technician shortage.
That was the resounding message during Fleet Owner’s recent Tackling the Truck Technician Shortage webinar, sponsored by Valvoline, which featured George Arrants, program director for national training and recruiting at the WheelTime Network, and Lew Flowers, president of Flowers Fleet Services, a former director of maintenance for the U.S. Postal Service, and a past chairman of the Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC).
“Everybody is talking about this as a shortage,” Arrants noted. “But as an industry, do [we] have a shortage of applicants or do [we] have a shortage of qualified applicants? There are two different concerns.”
Based on surveys, he said the technician shortage is more of a qualified-applicants shortage. “If you are experiencing the same thing, this is an easier concern to address,” Arrants pointed out. “If you have a shortage of applicants, that one is a little more difficult because then we have to create the interest in the industry, put them through the education process and then put them into the workplace.”
Companies facing technician applicant shortages is a problem likely due to location and special needs. But most of the time, Arrants stressed, trucking technician shortages are about not getting qualified applicants.
Many of those applicants can become more qualified with better relationships between trucking organizations and educators, along with changing expectations and culture. Because, based on the statistics, there should be enough potential technicians to fill the growing need for them over the coming years, Arrants pointed out.
The most recent Department of Labor figures on technicians, which include bus and truck mechanics as well as diesel engine specialists, are from 2008 to 2014. They also project the labor force increases needed 10 years out into the future from those reports, which are compiled every two years.
That labor need is then further broken down into growth (more jobs) and replacement demand (those who leave the industry). That data breaks down as follows:
- In 2008, there were 263,100 technicians, with a population of 278,000 projected in 2018, which would include 14,900 in growth and 60,400 to replace outgoing workers.
- In 2010, there were 242,200 technicians; 277,400 projected in 2020, (35,200 growth, 52,600 to replace.
- In 2012, there were 250,800 technicians; 272,500 projected in 2022 (21,600 growth, 53,500 replace).
- In 2014, there were 263,900 technicians; 295,500 projected in 2024 (31,600 growth, 45,300 replace).
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