This is a transcript of a YouTube conversation (Chris Collins with Christian) about recruiting and retaining automotive technicians. The central debate is whether dealers should pay technicians customer-pay (CP) rates for warranty work to be more competitive with independents and boost morale. Christian argues paying a higher guaranteed rate (so technicians "sleep on" a higher hourly figure) is a stronger recruiting tool than CP-for-warranty, while Chris acknowledges CP-for-warranty can help but favors another approach he calls the "four times" (not fully explained in this chunk). The dialogue notes manufacturer variability in warranty pay and industry perceptions.
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Here's the question that everybody's dying to know, Christian.
Okay.
I get asked this frequently, by the way. Do you, do you get asked this question?
I don't know.
The question, should we pay the technicians C.P. time for warranty?
Oh, now I that question. Yes, I do get it.
Comes up all the time. Right.
How do you pay your tax on warranty work? Warranty pay sucks.
And then. Oh, the guy across town, he's paying.
Him $5,000 an hour.
Yeah, he's paid him. He's paying customer pay time for warranty time. Yep. I've also heard, oh, the tax. They'll go work for an independent because there's a warranty. Yeah, there's no warranty. So the dealers feel like they're at a disadvantage to the independents because they have warranty and warranty historically pays less than customer pay.
It's definitely some manufacturers out there that. That's very true with.
Yeah, some worse than others.
Agreed.
They don't tell you that when you go to vocational school.
No. You're going to make all the money in the world.
They don't tell you that. Hey, this manufacturer you're training to work for actually tries as hard as they can.
Your eight hour engine job pays 5.2 hours. It.
Yeah, right.
It's a little crazy.
Okay, so now if you had one tool to recruit technicians in your toolbox, would that tool be to pay technicians customer pay on warranty time? Do you think that that would get you more candidates.
Help with morale, retention? If you had one tool.
I don't know if it's the only the tool I would use, but it. I like the tool. I like the morale of saying, hey, we're gonna go above and beyond because we're, we're here for you.
Wouldn't be my, wouldn't be the tool I would bet on.
Okay.
I feel like it's a distraction.
He.
Okay, unpack that.
What would be your one tool? If you only had one tool, what would it be?
Oh, the fact that I can pay more than anybody else because I know how to control the effect of labor.
Interesting, interesting. So it's a power thing with you.
Well, I also think you're power hungry.
Not really, but you're a control freak, power hungry dictator.
So my experience. You done? You can go. You got it in one or two more in there. So the thing that I would tell you is when I've talked to technicians and I ask them how much they make, they always come to their flat rate pay that they get. Right.
Even if there's like $10 worth of bonuses an hour. When they put their head down on the pillow, they're making the. The number they're guaranteed. So I make in 25. Even though they effectively take home 35 in their head, they make 25.
They tell their wives, they tell their friends, they tell Everybody they make 25 their name. So I would much rather be the one that can pay 45. And that's the thing, that they lay their head on their pillow and think at the end of the day when everybody else is at 35 and they can't figure it and none of your competitors can figure out how you can pay that much, I think that's a little more effective than doing the warranty thing. But I really don't hate it as a tool, especially depending on the brand or maybe the area or whatever. It's just something to keep in mind. I think it's a really good sign of creativity from somebody trying to do something different. Because I don't want a technician to approach warranty work any differently than CP work. At the end of the day, I want them to do a really good job of it.
Okay, I think you're. I think your answer is right. Your answer might be better than mine.
It's more logical, I guess. But if I had one tool to attract technicians and retain them, I would go with the four times.
Historically, that has been our best recruiting tool.
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