Ratchet+Wrench Radio Jun 3, 2026

Inside the Technician Mindset: What the 2026 Voice of Technician Survey Reveals

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Term

insurance broker

An insurance broker is a person or company that helps you find the right insurance. They compare different insurance plans and help the business pick coverage that makes sense.

Term

employer employee split

This means how much of the health insurance cost the company pays versus how much you pay. If you pay most of it, you’ll see less money in your paycheck.

Term

out of pocket

Out of pocket means you have to pay the bill yourself. So even if you have insurance, you might still end up paying a lot directly.

Concept

dealers

“Dealers” means car dealerships that also run repair and maintenance services. The hosts are comparing how dealership service departments differ from independent repair shops.

Concept

independent

In this discussion, “independent” means a repair shop that isn’t run by a car dealership. The episode compares how these shops differ from dealerships in how they treat and pay technicians.

Term

preferred pay plan

A preferred pay plan is just the pay setup technicians say they like best. Here, the hosts are comparing what pay structures independent shops and dealerships use.

Term

hourly with incentive

This is when a mechanic gets paid by the hour, plus they can earn extra money if they hit certain goals. The “incentive” part is the bonus tied to performance.

Term

Flat rate means a mechanic gets paid a fixed amount for each repair, based on an estimate of how long the job should take. If the job takes longer than expected, the mechanic may earn less per hour than they’d like.

Term

paid training

Paid training means technicians get paid while they’re learning new skills or taking training courses. The idea is that training shouldn’t be something they have to do for free.

Concept

Voice of Technician Survey

This is a survey that asks technicians what they think and what they need. The point is to read the results closely and then talk about them with your team at the shop.

Company

wrenchway.com

They say you can download the survey report from wrenchway.com. It’s presented as a free resource for shop owners to read and use.

Company

ASC

ASC is a partner group that helped put the technician survey together. They’re helping make the results available to shop owners and technicians.

LIVE

Welcome to Ratchet and Wrench Radio,

produced by Endeavor Business Media,

a division of Endeavor B2B,

bringing you strategies and inspiration

for auto care success.

The technician shortage isn't new,

but the urgency to solve it has never been greater.

In this episode of Ratchet and Wrench Radio,

Jay Goninen shares key takeaways

from the 2026 Voice of Technician survey

conducted in partnership with AIC,

which gathered feedback from more than

5,500 technician students and educators.

From the demand for clearer career paths

and better benefits to the growing importance

of schedule flexibility and workplace culture,

Goninen unpacks what's driving dissatisfaction

and where independent shops are actually getting it right.

More importantly, he challenges shop owners

to move beyond awareness and into action,

using the data as a catalyst for honest conversations,

operational improvements,

and long-term retention strategies.

Let's listen in.

Hi Jay, thanks so much for joining us today.

Oh, thanks for having me, an absolute pleasure.

Yeah, today we are digging into the

2026 Voice of Technician survey report

conducted by Wrenchway and ASE.

So Jay, if you wouldn't mind,

tell anybody who might not be familiar,

give them a quick overview of Wrenchway,

what you do, and why you started this survey to begin with.

Yeah, so why we started the survey has a lot to do

with where we started at as a company, right?

We started off, my background was all in this industry,

and then over time started a company that was recruiting focused.

I've told that story before, but it's important to understand

because as we evolved into becoming more of a source of data

for the industry, as well as school connection,

really trying to get to the source of the problem

rather than kind of paint over this major issue

that we've had for several decades,

we really want to understand what it is

that is causing the technician shortage,

that's causing kind of disengagement from technicians across the country.

And overall, just try to get things headed in a right direction, right?

And I think in order for us as an industry

to start moving in the right direction,

we have to start by understanding what the problems are in the first place.

And so really, I think the survey acts as a way

to kind of level set where we're at as an industry

and do it in a way where we get good candid response from technicians

in a way where they're not afraid of being reprimanded,

they're not afraid of getting in trouble for their honest response, right?

So the feedback through the survey, this is our third year doing it,

it has been fantastic.

I think we've had a lot of really, really good feedback

and things that if shops take it seriously

and really dive into the data and the feedback,

I think they can make effective changes within their operations.

Now, you reached out to and surveyed

over 5,500 technicians, students, and educators.

Why now should an independent repair shop owner pay close attention to this data?

