As automakers and dealers grapple with a growing shortage of service technicians, John Frazier, fixed operations director at Louisville CDJR, BMW, and Volvo, argues that the real issue isn’t a lack of skilled labor—it’s a lack of respect. On today’s episode of Service Drive, he outlines what dealerships and manufacturers must do to restore pride, compensation, and long-term sustainability to fixed operations.
The technician shortage has been decades in the making, and the role of service technicians remains undervalued despite its essential contribution to dealership profitability and customer retention. Drawing from his family’s roots in the trade, Fraizer says today’s challenges mirror the same frustrations technicians faced in the 1990s, only now they’ve compounded into a significant industry problem.
The center of the issue is compensation and recognition. Technicians are often the only employees who arrive on day one with significant investments—sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in tools, training, and certifications—yet are not compensated or respected accordingly. In many dealerships, technicians work with tight warranty times and pay structures that lag behind those of independent repair shops by as much as 40-50%.
Service departments are the backbone of the dealership business model. While sales can be conducted online or through leaner staffing, people won’t buy where they can’t service. Frazier urges OEMs, especially Ford, to reevaluate their warranty reimbursement rates and streamline the approval processes that slow down technicians’ work and affect dealership profitability.
"The technician is the only dealership employee that shows up on day one with a tow truck and hundreds of thousands invested... That demands a certain level of respect and understanding."
Beyond pay, Frazier points to culture and leadership as equally important. Too often, technicians feel like “the bottom of the totem pole,” with constant pressure to turn more hours on increasingly complex vehicles. Strong leadership, modern facilities, and genuine appreciation from management are key to improving morale and retention. He credits his own stores’ clean, updated workspaces and supportive management as factors that keep technicians motivated and proud of their work.
He also highlights a disconnect between dealership leadership and the realities of fixed operations. Most general managers and dealer principals, he notes, come from the variable operations side and may not fully understand the challenges service teams face. As a result, the service department is frequently overlooked until tough times—like the 2008 recession or the COVID-19 pandemic—when dealerships rely heavily on fixed ops revenue to stay afloat.
Recent data underscores the urgency of the issue. According to NADA, there are currently 6,000 open service bays nationwide with no technicians to fill them, and the industry needs an estimated 75,000 new technicians to close the gap. Without serious action from both OEMs and dealers, the future of automotive service is at risk.
Fraizer calls on manufacturers to shift some of their focus from sales incentives and product launches to fixed operations support. Streamlining administrative processes, increasing warranty reimbursements, and auditing how dealerships treat their technicians would be key steps toward rebuilding trust and sustainability.
Ultimately, Frazier says the solution will require collaboration from every level of the industry. Dealers must get creative to bridge pay and support gaps, while OEMs must remove barriers that prevent technicians from doing their jobs efficiently.
"The technician is the only dealership employee that shows up on day one with a tow truck and hundreds of thousands invested... That demands a certain level of respect and understanding."
