Jobs Will Maintain as Industry Changes
There has been a lot of talk about the scarcity of Diesel Technicians, or any automotive technicians for that matter, recently. It got me thinking about another angle to the story, how long will this be a concern? I mean that truck engines are built to last, so it only seems logical that technicians will be needed less and less.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Employment of diesel mechanics is expected to grow 15 percent from 2010 to 2020, about as fast as the average for all occupations.” So, it is possible that we may be in short supply of technicians in the future, if all things remain constant. However,“Overall employment growth, may be dampened due to increasing durability of new truck and bus diesel engines.” If better trucks means less need for techs, then it is also possible that “scarcity” of jobs could be replaced with,”saturation” of jobs.
Reflecting on the statement, “increasing durability” for a whole half of a second, I recalled that some of the jobs I’d seen this year happened to be newer 2012 and 2013 models, so much for durability, so I did some research. Turns out that most of the jobs were EGR and ECM replacement and calibration issues, not necessarily engine malfunctions. I followed this up with some reading and found that we aren’t the only shop to see these issues in newer trucks. Truckinfo.com had an article about the malfunctions of EECs, ECMs and EGRs that found pretty much what I found. If you’d like to read it, the link is below.
As it turns out, even though engines are more durable, it is the sensors that are the central cause of downtime on newer trucks. If it isn’t one thing it’s another, and history happening to repeat itself, I would venture that employment in the industry would remain constant considering that once one thing is improved, so too will another issue arise. I like to think of it as the industry’s version of Whack A Mole: issue pops up, we bop it on the head, then another pops up etc...
Erker's Truck Repair
2215 Pacific Hwy E.
Fife, WA 98424
erkerstruck1@comcast.net
www.erkerstruckrepair.com
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