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Welcome to Ratchet and Wrench Radio, produced by Endeavour Business Media, a division of
Endeavour B2B, bringing you strategies and inspiration for auto care success.
Fleet vehicles can't make money when they're sitting in a shop.
In this episode of Ratchet and Wrench Radio, Dan Auti, head of automotive aftermarket at
Strighten Energy, breaks down the growing complexity of today's vehicle electrical systems,
why battery health is becoming critical to fleet uptime, and how shops can position themselves
as trusted fleet partners.
From start-stop technology and advanced battery systems to technology training and preventative
maintenance, Auti shares practical insights to help shop owners stay ahead of the industry's
rapid evolution.
Let's listen in.
Welcome back to Ratchet and Wrench Radio.
Today, we are diving into a topic related to fleet service and how it's evolving in
the electric age.
Customers are under more pressure than ever to maximize uptime, and today's vehicles,
from service vans to support trucks, are becoming increasingly dependent on battery performance
and electrical systems.
So what does that mean for the shops that are actually servicing these vehicles?
Well, today we've brought in Dan Auti, head of automotive aftermarket for Strighten Energy,
who can hopefully help us untangle some of these topics and speak to how this world is
shifting right before our eyes.
So Dan, thank you so much for joining us.
My pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
You're welcome.
Dan, you've seen some of these changes firsthand.
So tell me, what exactly are the changes that you're seeing currently in fleet vehicles?
Well, I think probably the biggest thing that we're seeing in fleet vehicles and all vehicles
is just the complexity of it.
And when I talk about that, I mean, we have everything from the historical wind turbine
combustion engine to start stock vehicles now to the hybrid electric vehicles to full
EVs.
So the breadth of vehicles to be able to choose from for either a fleet application or a consumer
application is really when you think about it as fourfold from what I used to do.
So this isn't an issue that's just related to electric vehicles, where this is affecting
all fleet vehicles essentially?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And with that, with each different vehicle platform, whether it's an ice all the way
up to an EV, there's different levels of complexity and meaningful differences in parts or applications
that are required for parts on these vehicles.
So let's dig into that a little bit.
So what are the technologies that are actually driving these changes?
Well, I think probably the biggest one that is driving is let's talk a little bit about
that.
And I'm not talking full EV, but when you think about today's vehicles, there's well over
100 to 150 materials on the vehicle today versus historically, which means you have
higher electrical demands.
And really the backbone for a lot of this is the battery technology that you use to the
vehicle has changed significantly since its historical perspective in internal combustion
and engine when all it was meant to be was to start there.
That was the intent.
You'd start the vehicle, the electrical system would kick on, run all the accessories and
you'd charge the battery.
Well, now specifically in key off loads, all starts stop, or vehicles, you know, parked,
somebody wants to open the door electronically, that taxes the battery, right?
That's where that energy comes from.
So old technology and lead acid is not the same as these what we call advanced light
today, which is AGM and EV, which are built to sustain those increased low loads on the
battery.
So would you say obviously this is something that fleet operators are prioritizing more
these days?
Yeah, I think they're prioritizing it because it serves a couple of purposes.
When you think about a fleet operator, you know, the fleet is not making any money with
that vehicles on the side of the road or to the shop.
So uptime is going to be critical, right?
They want to sweat those assets.
They want those assets on the road making money for them, not in the shop, getting battery
replacements, tire replacements or anything else.
So what's critical is they put the right battery in whatever vehicle application they have.
Okay.
So I was just going to say, how can shops contribute to reducing that downtime and getting those
vehicles on the road?
Yeah.
I think the big thing is first of all, put the replacement part in specifically the
battery that is intended for that vehicle.
If it's an advanced lead acid battery such as EFB or AGM, they'll want to replace it
with that.
If it's an internal combustion engine, you'll want to pre-embezzle a lot.
And the one thing you'll also want to make sure you're doing is, you know, most consumers
wait for battery failure before changing the battery.
And us all being consumers, batteries never fail at a good time, right?
Right.
It's, yeah, I'm on my way to work.
I'm on my way home for work.
There's somewhere else.
So preventing maintenance and having maintenance schedules that maxed out the life of the part
without putting downtime at risk.
So understanding that for your vehicles.
If you buy inferior products or technologies that were not intended for your vehicle, that
can impact whatever that maintenance cycle is.
Is there anything that you would encourage shops to pay particular attention to when
they're conducting their inspections?
Yeah.
I would make sure when you're inspecting a vehicle electrical system, we'll talk specifically
about batteries.
You know, pay attention to a few things.
You know, I always look at, that's the age age of the battery.
Okay?
If it's over 48 months or four years going into 56 years, you're living on what
I call borrowed time.
Is what it comes down to.
So, you know, you could say you're almost playing with the house's money after that.
Okay.
You get every start you're getting out of that deal for after four years, which is the average
life of the battery is, is, is like winnings.
But sooner or later, you know, batteries don't just, you know, today's batteries don't just,
you know, give you a warning sign before they die.
They usually die right away.
So you're going to want to ensure those, you're looking at the age of the product, looking
at, you know, the terminals to see if you've got any corrosion or anything else around
them.
Is there an issue that's causing that corrosion?
And if you're doing maintenance on it, check your electrical system.
So, you know, there's, there's tools out there.
You can check your starter and your alternator because at the end of the day, you know, 80%
of the time the battery is a symptom of a big, good problem.
Right?
If you place a gas tank, if it doesn't have any gas in it, right?
The gas, it's not the fault of the gas.
So you got to make sure that your electrical system is putting the proper energy back into
your battery product so that it can continue to run properly.
So a couple of things I'd look at is age and then check the electrical system to make sure
that, that everything's working as it should be.