Well, if we had done it 10 years ago,

I would have told them to listen to it then.

I wish we would have spent a little bit more time on that

in our early days of the business because it is so vital.

And for me, I think I grew up in an independent shop, right?

I actually own my family's independent shop now.

I took it over two years ago.

So I have the shop operations experience as well.

And this has been an issue forever, right?

Since I was a kid, my first company was called Finderwrench

because my dad would always say I can't find a darn wrench anywhere

and he was talking about finding technicians, right?

And so this is not a new issue.

This is just something that as it's gotten more and more pressure,

it's become more and more of an issue.

So I think when that shop's out there and they're thinking,

okay, here's another article about the technician shortage.

Here's more noise about it, blah, blah, blah.

This is just our current state.

And really, almost, I think you find yourself in a position

to where it becomes noise, right?

It's always kind of all the talk about it.

There's so much going around it.

What I would challenge shops to do in this because of this,

maybe not just a survey, but all of the talk around this issue

is to take it seriously.

I think when we look at it, it's not just your shop

that's having the issue.

It's every shop across the country.

And the reason we're having this issue

is because we've ignored it for so long.

And I think the more we pay attention to it

and act intentionally as a result of seeing something

like the survey, the more we're going to put ourselves

in better positions.

And I think so often, we find ourselves in the position

to hire anybody with a pulse, right?

And I'll say that often when I go to conferences

and I'm speaking, I'll say,

how many of you would hire somebody that could fog them here?

And everybody kind of laughs and raises their hand.

And I said, it's funny, but it's also very alarming, right?

Because if you're that shop that's out there

and you've really struggled with this for a long time

and you find yourself in that position,

it's a really dangerous position to be in

because it's really hard to build a culture

off of a revolving wheel, right?

If people are just turning over in your shop constantly

and you're having difficulty,

even like sending your people to training

because you're not confident

they're going to stick around for a long enough time,

that's probably something that says

that you should look in the mirror

and do a little bit more research on your own operation

and try to figure out how to become better.

And if it's because you can't offer benefits

because you're not profitable enough,

maybe it's time to look into getting a coach

or looking at the business as a whole

so that you can get profitable enough

to take care of your people.

And I do think that's a core element to all of this, right?

Is you have to be a profitable enough operation

to be able to treat your people well.

And so I think that's maybe a different way of looking at it

than a lot of shop owners

will be afraid of making a profit almost, right?

Or talking about that.

And we've got to change the narrative on that.

You can't be afraid of making a profit

because you need that profit to take care of your people.

And without it, it's going to be a real uphill battle.

So all of that just to say,

I think it's worthy of looking at it

to hopefully drive some level of self-reflection,

look in the mirror a little bit

and figure out ways that you can make your operation better.

Well, let's dig into some of these a little bit.

Now, for example, nearly half of technicians

want clear career paths.

So for a shop that has like a lack of structure

or not real defined paths,

how is this going to impact retention and smaller,

especially in smaller shops?

Hard, right?

Because we don't have a lot of times that next year

to go to, I do love some of the stuff

like Carm Capriato talks about in driving specialists.

And maybe there's avenues to really specialize

as the technology gets a little more abundant, right?

It just keeps getting harder and

to work on these things.

So I think there's opportunities for specialists.

But I think maybe to even take that a step further,

what I think a lot of shops could do a better job of

is kind of painting the vision for the future of the shop,

right?

Because a lot of times I've been that technician

that sits in a bay and you think you're in that bay, right?

Like that's what my job is going to be

for the next 30 or 40 years.

And it becomes mundane after a while, right?

And especially like I was not a good tech,

I'm very clear about that.

But for good technicians, a lot of times,

you almost feel like you peak and you are,

you've done everything and you know how to do everything.

You know how to use every tool.

You know systems and how they work.

And so you kind of almost feel like you plateau

and maybe there's not that extra care to strive for.

Now, if a shop were to maybe have really good conversations

with their teams, right?

Where they're truly talking through the future of the shop

and whether that's through expansion or specialization

or hey, you know what?

Someday we'd love to add another location.

We'd love to add five locations.

But in order to do that, we need to have the infrastructure

to be able to really go out and attack that

before we're confident in that.

You're painting a vision so that your people

can actually see what the future is.

And maybe you're getting towards the end of your career

and you're not sure what to do with the shop next.

