Despite hourly technician wages rising by more than 14% on average in 2025, 57% of heavy-duty shops report they are understaffed, and 5% take more than a year to fill an open tech role.
Those illuminating statistics are among the key insights found in Fullbay’s sixth annual State of Heavy-Duty Repair report, published last week during ATA’s Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) Annual Meeting in Nashville.
“Part of Fullbay’s mission is to create clarity throughout the entire heavy-duty repair ecosystem to allow owners, technicians and everyone involved in the maintenance and management of heavy-duty equipment to be at their best, ensuring the safety of roads and helping shops become more efficient and profitable,” says Trent Broberg, CEO of Fullbay. “This report is designed to shine a light on the challenges, solutions and unique methods owners and techs are taking to keep the most important sectors of our economy moving.”
[RELATED: See insights from Fullbay’s 2025 survey here]
Fullbay’s annual report is created in collaboration with TMC and is one of two enlightening technical reports released at TMC’s Annual Meeting — the other being the Decisiv and TMC quarterly parts and service pricing benchmark report.
This year’s Fullbay report compiles input from nearly 900 professionals in the freight, logistics and repair industries, augmented by anonymized application data from 3,400+ shops powered by the Fullbay platform, with the majority located in the United States and Canada. The data applies primarily to Class 6-8 vehicles, agricultural units, emergency vehicles, construction equipment, commercial fleets and other heavy machinery.
Beyond the rise in wages, Fullbay states another key finding from this year’s survey was a 7.4% increase in shop labor rates in 2025 compared to a 4% increase the year prior.
Other notable insights include:
- One-third of shops report it takes two to four weeks to hire one tech. But, 5% say they need more than 12 months to find one
- 57% of shops say they are currently understaffed; the same number of shops report their technician turnover rate is less than 10% annually
- While 63% of shops offer bonuses to technicians, only 19% offer referral bonuses when hiring
- Nearly two-thirds of shops reported doing a little or a lot better financially in 2025 than in 2024 compared to 52% last year
- While 21% of respondents indicate they have implemented AI technology in the last year (followed by predictive maintenance at 8%), the majority (65%) do not use AI in their shops. Those that do, however, are using it for diagnostics (19%) and customer service/communications (18%)
- The top concern for shop owners in 2026? They are equally worried about hiring qualified techs during the technician shortage and the effect of increasing operational expenses (43% each)
For more information, and to download a copy of the free report, go to the Fullbay website.
