Due to the advanced technology found on most Class 8 trucks today, it’s impossible for a tech to truly know the extent of a repair he’s been tasked with fixing until he’s checked it out with a diagnostic tool.
But if said tool has to be passed from bay-to-bay throughout your shop when it’s used, or sits unused when a customer arrives on sight because you don’t have a tech free to use it, that’s a significant problem.
Customers don’t want to sit and twiddle their thumbs when their truck is down. They want to know
what’s wrong immediately, and if you can fix it.
Dedicating a bay to diagnostics is the best way to address that need.
At Frame Service, President Barry Ernst says his company transitioned one of its bays to a diagnostic-only area a few years ago and noticed an immedi- ate throughput boost.
Frame Service’s diagnostic bay opens before the rest of its facility, and customers regularly bring trucks to the shop at the crack of dawn for testing.
“The big advantage is just getting that head start to see what we’re dealing with each day,” Ernst says. “Then we can schedule our jobs for the rest of the day.”
“If we know one of our guys will need to do a specific repair, we can let him know so he can prepare.”