That might be another opportunity to paint the vision, right?

Where you're looking for that successor,

you're looking for somebody to take over the business

and that could be something for somebody

to really kind of pin their eyes on.

So, you know, I think the big part for me is I get it.

It's more of a struggle in our business and a small shop

to be able to create that vision.

But I think you have to.

You have to figure out ways to do that.

And just having open and honest conversations

with your people, I think can help guide that vision

and make sure that you're painting that vision out

to your people.

Now, the other side of that is I've had technicians

that work for me that have told me, Jay,

I love working in the Bay.

This is what I want to do for the rest of my career.

That's what I was going to ask you.

What about the people who don't have enough?

They don't really want to go any further, right?

Yeah, and that's pretty awesome to hear sometimes too, right?

And I think having those conversations

where you can still push them,

you still want them to get better in their career

and further their skill set.

And I do think that's where the technology

is going to really force us to have those career paths

and have those different ways that they can branch out.

And my good buddy, George Aaron, at ASC,

always talks about it's not a career ladder,

it's a career lattice.

And you just don't know how your career is going to go.

But if you can have conversations

and maybe help paint a vision for what the future could hold

for that technician, I think the better off.

And the last thing I'll point out to there,

and I'm really passionate about this part,

is that we talk a lot about this with young people

and people starting off in their careers.

But I think we need to take that 55 to 65 year old

a little bit more seriously too,

because a lot of times they've been working in this industry,

standing on concrete for multiple decades,

their body starting to break down,

and they just can't handle the workload that they once did.

I think it's as important to that person,

say that 55 year old that's out there,

of what the next 10 to 15 years of their career

is going to look like as they get closer to the end,

than that young person, right?

Obviously it's huge for a young person,

but don't underestimate that really, really

experienced technician in your shop.

And maybe the different ways you can deploy that individual,

right?

Maybe they can do some training,

maybe they can do some quality control,

they can do some different things within the shop

that you're going to probably have to get a little creative with,

but I would think it's a shame when you have that person

that's got a world of knowledge that just walks out the door

and is disgruntled with our industry,

because we didn't know what to do with him or her.

So I would think that there are options

to raise awareness that like you said,

it might not be A to B kind of progression,

but there are options to explore and having those conversations

with people to make them aware of different options

instead of just being that person in the bay.

And even if they want to stay in the bay,

that they can become more specialized

or they can go on to training and things like that

that will help bolster their career,

but in maybe in ways they haven't thought of.

Well, and I look at my own career, right?

Like I never thought it would go the way it did.

And granted, that took me away from the shop for a long time,

but I always say that our industry has a really,

really good way of putting you in the position

that you're supposed to be in, right?

And it took me a while to kind of figure that out

over the years, but I think it's very similar

in just a general shop setting as a whole.

You're never going to be hurt

by having a great technical background.

There's always a spot for you in this industry somewhere

and specifically in your shop.

So I think the more creative you can be in thinking about it.

And then what I like about having those types

of career conversations with your team is that

I think if you're putting it down on paper

and say you're doing at least an annual review

with your people, with your team,

it forces that owner, that manager to really sit back

and think about it themselves, right?

And hopefully that drives a little creativity too

of that shop owner looking at it and saying,

you know what, Billy has five years left in his career.

What are we going to do with him for the last five years, right?

And really analyzing each person at where they're at.

And I think a lot of times our industry is guilty

of kind of putting every technician in the same bucket

that every technician has the same interests

and that they, you know, even to the fact of like

that they all love working on cars,

there are a lot of texts that don't like cars.

You know, it's kind of crazy, but when you look at it,

that's where really getting a good relationship with your team,

having good conversations with them, knowing their families,

you know, just being a good person

and really being on the same page as them

can be really, really important and really vital to

how long they're going to stay at your business.

Now, nothing like pointing out the obvious.

Pay is the number one issue by a wide margin

that people seem to have an issue with.

For independent shop owners that may not feel like

they can compete with a dealership and their pay scale,

what should they be thinking about differently

or what would you suggest?

First off, and this might hurt some people's feelings,

so I apologize in advance, but not feeling sorry for yourself.

Stop playing the victim.

A lot of times we go into those conversations

and, you know, we deal with a lot of schools

and the relationship between schools and industry.

