Some techs leave dealerships for the flexibility, pay of mobile platforms

Experienced technicians are quitting franchised dealerships and other brick-and-mortar facilities to join mobile service companies such as YourMechanic to deliver mostly light repairs and maintenance at a customer's home or office.

Circumstances vary for why technicians join the YourMechanic online platform, says CEO Anthony Rodio. The company estimates more than 30 percent of its techs previously worked at dealerships.

Some middle-aged techs for YourMechanic say they want to make more money per hour, work fewer hours and have more flexible schedules. Others complain about the pressure at dealerships to sell additional services to customers. A few of the older techs want out of the dealership environment to cut down on the wear and tear that turning wrenches can take on their bodies.

"It does catch up with you physically, when you're wrenching," says Peter Pryke, 60, an experienced mobile tech in the Phoenix area who also works as a YourMechanic coach.

Rodio says YourMechanic requires five years of experience and at least one certification from the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. In fact, the average experience level is 10-plus years and multiple ASE certifications, he says.

The average age of technicians on the platform is late 30s to early 40s, Rodio says, but there are "plenty" in their 50s — and older. He says YourMechanic only hires experienced hands because it's not set up to train or supervise green techs.

"Because of the nature of what we do, we need experienced techs," he says. "We can't have an apprentice model or a service manager or foreman to show somebody the ropes and train them."

Rodio also says YourMechanic is attractive to older dealership techs who may have "priced themselves out of the market — or at least in the view of a dealership, maybe."

"They are not getting raises. They are looking for ways to make more money," he says.

Robert Bietz, 52, a mobile mechanic who works out of Bedford, Texas, near Fort Worth, says the pay with YourMechanic is good. He has worked in auto repair for about 22 years, including at new-vehicle dealerships.

"At a dealership, it usually works out to $20 or $30 an hour," he says. At YourMechanic, "I'm at $48."

The company says its compensation tops out at $70 per hour.

YourMechanic, of Mountain View, Calif., has been in business since 2012. Since the spring of 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has greatly increased consumer demand for mobile service, Rodio says.

YourMechanic's platform lets consumers book appointments online. It matches the customer's description of the problem with the availability of a local technician with the appropriate skill level, and the system automatically orders the necessary parts — mostly from aftermarket providers.

YourMechanic doesn't provide the service itself. It has assembled a network of more than 1,000 technicians who work independently in more than 30 states. Its technicians are gig workers, like Uber drivers.

They set their own hours and provide their own vehicle and tools. The company says they have worked at franchised dealerships, independent used-car dealerships, aftermarket service providers and also on their own.

Rodio says YourMechanic techs also want more flexibility.

"They want the ability to be their own boss and set their own hours," Rodio says. "That appeals to people as they get older."

Technicians set a certain number of hours they want to work each week. Keith Canete, operations manager and lead master technician for YourMechanic, recommends techs make themselves available for at least 15 hours per week and no less than four hours per day. If a tech lists fewer hours, the software platform may skip over them, thinking they're not available for lengthier jobs.

Randy Davis, a mobile tech working out of Winston-Salem, N.C., enjoys the freedom to work when he wants. He's been getting work from YourMechanic for three years after stints in dealership service departments working on mostly Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram vehicles and a handful of imports.

At YourMechanic, "I could have a schedule that says I'm available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., but that doesn't mean I'm booked from 8 to 6," he says. "My first appointment might not be until 10 o'clock."

Davis says his easier schedule means there's less of a physical toll on his body.

"I'm not as fast as I was when I was 25 or 30," says Davis, who's in his early 50s. "If I was in a dealership now, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, of course there's always going to be work there, but how fast could I go? And if I'm doing the same thing all the time, it's monotonous."

One downside for some YourMechanic techs is the driving from job to job.

"I've got a pretty big service area; sometimes it's a 45-minute drive," Bietz says of his North Texas territory. "That's the only real downfall."

If a job doesn't pan out after he gets there — for instance, if he cancels it because the scope of work is too much to perform on-site — he says YourMechanic pays him a $25 fee.

Pryke says mobile techs who are used to working at dealerships sometimes need advice on how to explain repairs to customers since there's no longer a service adviser to do that. Before joining YourMechanic as a tech and coach in 2015, he worked in an Arizona Chevrolet dealership service department. He's worked in auto repair about 40 years.

"At YourMechanic, you wear a lot of hats — lube tech, diagnostic tech, service writer, service manager, parts guy, cleanup guy," he says. "Some have never been exposed to that."

For Raymond Covit, a mobile tech based in Las Vegas, the independence and a lack of pressure to sell extra services are what he likes best about YourMechanic. Covit, 61, says he's been getting work from YourMechanic for three years and has been working on cars since the mid-1970s. He has worked at an independent repair facility, on his own and at a couple of franchised dealerships as a service writer and a tech in Southern California.

"I believe in karma," he says. "When you're your own mechanic, you're in control of what you do, 100 percent."

While techs have to do some tasks they didn't at the dealership, YourMechanic takes care of most of the paperwork and other office chores.

"They organize the payment for me; I don't have to fool with any of that," says Davis, the North Carolina tech. "I just worry about doing what I do."