While trucking’s focus on talent acquisition and retention historically has largely revolved around professional truck drivers, that’s not the only shortage of skilled workers facing for-hire carriers and private fleets. Trucking also is contending with a dearth of professional diesel technicians, which has only grown more severe in the turbulent labor market over the past four years.
Demand for diesel technician wage studies and pay benchmarking data has doubled at NTI over the past two years, highlighting the challenges fleets face in recruiting and retaining this vital workforce. Fleets have also remained active with pay adjustments for diesel tech wages. The competition with dealerships is real and difficult to manage. NTI hears this regularly from subscribers of the National Survey of Technician Wages: Technicians leave, even with longer commutes, to take jobs at dealerships that offer better pay, better benefits, and better scheduling.
These are in addition to the same constraints facing the driver market: From entrenched worker shortages to macro labor market factors to engaging younger generations, these same issues affect the supply and availability of diesel technicians to fleets.
The shortage of skilled technicians goes beyond causing downtime. It contributes to driver dissatisfaction due to loss of productivity and earnings, customer attrition due to inability to meet capacity commitments, and lost revenue for your company due to out-of-service equipment. As a result, benchmarking technician pay and benefits has become an indispensable element in the recruiting and retention strategies of fleets.
The good news is, unlike with the challenges in attracting and retaining professional drivers, fleets have a fantastic opportunity to reach diesel techs younger, put them on a career path track, and grow their own workforce.
How can your fleet attract and retain professional diesel technicians in today’s environment?
- Start with benchmarking. To attract and retain qualified technicians, it’s essential to make sure your fleet’s pay and benefits align in the markets you operate. NTI’s National Survey of Technician Wages can be an invaluable resource for making critical compensation decisions. Covering hundreds of locations across the U.S, NTI’s National Survey of Technician Wages provides detailed, location-based survey results based on verified hourly and W2 earnings for the wages, incentives, and activity pay of technicians by experience level, job description, and credentials.
- Partner with local high schools and community colleges to establish a talent pipeline. Ensuring a future influx of young technicians to your fleet requires active engagement with local technician programs today. Consider donating equipment or establishing scholarships and internships to show your support. Also, be active in your community and with marketing in the right areas in your hiring markets to show young people the value of a career in trucking as a diesel technician.
- Build recruiting and retention programs as robust as those for drivers. Here are a few examples: Like with driver recruits, focus on building out a pipeline of leads and interested candidates through effective marketing programs, and fill your funnel from multiple lead sources. Promote retention by offering referral bonuses to your current techs. Consider reskilling or upskilling employees from other parts of your organization to put them on a career path to become a diesel tech. Constantly sell and re-sell your company to your current people to remind them why they chose you and why they want to stay, by ensuring their needs are heard and met, and by engaging with them in regular internal market communications. Offer unique benefits that address work-life balance. Use KPIs to measure and track recruiting and retention goals, and ensure you record and analyze departure codes so you can act on what the data tells you. Ensure recruiters are working their pipelines and develop re-hire campaigns.
- Spotlight women technicians. Highlighting success stories of women thriving in the field can help break stereotypes and draw in a more diverse talent pool. Similar to attracting younger generations, find the right marketing channels in your hiring markets to reach women and show them how fantastic careers as diesel techs are at your company.
To leverage the actionable data offered by the National Survey of Technician Wages, schedule a meeting with the NTI team. ⬇️
