The "Gravy" Tech

bsb1264 · December 1, 2013

I'm only 29, but I did start my automotive career at 16. Advancement and knowing the latest training has always been my number one goal. I am now the lead tech at my shop. Then you have the gravy tech, which seems to be filling the bays up more and more. The guys that don't care about training, don't care about the warranty job, and always seem to avoid the "challenging" repairs. You can't fire them because it's to busy OR you can't find the next quality technician to make your team more successful which seems to be more harder to find.

For management it's great, here is a guy we can pay 10.00 per hour, that does nothing but flushes, alignments and brake jobs, and makes the shop profit. For us technicians, it's being stuck with the nightmare electrical problems and diagnostic problems, trying to scrape up every possible hour to make ends meat.

I'm not really directing this to the younger guys that are just starting out in there career, but the guys that have been doing this longer than me, or even longer.

How do you guys handle these kinds of employees, to me it just seems like they will never change and always get away with the way they work.

Spence · January 17, 2014

Are you a tech/owner or just a tech?

phynny · January 17, 2014

Do you get paid the same as the "gravy tech"?

Jmazur · January 17, 2014

This is a tough topic, and one that i dealt with when i was a tech, and also now as a shop owner. Having someone doing nothing but easy work when you are doing all of the tough stuff is not fun. This happened to me very often when i was a tech. But dont fall into the trap of comparing yourself to the work others are getting. Those "gravy techs" should be paid much less than you are, and if you are the lead tech, your owner should be taking pretty good care of you. You should be making a good income if your skills are where you say they are. The diagnostic work you do, and the repairs that go with it, are necessary to shop operations and add to your value as a tech. Anyone can bolt on parts and some of them can even do it right. But few can do high level diagnostics. You are obviously unhappy with the situation in your current shop, as evidenced by the fact that you made this post. I would suggest that you sit down with your owner or manager, and talk about the issues you have, and give them a chance to fix them. I am not talking about making demands, but talking together about finding solutions that benefit you and the company you work for. And if you cant find good solutions together, look for somewhere that will. There are plenty of shops that would love to have a strong "A" tech who cares about the quality of work put out by the whole shop.

Joe Marconi · January 18, 2014

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ADealerTech · January 19, 2014

As a fellow tech, the real problem that I see in the trenches, is that diag is too often given away by the advisors and service managers. Then when they give it away, they expect you to eat that time too. They seem to think that you shouldn't get paid, because they didn't get paid for their decisions. The resolution to this is for shops to stop catering to the idea that time is free just because a repair hasn't been performed yet. The customer needs to be told (explained to) that the repair process starts at the identification of the problem step and not at the installation of the replacement part. Time is money and as techs we should be paid not only for what we can do, but what we know. It is up to the management to figure out if the 2 hours the tech took was because he was unfamiliar and another tech would have done it in 1 or if that was a legit 2 hours, but they need to stop even taking in complex issues without pointing out that the customer will be responsible to pay for the diag time. Obviously we cannot expect 0.3 for every low tire light that comes in and we put air in it, but that CEL scan should only be free when the only thing the customer is getting out of it is a print out with a code. The only thing I would give for free is an educated guess with a disclaimer.

Unfortunately, this is an idealistic situation, a shop can start doing this tomorrow, and somewhere in the city some Craigslist "tech" or other start-up/franchise shop will run a free diag gimmick and the customer will walk out the door the moment they are told diag is sold in 0.5 blocks. I do not see any realistic way to re-train the customer and rid the world of people who will work for free in a hope they make 0.3 on a quick part swap after the diag. Am I cynical? Maybe. I would love to know of any other realistic outcome though.

The way my current dealer handles this is through teams. We are open Monday-Saturday 7:30 AM to 9 PM. We have 2 5 guy tech teams, one works Monday-Wednesday 7:30 AM to 9 PM (roughly 39.5 hours a week) and the other covers the same hours Thursday-Saturday. They rotate every 5 weeks, which is another benefit, but that is another post. This way the A guy gets the same hours as the guy doing gravy. They are all in the shop for the same amount of hours, they all get paid the same amount of hours. It has it's downfalls, especially if a slacker gets on board, but when running well oiled, the guy chasing an intermittent CAN failure isn't begrudging the guy doing a Service E and 4 wheel brake job, he is instead, encouraging that guy to pile on as many hours as possible to make up for the lack of output (not work) of hours he is doing. They never earn less than 40, even on slow weeks.

Steve Smith · August 12, 2015

The shop owners, managers, dealerships and repair chains are all getting rich off the hard work and tools of the low level to high level mechanics and technicians.

Steve Smith · August 12, 2015

I have worked in gas stations, dealerships, small shops, large shops, had my own shop and worked for a major manufacture research and engineering department. Master ASE, smog license for 30 years. The mistreatment, disrespect, and under valuation on almost all levels of mechanic and technician occupations and jobs will never change unless we UNIONIZE AND FORCE THE GREEDY business owners to pay a fair a decent wage and benefits. If that forces some shops to close good riddance. If a lot of low level mechanics, hacks, gravy grabbers and money whores lose their jobs...good riddance.

phynny · August 12, 2015

Hey Steve, go take your garbage and cry to someone that cares. It's obvious that you have failed in the game of life looking at all the jobs you couldn't succeed at. I always find it funny when someone fails at a business and then has the nerve to tell the world how they should run one lol.