And how important would you say overall is battery health to fleet reliability?
I think it's, it's critical from the standpoint, if, if your battery's not performing, your
vehicle doesn't run.
So if you, you know, it's not something you can just put off.
It's going to basically dictate to you, am I going to run my fleet today or am I going
to run my fleet today?
Right.
Because you need that product to start the, start the engine each and every time you stop.
And obviously run your accessories at the same as gas, lead acid system.
When it comes to shops being proactive, what are those who are on the forefront doing differently
than somebody who might not be as familiar with, with the newer technologies?
Well, I, I think what the shops are doing is understanding what team of engines have
a vehicle and replacing the technology that's appropriate.
And a lot of times, you know, we see it in today's vehicles.
A lot of times they'll have people will have a stop, start product, which is an A, G under
the V and replace it with a standard started battery.
Well, what happens?
It'll work for a while, but you are going to tax that battery.
And it's also not going to give you the proper results from emissions, release gas savings
from the start, stop technology.
So it's, it's not going to be the overall performance that you need.
So we see a lot of people will, will trade down into a product that's not meant to be
used in their vehicle.
So that would, that would probably be the biggest thing is, is understanding what came
from OE and that is exactly why it, and make sure you, you can place it within appropriate,
the appropriate technology.
And second, you know, make sure you're, you're not under speccing the battery and the product
you're putting back in.
So you want to meet or exceed what the OE specifications are on that product.
Okay.
How would you recommend shops becoming more valuable as a fleet partner when it comes
to maintenance?
Well, I, I would probably attribute it just like I would as a supplier.
When I think about it, the first, the first two parts I'll talk about are really game
stick service and quality, right?
Those, those two things are really important.
It's important in my, my business.
It's going to be critically important in a shop's business.
And we, you know, I've learned this long, long ago, service and quality are like, you
can't do that.
You can't do anything else.
So you need to make sure you get those right.
And then you need to make sure you're providing the advice that your customer needs, trustworthy
advice, along with the fact that you're going to have to provide value.
You'll have to be competitive, but start with service and quality.
Your business is a good thing there.
I'd provide the, you know, the trustworthy partnership and advice that their customers
are going to be.
When it comes to opportunities for shops, where do you see the most opportunity for
independent auto repair shops in this new emerging world?
I think the biggest opportunity is to be, to be a problem solver.
Vehicles are not as easy to work on as they used to be.
And we see, you know, so the do it yourself for, it's getting more and more difficult
for the do it yourself or to do their own maintenance, their own diagnostics, their
own fixes.
So it's really important for that shop to be able to support that need as the market
continues to move from DIY to DIFL or do it for me.
It's going to become more critical in building that trust and that partnership based on service,
quality, reliability and trustworthy advice is going to be critical.
Is there any skills or services that you see as becoming more important over the next
few years?
You know, I think, you know, the skills and services that are going to be important to
me, but it's really critical is, is finding the people to do it.
You know, we're going to need more and more qualified technicians to be able to support
the industry and having a pipeline of technicians and, and having them support the business
appropriately by providing trust to the consumer and it will feed or they're getting the right
diagnostics on their parts.
They're getting the right service.
And ultimately keeping that uptime for them, right?
Keeping those vehicles on the road, servicing them, making them money is really building
that rapport and that relationship is going to be critical.
So once you have the technician or the right person, how can a shop help to prepare those
technicians for these more advanced electrical systems?
Well, I think the training is going to be critical, right?
More and more training on the system and these technicians are going to have to be trained
on a diverse platform of vehicles, as we talked about, from internal combustion, hybrid
start, stop to ED.
So training, training is going to be critical and an investment that the shop owner is going
to have to make and his people to be able to service his accounts.
Okay, that makes sense.
What would you say separates a shop that succeeds with fleet accounts long term with
somebody who might be missing the mark?
Well, I think it's first and foremost being able to turn those vehicles around quickly.
So providing the right service and providing the right service, make sure, you know, you're
solving the problems that are at hand or better yet, you're preventing those problems
to a maintenance program, a maintenance schedule that's not too onerous, but that it outlines
all the key parts that they need to address from a maintenance standpoint to ensure the
out time for that.
That way you're building the trust.
And if the fleet owner sees their vehicles are more so in service than out of service,
that would be the judgment for the shop owner that he's keeping them running.
And that's really a key facet from us from both the service and the follow.
Keeping those vehicles on the road, making the money.
That's right.
I understand.
They don't make any money while they're sitting on the street.
That's very true.
Last question.
What's one thing successful fleet service shops are already starting to understand about
the future of vehicle electric systems?
I think that's the one thing is they understand it's continuing to change and continuing to
evolve.
So first of all, accepting that change, then investing that change.
So they're going to probably need new equipment.
They're going to need additional training because changes are coming out at all points.
So accepting that these changes are happening and that they're going to need to make
reinvestments back in their business.
But also understanding where they can find that information is, you know, there's a lot of
great information on channels like YouTube or, or other types of social media that can
help people diagnose problems or understand problems.
Now we'll talk about AI coming into effect.
It's going to, it's going to come all the way down to the shops, right?
So being accepting of change.
I think that is really important because once you accept the change, you can deal with it.
Right.
You know, you're not, you know, otherwise you're going to be pigeonholed into I can service,
you know, a smaller and smaller population of vehicles.
I've got to be open minded to be able to have the equipment, the expertise and the people to
be able to service the wide variety of vehicles around the road today.
So it's coming.
It's just a matter of how prepared are you?
Exactly.
Exactly.
Dan, thank you so much for stopping by.
This has been a wonderful conversation.
Awesome.
Had a great time and appreciate you bringing it on the show.
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