The term “parts hanger” is commonly used among automotive
technicians to describe someone who has no idea how to diagnose a car, but has enough
tools and knowledge to be dangerous and can certainly replace broken parts. The
fact of the matter is that most of the people who make a living working on cars
are parts hangers more than they are technicians.
The automotive repair industry has no standards. This is a
problem from top to bottom. Anyone can open a shop, anyone can sell service,
and anyone can perform the service. It would seem that the only requirement is
that you have your name on your shirt. Because the bosses don’t care about
standards they hire parts hangers instead of technicians. What they need and
perhaps what they want are technicians, but they may not have a choice but to
hire are parts hangers.
Would you go to a doctor that was not board certified to
practice medicine? What if he said he had all the tools and lots of experience?
What if he said he could save you lots of money, you just had to trust him? You
might say that this analogy is silly because doctors deal with life or death
situations. Many medical procedures are not such dire situations but we would
still never trust anyone who was not a certified doctor. If someone replaces
the brakes on your car improperly we are talking life or death. If your car
breaks down in a blizzard on some lonely road because of an incompetent
mechanic we are again talking life or death, so I think the analogy stands.
The thing that must change is that technicians need to seek
more and better education both before they enter the auto repair industry, and
after they are already working in a shop. Education must continue because the
advancement of technology never ceases. As time goes by this technological
growth is exponential, and the need for frequent training becomes even more
important.
Most shops provide very little opportunity for such training
because they are too busy just trying to run their businesses, and honestly
most of their technicians really don’t think about it much anyway. The bosses
figure that they themselves don’t need any new training, so why would their
technicians? As long as this is the way things work the quality of the diagnosis
and repair work the customers are paying for will continue to go down.
What is the public to do? Not much. Once the public demands
better service by only going to shops with better educated technicians, then
things might change. The people who are tired of settling for mediocre service
and shoddy workmanship can take a stand by going somewhere else and demanding
that only the best technicians work on their cars. They could at least ask
whether or not the technicians get to attend any kind of professional
development training to make sure they are up on all the latest and greatest
technologies.
The standard must be set by the customers. Businesses that
do not respond to customer demands are businesses that go away. Some people
will always look for the cheapest service without regard for anything else, but
these people never really spend the kind of money they should to maintain their
cars, so the budget shops that only they would frequent would still go away.
The automotive world needs parts hangers. We need people who
can change our oil and mount and balance tires. These are jobs that don’t
require great skill and if we have unskilled people doing these things for us
it does keep the cost down. Those that work in these positions will never make
much money and maybe that’s just fine. Everyone needs to find employment
somewhere, and those that are really sharp can start in these positions and
easily work their way up.
However, when it come to diagnosing complex computer control
systems that manage everything on the vehicle from fuel control to the
interface between the sat nav and the ABS system, only a highly trained
technician will do.