A lot of times independent shops will be like,

well, the dealership already owns that relationship.

And you're like, oh my goodness, guys,

like stop having that mentality when you look at it, right?

Because in so many cases, so many ways,

independent shops are on equal footing,

sometimes better footing than the dealerships

in terms of what they can offer.

And I think you see that throughout the survey

where dealerships have plenty of their own shortcomings, right?

Like there are a lot of things that they're not doing well

and there's a lot of dissatisfaction within that.

Now, if I am that independent shop, what I'm doing

is really digging in to understand why I am different.

Because that's maybe even a branding or marketing focus

towards finding those experienced technicians if you need them.

Where you can say, you know what, you're not working weekends here.

Or even if you are, maybe you're getting a more flexible schedule.

We're not paying on flat rate or if we are,

we're offering a guarantee of some form.

If, you know, I think one of the major downfalls

of an independent over a dealer,

and we work with a lot of dealers, right?

We're really, really evenly split.

We get to see both sides of this.

And there's pros and cons to both.

One of the big ones that I think is an area for opportunity

within independent shops is our training.

Because the OEM training is abundant and they have a lot of it.

That if you even look in the survey data was one of the,

the only things that the dealers beat the independence on

in terms of satisfaction was the available training.

So if I'm that independent shop looking for that training,

you have to be proactive with it.

It's not as abundant as it is on the dealer side.

So that's an opportunity.

But then going back to your initial question about the pay,

I think a lot of independence would be shocked at how competitive

they are with pay in terms of the way they pay,

how much they're paying.

And if it's hourly plus incentive or whatever the preferred pay plan is,

I think they'd be really, really surprised.

And we built out a salary data tool so that we can kind of inform

the general industry about that.

And we cover both sides that the dealer and aftermarket.

And so they're, I think in a lot of cases,

a lot of independence that are insecure for no reason.

Like I think there are a lot of independent shops that are really,

really strong and offer a lot of benefits that even the dealers don't.

And obviously it depends on the dealer.

The dealer group is going to be different.

It's not like the OEM is dictating what they pay their people

or what benefits they offer.

But in a lot of cases, the independent shops hold up.

You've got nearly 75% of technicians that prefer schedules that avoid weekends

or they're offering four 10s.

Is this another opportunity for shops to stand out?

Is that something you would suggest as maybe an incentive or a perk?

Absolutely.

And throughout the survey, you see that schedule flexibilities

becoming more and more of a thing, right?

And I always kind of point to when I was growing up in a shop,

like if I left for an hour to go to a doctor's appointment,

I would come back into the shop and a lot of the more experienced

call me like Hollywood or something because you just took an hour off

to go to a doctor's appointment.

Well, that's becoming more and more accepted.

And schedule flexibility as a whole is huge.

Now, not working weekends is a big, big thing.

And I think there were 50% of technicians,

just over 50% that took the survey that said that was a must have for them,

where they had to have their weekends off.

And look, I think it's different because we're primarily males,

there's very few female technicians as of right now.

We're trying to work on that.

We're trying to get more.

I think that there's been so much change in what an expectation of a father is

over the past few decades, where in the past,

it didn't matter if maybe you went to your kid's sporting event

or practices or games or whatever it might be.

Or it was just expected that you were going to work a lot.

And I think that dynamic has really shifted over the years to where

you're expected to be at a lot of this stuff.

I have a nine-year-old son right now and not only expected,

like I truly want to be at his stuff and I want to be able to see

everything that he does and knowing that it's a pretty short period of time

that you get to really, really enjoy that.

So I look at the four tens as an advantage, right?

Where if you as an operation could pull it off,

and that doesn't mean you only have to be open four days a week.

That means maybe it could provide even more hours available than what you already have

because if maybe you do five tens per week, that allows for more customer cars coming in.

But that is one, again, another huge advantage of having an independent shop

in a lot of cases is that you're not as big as a dealership.

And so you can make some of those changes.

You can be a little bit more flexible than some huge operation that has a huge store,

that has a ton of overhead that they really need to be open six to seven days a week, right?

Where we can be a little bit more flexible.

And again, I would encourage you to talk with your team about it.

And if your team says, you know what, we'd love to work four tens.

Okay, that's great.

We still need people to work on Fridays because we're going to be open.

Let's talk through this.

How do we do this?

