SHOPSMART AUTOS – CUSTOMER INFORMATION – NOVEMBER 30, 2021 – Part 2
Some techs leave dealerships for the flexibility, pay of mobile platforms
Technicians set a certain number of hours they want to work each week. Keith Canete, operations manager and lead master technician for YourMechanic, recommends techs make themselves available for at least 15 hours per week and no less than four hours per day. If a tech lists fewer hours, the software platform may skip over them, thinking they’re not available for lengthier jobs. Randy Davis, a mobile tech working out of Winston-Salem, N.C., enjoys the freedom to work when he wants. He’s been getting work from YourMechanic for three years after stints in dealership service departments working on mostly Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram vehicles and a handful of imports. At YourMechanic, “I could have a schedule that says I’m available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., but that doesn’t mean I’m booked from 8 to 6,” he says. “My first appointment might not be until 10 o’clock.”
Not so fast
Davis says his easier schedule means there’s less of a physical toll on his body. “I’m not as fast as I was when I was 25 or 30,” says Davis, who’s in his early 50s. “If I was in a dealership now, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, of course there’s always going to be work there, but how fast could I go? And if I’m doing the same thing all the time, it’s monotonous.” One downside for some YourMechanic techs is the driving from job to job. “I’ve got a pretty big service area; sometimes it’s a 45-minute drive,” Bietz says of his North Texas territory. “That’s the only real downfall.” If a job doesn’t pan out after he gets there — for instance, if he cancels it because the scope of work is too much to perform on-site — he says YourMechanic pays him a $25 fee. Pryke says mobile techs who are used to working at dealerships sometimes need advice on how to explain repairs to customers since there’s no longer a service adviser to do that. Before joining YourMechanic as a tech and coach in 2015, he worked in an Arizona Chevrolet dealership service department. He’s worked in auto repair about 40 years. “At YourMechanic, you wear a lot of hats — lube tech, diagnostic tech, service writer, service manager, parts guy, cleanup guy,” he says. “Some have never been exposed to that.”
No pressure, little paperwork
For Raymond Covit, a mobile tech based in Las Vegas, the independence and a lack of pressure to sell extra services are what he likes best about YourMechanic. Covit, 61, says he’s been getting work from YourMechanic for three years and has been working on cars since the mid-1970s. He has worked at an independent repair facility, on his own and at a couple of franchised dealerships as a service writer and a tech in Southern California. “I believe in karma,” he says. “When you’re your own mechanic, you’re in control of what you do, 100 percent.” While techs have to do some tasks they didn’t at the dealership, YourMechanic takes care of most of the paperwork and other office chores. “They organize the payment for me; I don’t have to fool with any of that,” says Davis, the North Carolina tech. “I just worry about doing what I do.”
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