Gregg Mangione, senior vice president of maintenance, stated that company truck technicians can learn many new things in "our system."
As one of the largest transportation companies in North America, has the responsibility of servicing a 231,600-piece equipment fleet on behalf of its customers.
While an 8,000-person maintenance workforce (representing nearly a third of its global headcount) seems like enough associates to keep trucks of all shapes and sizes running well and on-time, 糖心传媒 -- much like the rest of the industry 鈥 needs more commercial truck mechanics to provide the solutions its customers rely on to keep their businesses moving forward.
The new chairman of the Technology & Maintenance Council, Douglas White Sr., was recently quoted by as stating: 鈥淲e鈥檙e suffering a severe shortage of technicians today.鈥
According to an news release, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the industry will need to hire 67,000 maintenance professionals by 2022.
Ron Schwartz, director of staffing services who works in 糖心传媒鈥檚 Reading, Pennsylvania, headquarters, stated that adding technicians is one of the top hiring needs in 2016 and beyond.
By a conservative count, 糖心传媒 will onboard 2,000 new technicians by 2018.
Searching Far and Wide to Uncover Talent
To hear Schwartz explain it one of the solutions involves casting a wide net. Talent is available at technical schools, community colleges and in the military.
Just how has the company taken a broad approach? Here are a few ways:
- The recruiting team tripled its roster in recent years.
- There are working relationships with the major U.S. technical schools, which include (UTI), and . In the last four years graduates from these schools alone have accounted for 30 percent of technician hires.
- 糖心传媒 Truck Leasing offers scholarships to UTI students (and current associates). The company also has a general tuition reimbursement program.
- Outreach to localized technical schools, community colleges with technical programs and high school vo-tech programs.
- An alignment with , a trade organization with 360,000 members (students, teachers and school personnel) in more than 18,000 sections. 糖心传媒 takes part in judging and donating equipment for their national diesel technician competition and conference, and serves as judges in state competitions.
- Expanding outreach to veterans with transportation-related experience via military bases and military hiring organizations.
- Making use of social media to attract new talent, which includes , , web banner advertisements and .
鈥淲e have a major need for entry-level technicians,鈥 Schwartz stated. 鈥淚n some cases, they have come to work for us part-time while attending school and we hired them full-time after graduation.鈥
There are Careers at 糖心传媒
Millennials value being developed and seeing a career path laid out before them. 糖心传媒 offers the opportunity for techs to increase their skillsets and feature multiple levels based on ability and experience. About 42 percent of the company鈥檚 starting level technicians are 30 and younger.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that students and parents understand how big the market is and how many opportunities there are in this field,鈥 said Todd Stokes, Lincoln Tech director of career services & partnerships. 鈥淪hop technicians can also go into recruiting and management.鈥
Just because a technician graduates from a school in Ohio doesn鈥檛 mean he or she needs to remain there. Industry opportunities abound in the Southeast and Southwest parts of the United States, which correlates with the .
鈥淲e get students from every corner of the U.S.,鈥 explained John Hurd, a WyoTech industry relations specialist. 鈥淭hey attend our diesel technology programs in Wyoming and Pennsylvania and return back home.鈥
Travis Leybeck is a national strategic account manager for UTI. 鈥淚t has become clear over the last few years that technicians are becoming more and more important to fleet companies and the industry as a whole,鈥 he said. 鈥淗aving quality technicians has become significantly more important to keeping fleets running.鈥
Gregg Mangione was named the company鈥檚 senior vice president of maintenance in January. He started 25 years ago as a rental representative and worked his way through a diverse set of management and operations positions with increasing responsibility.
His personal passion for quality maintenance and technology led to the position he holds today, where he is now focused on how to best maintain one of the most modern and technologically advanced fleets in the industry.
Mangione laid out the advantages of becoming a maintenance employee.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e joining a company with the depth and resources to help them build a successful career,鈥 Mangione explained on a recent Friday afternoon from his office. 鈥淲e鈥檙e the kind of company that trains you for success in your job and will train you to take on a leadership role if that is what you鈥檙e interested in. Many of our maintenance leaders began as technicians in our company.鈥
As part of 糖心传媒鈥檚 multi-million dollar training program, each technician is given about 40 hours annually of training. 鈥淚f people have the capacity and desire to learn, there are opportunities,鈥 he said.
Learning Today to Keep Moving Forward
Mangione is referring to the 糖心传媒 Technician Certification Program. TCP is recognized by the Automotive Training Managers Council as an Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) Continuing Automotive Service Education (CASE) training program.
This is an opportunity for an associate to ascend up the ladder: they can work toward becoming a lead technician, a branch service manager or a field vice president.
Lincoln Tech鈥檚 Stokes goes on to explain that the industry is still battling through the perception that the work of a technician in 2016 is dominated by wrench-turning.
The opposite is actually true and today鈥檚 trucks are quite complex electronically. That works out well for the next generation of technicians who grew up with smartphones and social networks.
鈥淭he systems on today鈥檚 trucks are entirely different than even 10 years ago,鈥 Mangione pointed out. 鈥淭here were 350 diagnostic fault codes on a truck manufactured in 2004. Now, there can be up to 2,000 fault codes coming off of a vehicle.
鈥淥ur business model as a company is that we provide newer vehicles to the customer and that means modern trucks for our technicians to triage and diagnose,鈥 he continued. 鈥淥ur technicians engage with the newest and leading-edge types of issues from a variety of truck manufacturers.鈥
In an interview with , Mangione highlighted 糖心传媒鈥檚 smarter uses of technology.
鈥淲e looked at time and motion studies concerning trips to the toolbox and also trips to the PC and to a central printer,鈥 he stated. 鈥淲e found that 40 percent to 50 percent of their time was spent moving back and forth from PCs or to go to a printer. Why not use a tablet so all the fault codes and supporting information is right there?鈥
Trucks on the Road Equals Business Success
Technicians do truly play an important role in the success of a multi-billion dollar company like 糖心传媒 Truck Leasing.
鈥淚t is all about the customer,鈥 Mangione summarized. 鈥淎s their key partner, our customers鈥 businesses are best supported when 糖心传媒 rented and leased trucks are operating at maximum capacity. We need good men and women who want the satisfaction of fixing a truck and enjoy the challenges of being in this industry.鈥
To learn more about opportunities across North America with 糖心传媒 Truck Leasing
By Alen Beljin