Is it every week you're off or you're working Monday through Thursday and getting Friday off

or Tuesday through Friday and getting Monday off?

That's the case.

We have to work out a schedule internally to make sure that we're covering all the hours that were open.

And so again, I think that transparency can be big.

And maybe in a lot of cases, you go have that conversation.

Everybody wants Friday off and you say, well, listen,

it's just not possible for us to take care of our customers in, you know,

the Monday through Thursday schedule.

So let's stick to five eighths for now.

And then maybe if we come up with a better idea, we'll try to work through that.

But, you know, again, I think the more you can get your team bought in,

the more satisfaction they're going to have,

the more they'll understand your decision making as a whole.

And I think it really, you know, I think it shifts from me versus them

or us in the front office versus the technicians to like,

how do we all work together?

We all want to have good, fruitful lives.

Like how do we work together to make sure that we can do that?

And you might find that they're willing to make some concessions to make that happen.

They might surprise you if you have that conversation.

Oh, absolutely.

And sometimes it can be just a really fun conversation.

You know, going back to the conversation around vision,

if you're sitting down and saying,

hey, I just want to make sure we're taking care of you.

This is one of those opportunities where maybe we can, but maybe we can't.

And we don't know until we have this conversation.

Then it's not you coming down with an iron fist saying,

this is the way we're doing it.

It's more collaborative.

And I think everybody, it's easier to get on board a ship that's kind of everybody

rowing in the same direction it is, like if everybody's fighting each other.

Completely agree.

Less than half of technicians are satisfied with benefits,

and only 27% are happy with their career path.

What are the independent repair shops getting wrong here?

What are they overlooking?

What are they falling down on?

Benefits are hard.

The benefits are really hard and increasingly harder each year.

We all know the cost of insurance and how that just continues to skyrocket.

I think for our own family shop, I think it went up something like 20% in the last year.

And it hurts, right?

Because that's eating directly out of the bottom line.

You're trying your best to remain competitive with any of the big company's offerings.

And that is a real challenge, right?

That's one where there's not much you can do.

It's kind of out of your control.

And so you can shop insurance a little bit,

but I think largely you're going to see that it's just not very cheap anymore, right?

It's expensive.

So again, I think there's room for transparency and conversation with your team

in saying, hey, you know what, we've got these pressures on us.

Now, I don't expect you to go into those conversations as an owner,

expecting for your team to feel sorry for you, right?

Like you don't want to go in with that kind of mentality.

But I also think it's OK to have conversations with people about some of the real challenges

with the business and insurance being one of those big ones.

So I think we've seen a variety of different opportunities or options from employers.

What I would do in a lot of those cases is make sure that you're regularly meeting with

your insurance broker and making sure that you're getting the most competitive thing,

making sure it's the right coverage for your team in the first place.

And then ultimately, it comes down to the employer employee split of what they're paying.

And for those technicians that might be listening out there, that's one thing

when you're evaluating another job as well, you really want to look at because as it gets

more and more expensive, they may say that they offer health insurance,

but if you're paying 100% of that health insurance that they're offering,

that takes a pretty good chunk out of your paycheck.

But from the owner's perspective, that's another one where it's like,

you've got to be profitable enough to be able to afford that.

You've got to be able to really offer competitive insurance.

If you go, anybody that's worked in any business knows,

like you can get a general temperature for how good the insurance offering is through the business

based on just the general coffee talk at work.

Because if somebody goes and says, well, I thought my insurance covered this,

but I just had to pay $1,200 out of pocket, that's not the greatest feeling when they

don't expect that. Just understanding what the insurance offering is, I think is big,

there are going to continue to be challenges on that in terms of pricing.

It's going to continue to get more and more expensive, in my opinion.

But I think then you start to look at other benefit offerings.

We're capturing more and more data from shops on what those benefits that they're offering

are because we want to get a better understanding of that.

But there are things over and above even the benefit offering that I think bring value,

if you're offering a 401k or some type of retirement plan, have your financial advisor

come in and talk to your team about it. And the less it can be like a check the box thing,

and the more it can be conversational, asking questions back and forth,

so they understand what the retirement plan is. And then if there's a match,

the importance of hitting that match. And really, all these things speak to,

as a team member that's a part of our business, we want to take care of you.

We want to see you when you get to the retirement age, have a wildly fun retirement.