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lmcca · August 12, 2015

The shop owners, managers, dealerships and repair chains are all getting rich off the hard work and tools of the low level to high level mechanics and technicians.

bringing up the dead eh? this post was made in 2013.....

stowintegrity · August 12, 2015

This is the first time I've ever heard anyone actually compain about this specifically, and I'm really glad to hear the input. To continue with the same verbage, we have a couple of "Gravy Techs" at our shop, too, but I haven't heard my other, more experienced staff complain much about it. I've seen what it's like for some of them to be tied up with, or "married" to a job...or wrestling with a job, because it's a more involved one, or one that requires more patience, skill, equipment, or experience.

The pattern I'm hearing, though, is that someone in that more skilled position is unhappy because they don't feel like they're getting paid enough. Whether their rate isn't wht it should be for what they bring to the table, or they're expected to do work that they're not getting paid the time on. Either way, this doesn't seem like a real complaint or problem that should be directed at a "lesser" experienced employee. I agree with Joe - take your concerns to the guy thats writing your paycheck, and discuss them with him or her in a frank, but professional way. I'm a firm believer in letting your value speak for itself, but sometimes it's ok to remind the boss if things start to seem a little lop-sided. (He DOES have a lot on his plate, too, right?)

I'm not afraid to admit that if I knew I could fill each of my bays with a dozen fluid flushes & nothing but the simplest, high-dollar, easy in & out brake jobs & tune-ups....well...I think I'd definitely restructure the bench strength of my staff, and pay a competitive "B" rate that was suitable for that kind of work. If I was doing a million dollars a year in just those kinds of services, I might just start turning away the more complicated stuff.

Let's face it, though - that's not the nature of our business. I didn't put up a building and say, "This is where I'm gonna be the brake service king of the city".

We opened our doors and vowed that we were going to maintain a focus on our customers and their needs so ferocious, that the resulting loyalty would be something that NONE of our competitors could ever touch, or begin to try to take away from us. We saw that building and said, "This is where I'm going to work everyday, and serve the needs of as many people as I can, professionally."

There's lots of parts on a car. Some of them, even I can replace. But it takes a staff of profesisonals, all with carying levels of skill, in order to even come CLOSE to being that 1-Stop shop everyone dreams about.

Just one man at the helm of a wonderful adventure.

Handson · August 17, 2015

Unionize and force the greedy business owners. Am I the only business owner making less then my lead tech?

Steve Smith · August 18, 2015

Hey Steve, go take your garbage and cry to someone that cares. It's obvious that you have failed in the game of life looking at all the jobs you couldn't succeed at. I always find it funny when someone fails at a business and then has the nerve to tell the world how they should run one lol.

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typical ignorant "attack" the truth response from some random a hole greedy shop owner. no fail here chump ricer. take the blue pill punk.

SMMotors · August 18, 2015

I have worked in gas stations, dealerships, small shops, large shops, had my own shop and worked for a major manufacture research and engineering department. Master ASE, smog license for 30 years. The mistreatment, disrespect, and under valuation on almost all levels of mechanic and technician occupations and jobs will never change unless we UNIONIZE AND FORCE THE GREEDY business owners to pay a fair a decent wage and benefits. If that forces some shops to close good riddance. If a lot of low level mechanics, hacks, gravy grabbers and money whores lose their jobs...good riddance.

I have actually worked in a unionized auto repair shop. I was in IAMAW LOCAL 1484 for 7 years. Great benefits, crap pay, and had to do what the masters told me. Wanted to go to work but the metal workers are striking? Too bad, you ain't going to work because we have to stand with " our brother". Didn't matter that i didn't have a dog in the fight, had a wife and 2 kids to feed, it's the union way!

Unions have done wonders for the economy wouldn't you say? No budget deficits to be seen anywhere, especially in California, Chicago, Greece, ......

The only reason I was able to work in a union shop that survived was because it was commercial fleet. We worked at the docks and refinery and had contracts.

Contract comes up? No more worky for me. Not many non multi billion dollars companies that can support union auto workers.

In private industry, it would never work. The labor rate would have to be double to support the mandated benefits and payacsle the unions demand. There goes free industry. We now all have to charge the same to make it work. So much for a free America.

Your argument is counterintuitive. It doesn't work. The problem is the public image, auto zone advertising that " any one can fix a car, we will scan it for free and tell you what to replace", and trying to be the cheapest around. That's an amazing marketing campaign autozone has by the way. Sell more parts and never have to figure out the problem. I digress.

I do find it interesting that after 30 years and being a master tech that you've never found a place that appreciates you. I can't imagine why. I would hire an ASE Master with smog in a heartbeat and I pay well. And yes, I'm one of the "greedy bastards" that you're referring to. Funny thing though, I've had the same employees for 13 years. I charge more than the dealers and yet my lot is full and my next opening isn't till next week.

So we have taken the union option off the table, you've been a shop owner ( that didn't work however you can understand the troubles that small business ownerships have) and you've been in the business for 30 years. What is another option?

I don't give away diag time and I also don't pay flat rate. I feel that shops that don't charge for inspections and testing are hurting our image and are part of the problem.

PS, I have taken a blue pill, it's a great time !

SMMotors · August 18, 2015