Joey Sanford on being a Tech at Thermo King West.
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Joey Sanford on being a Tech at Thermo King West.
View full postChevrolet owes its name to a French race car maestro. What's the first name of the driving force behind the Chevrolet legacy?
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More holiday shenanigans! We had our Tom Wood Lexus Holiday Brunch on Tuesday with prizes, donations to Toys for Tots and an ugly sweater competition. The food was fantastic and getting out of the departments and being able to socialize with fellow coworkers were part of the highlights of the day.
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What's Santa's vehicle of choice?
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We want to finish the year out strong! 23 for 23 is a campaign we’ve put together to try and help fill 23 different requests that schools have on WrenchWay’s School Connect by the end of the year.
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Holiday season is alive and kicking!! We came together Sunday for the annual Sommer's Automotive holiday party All employees, including our awesome Technicians, were invited. The Annex at Foxtown in Mequon hosted us and it was awesome! All employees and guests were treated to a full menu consisting of a Hot Pretzel bar, Pasta Bar, BBQ Bar, Slider Station, Salad Bar, Charcuterie Boards, Fresh Fruit Displays & Deserts, not to mention an awesome selection of beer, wine & non-alcoholic beverages. We also were able to take cave tours located under the Foxtown Brewing restaurant. The night was topped off by watching the Packers game on the big screen TV's!! A great time was had by all. We were so happy to have come together to celebrate the holidays!
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Holiday season is alive and kicking!! We came together Sunday for the annual Sommer's Automotive holiday party All employees, including our awesome Technicians, were invited. The Annex at Foxtown in Mequon hosted us and it was awesome! All employees and guests were treated to a full menu consisting of a Hot Pretzel bar, Pasta Bar, BBQ Bar, Slider Station, Salad Bar, Charcuterie Boards, Fresh Fruit Displays & Deserts, not to mention an awesome selection of beer, wine & non-alcoholic beverages. We also were able to take cave tours located under the Foxtown Brewing restaurant. The night was topped off by watching the Packers game on the big screen TV's!! A great time was had by all. We were so happy to have come together to celebrate the holidays!
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With Winter approaching and construction season winding down we are starting to see the construction vehicles such as dump trucks come in for inspections and repairs after being worked hard all summer. They will keep us busy over the winter making sure they are ready to run come spring.
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Tooling Allowance, How much should employers be adding as a benefit?
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What is your preferred schedule?
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How helpful do you think annual performance reviews are? Explain your answer in the comments section.
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Congratulations to our GM John Moses for receiving his 15 year tenure award. John is a great boss, leader, and an even better person.
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Our Shop Foreman Brent Taylor received his 20 years with Porsche trophy. Congratulations Brent and thank you for all you do!
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In the past month, we've had some fantastic developments! We're delighted to introduce two new team members: Rob, a seasoned Senior Master Technician, who has joined our Main Shop team, and Kevin, a promising Lube Technician, now part of our Express team. The energy they bring is contagious, and we're eager to see their impact unfold. In the hustle of last month, both our Express Lane and Main Shop teams pulled off an impressive feat, processing over 2,400 service orders. This accomplishment speaks volumes about our collective dedication and efficiency.
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How many days or weeks does your shop close for in December 2023?
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THROW IN THE TOWEL? Automotive Technicians need tools to perform our jobs, in fact we need more tools than any other skilled trade (not discounting HD or aircraft technicians). Early in my career, buying tools was fun. Every tool helped me perform my job faster, better, and made more money. I wasn’t fond of the tool bill, but those tools were helping me pay it. For instance, early in my career I struggled breaking loose fan clutches. I often burned 1/2 hour to get it broken loose and I broke several holding tools. After 1.8 years I changed shops and the new shop had Lisle 43300 as a shop tool. When I moved on from there, I bought my own, cost me $117. It took about 3 minutes to set the tool up, find the right wrench head, hammer the clutch loose, and put everything away. So, per use I am winning by about $16. If I only use that tool once a month and I have owned it 8 years, it has made me $1,536 off that $117 investment. What’s not to like about that? In 2020, I was really struggling with some ball joints. The tool I had wasn’t beefy enough, so it was an 8 hour slog getting the old joint out and the new one in on one side. I was 2 hours into the other side when the Matco man showed up and said, “I have just what you need.” “Prove it.” “It would be a used tool then and I can't sell used tools.” “Okay, if it works, I’ll buy it.” It worked. $1,500 later I was the owner of a new ball joint press. I figured the time saved was worth $368, but all it did was help me break even. I’ve used it 3 times since for the job I could not do any other way. $1,104 lost time saved in 3 years. Yes, I might make money off of it someday, but was it a good investment? During the time frame I bought that ball joint press, I paid out of debt. From that point on I’ve been paying cash as much as possible for tools. Lately I've had to buy several expensive tools for odd jobs. Latest one is a no start, customer swears fuel is fresh, I want to test but I don’t have a way to pressurize fuel while bypassing the vehicle’s fuel system. I can cut it off, but not tap in and pressurize so I can attempt to start the engine on known good fuel. So I looked for a tool to do that, found one for $552.54. I choked. 10 years line wrenching and this is the first time I tried to do this. Is it going to be another 10 years until I need it again? I felt physically sick. At what point does a technician stop investing in more tools? Does it mean a tech is no longer growing and improving when no longer buying tools? When is the return not worth the investment? I dread needing a new tool. It doesn’t get me excited to have the latest and greatest. I want it to work, work well, and last. I want a good return for my investment. I don’t want to stare at the trash can wondering how bad it’s going to stink when I vomit in it. When I no longer want to spend money on tools, does that mean it’s time to throw in the towel?
Technician
Now this is the kind of discussions I think this app really needs. I don't think I have enough experience under my belt to give you a correct answer, but all I can say is 6 years in I still look forward to finding my next tool to make my job easier and faster. I do think that there is allot of ways a technician can continue to grow and tools is certainly part of the equation but not the full solution. I know there has been a few times in my career I felt I did not have a purpose moving forward, and have been very fortunate to have some mentors help me get back on a path of improvement. I hope you can find that same excitement you had early on in your career even if it's not tool related! (edited)
Technician
Hi Josh, Thanks for chiming in. In my opinion this forum is trying to find it's feet still, so content producers are still learning what to do with it. The good thing about here is it's strictly automotive related, so we can relate because we're walking in those shoes. I've been in the field 15 years overall, including tech school, so I've acquired most of the inexpensive tools I need, so the things left are expensive diagnostic tools. It leads to hard questions like, "Did I earn enough money from the scan tool I bought to justify the cost?" When I bought it, I didn't care, it was a fun toy and it would give me a leg up on the other techs in the shop because they didn't have access to a scan tool that would read anything except gm vehicles. 7 years later as it's nearing the end of life and I'm looking at needing to sink another $6500 into a new one, I'm asking, "Can I recoup the cost?" It's convenient to have a handheld that goes with me, and it's nice to not have to rely on gm and their flaky software, but unless I go out on my own, I likely won't recoup the cost. Do I want to go out on my own? Lot to think about.
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