You've worked so hard over these several decades, you deserve this really,

really good time of your life. And so I think if you have that heart while also

still wanting to perform as a business, you can have those open conversations. And again,

it's okay to talk to your team about performance and the need to be profitable,

because that's what funds all of this. So those things matter. Maybe looking to tech companies

and some of the offerings that they have, something like a pet insurance or doing some

things that are outside of the normal. If nothing else, it makes for a fun ad in your Indeed ad

or whatever you're putting out there. But I do think there's actually some value in some of

that stuff. And we had a technician that wanted a subscription to Scanner Daner,

but didn't want to pay the premium. So we bought that and just continue to pay that year over year.

And I think it's being open to what that benefits conversation looks like. And the more you can

kind of stack benefits, the more competitive your offering is. And again, that's where I think you

start to have almost not only be face to face with dealers in terms of what they offer for

benefits, but actually maybe even have a stronger benefit package if you take it seriously.

Okay, so we've kind of beat shop owners up a little bit on what they're doing wrong.

Sorry to all shop owners out there. I know it's hard and I make some of this out really,

really easy. But I know it's very, very difficult. And it's my question too. I'm not exactly helping

the conversation. We're pointing out all the things everyone's doing wrong. Let's put the

win back in their sales. Let's tell them what we're doing right based on the numbers. What

stuck out to you that people are getting right? Yeah, and I want to flip to my page here that

breaks down between the dealers and the independent. So I think a lot of it comes down to pay. I think

independence as you look are offering a preferred pay plan. And really, when we look at preferred

pay plan, it was pretty clear hourly or hourly with incentive were what was mostly favored.

You're going to see that a little bit more on the independent side versus the dealer side where

they are almost all flat rate. What I'll say, and I think this is important for

independence to understand, and I give kudos to the dealers that are out there,

in that I'm seeing more and more of our dealer clients that are offering different types of

pay, right? So if there is a technician that wants to be hourly or hourly with a bonus,

they'll offer that. Or if we still have a fair number of technicians, believe it or not,

regardless of what you read online, that absolutely love flat rate. And I've told

me if you ever take flat rate away, I will not be here anymore. So I think it's really trying

to figure out what your staff really likes being open enough to be able to have the flexibility

there as big. So just in general, I think we're already in pretty good shape on the independent

side. Now, the other things that I'm pulling up a page, and if you're following along in the report,

if you happen to have the report, page 18 has a really good breakdown of the difference between

really the dealers and the independent shops. Not surprising because we talked about it earlier,

but the shop provides adequate paid training. Dealerships had 65% of dealer techs responded

that they did have adequate paid training, independent shops only at 44%. Now that's the

only negative. One that I thought was really cool is that I feel valued and respected by

management came back at 61% of independent shops, only 39% of dealers. So a lot of value there in

that that personal relationship that you see the owner coming in every day, or at least you see them

somewhat regularly, and they know your name, family's names, that that means a lot.

I would recommend the shop to a friend. This is absolutely huge to me. 63% of independent techs

said that they would recommend their shop to a friend. Only 36% of dealer techs would recommend

their shop to a friend. That is, I mean, very, very telling in my eyes. Yeah, me too.

Shop communicates well. Shop management communicates well. 44% of independent shops,

which obviously leaves a lot of room for improvement on the independent side,

but still far outranks the dealer side at 28%. Just in general, as you go down the list, you kind

of see all of these different things that that I think are opportunities or that that independent

shops do really, really well. The most interesting one that I would have maybe thought would have been

opposite was that the shop provides the equipment I need to get my job done. And

67% of independent technicians said that that's the case. Only 54% of dealerships said that. And

what's why that's surprising to me is that oftentimes with the dealership, the OEM is

automatically shipping the tools to them so they don't have an option of whether they want the tool

or not. It automatically gets shipped to them. Yet almost half of dealership techs don't think they

have adequate tooling to do the jobs they need to do. Whereas independent shops almost at 70%

are saying that, yeah, you know what? Our shop does a great job at getting us the tools that we need.

And a lot of times I think that's because our shop owners come from a technical background.

They understand what's needed to work on these vehicles. And that's a huge benefit for us.

Yeah, that's a big win, I would say.

