The spotlight was recently on truck drivers as we celebrated Truck Driver Appreciation Week.
Now it’s time to celebrate another group of people who are instrumental to a fleet’s success—professional technicians. I want to emphasize "professional" because the men and women maintaining and repairing trucks today are truly professionals.
See also: How did you appreciate truck drivers during NTDAW?
Of course, some wrenches are still turning when a technician repairs a truck. However, truck technicians must also be electronic diagnostic wizards. Please make no mistake about it: Today’s trucks are technological marvels with control modules, sensors, chips, etc., and the men and women who keep them in top operating condition are extremely talented.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there currently are more than 259,000 truck technicians in the U.S., and they project the field is expected to grow by 9% between 2023 and 2030. That’s a lot of people dedicated to keeping trucks operating safely.
This is one of the many reasons why the trucking industry celebrates National Technician Appreciation Week from September 22-28. The American Trucking Associations and its Technology & Maintenance Council announced the first technician appreciation week back in 2020 to celebrate the hard work and commitment of professional truck technicians.
See also: What makes a truck driver a hero?
As with drivers, I think we should be celebrating technicians more than one week a year. An excellent way to show appreciation for your technicians is to provide them with opportunities to learn more and gain new skills. Professional technicians are thirsty for knowledge, so one thing you can do is give them access to additional training so they can continue to refine and grow their skills.
Not only will you be doing something to enrich technicians by providing them with ongoing training, but you will be helping your fleet as well. Well-trained technicians are likely to find the root cause of a problem more quickly and execute the repair more effectively. This will get your trucks out on the road faster and save the fleet money because the repairs will be done right the first time.
Professional technicians will also help you avoid out-of-service citations during roadside inspections because they are adept at taking comments from Driver Vehicle Inspection Reports to find and fix developing problems so vehicles will be more likely to pass a roadside inspection.
Another way to let your techs know their importance is to bring them into the vehicle spec’ing process. They will have real-world insights about which components are easy to maintain and repair and require more time and effort. They can apprise you of maintenance and repair problems that could be the result of improper spec’ing or driver abuse.
As with your drivers, your technicians should be an integral part of your team, and your management team must show them just how important they are—not just one week a year, but every day.
