“Less talked about are the consequences of computerized cars at the auto shop . ” Fixing complex vehicles requires increasingly expert and expensive knowledge, and tools that are in limited supply…. [T]he upshot can be that it takes longer to get your car fixed.
The trend is worsened by an ongoing decline in the number of U. S. auto shops, driven by consolidation and owners taking retirement…. There are now significantly fewer places to get your car fixed within the U. S. than there were just five years ago. One industry publication found that for every active service bay inside U. S. car shops there have been 225 cars and trucks on the road inside 2016. Now there are 246 vehicles per gulf.
Pandemic supply-chain jams with regard to computer chips and automobile parts, and a nationwide labor shortage of vehicle technicians, have worsened the problem. Cars took an average of 2 . 1 days longer to repair in 2021 than in 2019, according to CCC Intelligent Solutions, which sells software to automotive plus insurance agencies, nearly 11 days found in all. Industry experts say the issue will only get worse. “In 10 years, I see a lot fewer shops, and I see a lot more people looking for shops, ” says Rick White, who coaches vehicle repair shop owners through his company, 180biz. An industry survey taken late last year found 96 percent of shops reporting delays, with an average scheduling backlog of 3. 4 weeks, compared to 1 . 7 weeks in past due 2019….
Some brands of vehicle can only be calibrated with specialized in addition to expensive equipment…. In all, it can cost hundreds of thousands associated with dollars to acquire the resources and make the store adjustments to correct just a few automobile makes. That’s before the particular cost of training workers in order to use those tools, along with shops paying thousands each year to keep their staff certified to be able to fix specific cars. Investing for typically the future, then, can set shop proprietors back simply by millions.
Wired interviewed the former owner regarding a collision repair go shopping. Their assessment? Shop owners are just “fed up… we went from a very simple business to a very complex market. ”