Yeah. And last, last point, we talked about compensation a lot. And my initial statement

was don't be a victim. 67% of independent technicians said that they feel their shop offers

fair compensation. Only 51% of dealerships do dealership technicians. So again, kudos to the

independent shops that are out there that are doing it the right way. Yeah, for sure. If you could

give independent shop owners one piece of advice coming out of this report, what would your takeaway

be? I've said this a lot, but I think the reason I say it a lot is because I really believe it to

be important. Print out this report and actually read it, actually try to comprehend what the

technicians are telling you. Because if you skim through it and maybe catch a stat here or there,

I truly don't think you're going to comprehend all there's a lot in this report to really understand

what it is and what's in there. And then once you do that, have a conversation with your team.

We've had shops that are actually taking the data that we had pulled on or that we surveyed on

and they're taking it to their own teams and saying, Hey, is this accurate? Is this good

information? Is this kind of what you guys are feeling as well? Or is this something that is

off base? And either way, if it generates that conversation with your team, if that

generates that next kind of discussion, I think that's a win in my book. That goes a long way.

So where can people find the full report to dig into it and find their, you know,

get their own takeaways? Yeah, if you just go out to wrenchway.com, there's a resources tab

and you'll see a link to the survey. We don't charge for the survey. It's part of what we do,

ASC in partnership with us. They've been an absolutely huge help with all of this,

but they can easily get it. I think it might ask for a little bit of information from you to download

it, but other than that, it's free. And again, use it however you see fit. I think there are a lot

of different ways you can use it. Just make sure you actually understand the information because

the technicians are really trying to scream from the mountaintop that they want help with some of

this stuff. And it's our job as an industry to kind of rise up and meet those expectations.

I can't agree more, Jay. I actually, I think it only asked you for your email address because I

downloaded the whole thing and it took all of, you know, a minute and a half. So I, you know,

it's very, very easy to download. I will say that and it's full of information. So

make sure you download it, make sure you read it and make sure you apply it most importantly, right?

Yeah, I think the application of it and the execution of it is huge. And, you know, we always

talked about when we were more on the recruiting side, we don't do any recruiting anymore. We've

really moved into this data and school space. But one of the principles or one of the best

practices we had was to have a monthly staffing meeting. And this would be a really good way to

kind of kick that off for your own operations and having discussions about how your staff is doing,

you know, internally and just continuing that conversation. Because I think what happens a

lot of times is even with the best intentions, time flies. It goes so fast and you're trying to

put out all the fires of your day to day life. And by having a regular cadence and to which

you're meeting and thinking about this and really trying to execute on these things, I think you're

more likely to get them done. Otherwise, you're going to read the survey in a year, we're going

to put out another survey and you'll have done nothing. So like little incremental things can

go a long way. And just just working on it. Nobody's perfect. Nobody ever will be perfect.

But the more you can kind of chip away at it, I think you're offering it can be

a cut above everybody else and really put you in a good position.

So take that first step and download it at the very least, right?

Yeah, yeah, I think that I think that's good for everybody.

Jay, thank you so much to you and to Wrenchway and to ASC for compiling this information. I think

it's invaluable. And I think shop owners would agree if you know, they'll find a lot of information

in there that maybe they like you said, I think sometimes there is the tendency to just generalize

what's going on or kind of fictionalize in some cases, but the numbers, the numbers don't lie,

right? Numbers don't lie. And I think it's okay that we're not perfect, right? And I hate to have

a harsh tone or even a negative tone through the survey. But I think the whole point is to learn

from it and how do we get better as a community? And how do we really make sure we're taking care

of our people? It's really hard to find these people. And I think retention is an absolutely

huge thing right now, making sure you're taking care of your team that they're staying,

but then having a little bit more of a long term thought process. So we're not just constantly

chasing our tails looking for that next great technician. Thank you so much for joining us today.

We greatly, greatly appreciate the insight. Thank you. I really, really appreciate you having

me on. Of course. That's going to do it for us today at Ratchet and Wrench Radio. Be sure to

check out other episodes on your favorite podcast player and leave us a review if you found the

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greatest day of your life.

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38:09

Inside the Technician Mindset: What the 2026 Voice of Technician Survey Reveals

insurance broker

employer employee split

out of pocket

dealers

independent

preferred pay plan

hourly with incentive

flat rate

paid training

Voice of Technician Survey

wrenchway.com

ASC

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