Where is everyone #5

I'd stick with bigger companies if looking to wrench for a trucking companies. A company that has the resources and $$ to do things right.
Some of the small companies I've seen some scabs.
There are some real neat shops that specialize in engine repairs, transmission.
Trick in my opinion is to specialize and be good at it. I spent 24 years at a gm dealer, specializing in tranmissions, diffs, major components and electrical. Worked for me.

 

I'm just starting to put apply online. Figure 1 or 2 a day I'm bound to get something eventually lol. I've worked for a couple well-respected dealers so hopefully that will give me a bit of an edge.

 

I learned to dislike dealers, it was all Faster,faster, faster. Where the smaller co. shops want it done right and not so rushed. But working in a independent shop with it's own fleet and open doors seemed the best to me. Now tooling and training lacked some. But good and bad come in each.

For me working at a dealer is to much corporate BS.

 

1st time in my Career I've seen it take a dump this bad.
Most dealers are down to 1/3 of the mechanics. When busing got shut down I looked at trucking again. Pfft. Slave wages and no good companies hiring. Especially as this drags out.
Some of the smaller shops are business as usual. Road service companies like emcon, ledcor, and paving companies seem to be busy. Alberta govt earmarked some $ for road work to keep people employed a month ago..

 

Not even sure I'm going to stay in Alberta. I can have a job in BC tomorrow but man they pay $5-8/hour less on average and the cost of living is beyond stupid out there.

 

@Flint1 what's automotive like as a trade? I've considered trying it out but flat rate honestly scares me. Not sure if a guy could make decent money at it or not.

 

I agree on the corporate bs. I did my apprenticeship + a few years at a dealer. A position opened up at a satellite corporate shop. I was the gm warranty guy in a big fleet shop. The dealer was 450km away. Was easily the best part of my time at the dealer. Best of both worlds. When that ended I spent 3 years back at the dealer location. The faster/faster game is offset by doing the same jobs repeatedly on 1 product. Still made it work, but it made me look for something different.

 

It worked for me. The vehicles sold in the last 5 or so years (and it gets worse everyday) are next to impossible to service outside of the dealer. Stuff like timing chains, transmission repairs you need so much proprietary tooling and software to repair and diagnose small independent shops won't be able to do it.
Small shops will and have been surviving on brakes, suspension, leaks etc.
Flat rate I never let that bother me they way most think it should. I didn't mind losing time to do a proper job, it usually averaged out to my favor.
The part that bothered me was the no minds. Tough to bust your posterior to make a dollar, when the braindead next to you, who couldn't do or survive on difficult jobs, did better becase the easier work filtered their way.
That was prolly what @jamespmack was referring to.
I did some heavy-duty work. I didn't like it. Too much climbing around stuff and seemed cobbled together. Ie metric and imperial fastners on the same machine etc.

 

That was the guy next to me. He would tink the handle on the gear oil pump to make sure I knew he was doing yet another diff service.
Meanwhile I'm lining up pink, orange and yellow dots thru holes on another timing chain.
He's still my buddy after all these years. Had lunch with him Tuesday. But he knows he's the reason I don't work there anymore. Lol