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Dealers Can’t Wait for Someone Else to Solve the Technician Shortage

 Modern vehicles are getting more complicated, but the number of skilled technicians available to service them is not keeping pace.

That makes technician development one of the biggest long-term fixed-ops challenges facing dealerships.

A new report from Car Dealership Guy highlighted how Ricart Automotive in Columbus, Ohio, is tackling that problem by developing technicians from within. According to President and CEO Jared Ricart, about 75% of the group’s Ford technicians have been developed internally through a program built with organizations including ASE and Columbus State Community College.

That approach matters because today’s automotive technician is doing much more than traditional mechanical work.

Modern vehicles combine electrical systems, software, advanced driver assistance technology, HVAC, networking, diagnostics, and increasingly complex electronic components.

Technicians are becoming part mechanic, part electrician, part IT specialist, and part diagnostician.

At the same time, the industry continues to face a serious workforce gap. NADA estimates that roughly 39,000 new service technicians graduate from U.S. technical programs each year, while the industry needs to replace nearly 76,000 technicians annually to account for retirements and growing demand.

That leaves an estimated annual shortfall of around 37,000 trained technicians.

For dealers, waiting for qualified technicians to simply appear in the job market is becoming less realistic.

More stores may need to take ownership of technician development.

That means building relationships with trade schools and community colleges, developing apprenticeship programs, creating clear career paths, and giving entry-level employees opportunities to grow into more advanced roles.

The federal government is also putting more resources behind that effort. Earlier this year, the ASE Education Foundation received a $25 million Department of Labor grant designed to help create thousands of new transportation apprenticeships across the country.

But recruiting technicians is only part of the challenge.

Dealers also need to make the technicians they already have more productive.

When skilled technicians are spending time chasing information, waiting for approvals, tracking down advisors, or trying to determine which vehicle needs attention next, expensive technical talent is being wasted on administrative friction.

That is where better service processes and technology can help.

Tools like StatusPlus from Dixon Technologies can support better coordination between technicians, advisors, and customers by helping teams manage service workflow, communicate updates, and keep customers informed with photos and videos.

Technology cannot replace a trained technician.

But it can help make sure trained technicians spend more of their time doing the work only they can do.

That distinction is becoming increasingly important.

As vehicles grow more sophisticated, dealers will need two things working together:

better-trained people and better-supported processes.

Ricart Automotive’s experience offers a useful lesson for the industry.

Dealers cannot simply rely on someone else to build tomorrow’s workforce.

The stores that invest in developing technicians today may be the ones best prepared to handle the increasingly complex vehicles arriving in their service lanes tomorrow.

Because before a dealership can expand service capacity, add bays, or promise faster turnaround times, it needs the people capable of doing the work.

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