RV Weekly

I’ve been covering technician training issues for a long time and in the last few years the industry has come a long way. I’ve witnessed the development of single website calendar source for the industry’s training endeavors. I’ve seen the Florida RV Dealers Association lead the way on many training initiatives including its work through the Distance Learning Network. RVIA developed a comprehensive website 9now hosted through the RVDA’s RV Learning Center) with item by item content teaching technicians what they should know to be effective in their job. And RVDA has made leaps and bounds through its RV learning Center offerings.

I remember attending my first RV Service Training (RVST) Council meeting at RVIA’s trade show a few years ago and listening to the members of the council express frustration at the lack of progress on this issue.

The crux of the problem has really been two-fold. First, the business of training is generally not a money maker. RVDA has put an enormous amount of effort into developing text books for various career paths in the parts/service area. Despite this endeavor, the books haven’t sold as well as they probably should.

The RV tech training schools across the country have had surprisingly low attendance despite a well-documented shortage of RV technicians in the industry. The schools truly add value and this is apparent because some students get snapped up by RV dealerships before they have had time to complete the program. Because of the low student participation, the schools have struggled to stay open. The RVIA Trouble Shooter Clinics for technicians are also suffering. Due to low registration, they canceled one of the venues this year. The Trouble Shooter Clinics are especially important because they offer technicians an opportunity to learn diagnostic tricks for tough repairs.

The 2nd part of the problem is that our two industry associations often disagree on whose turf training falls into. RVDA believes that training dealership employees are a dealer’s responsibility and that they should lead any such endeavors. RVIA’s members manufacture the products and thus should be better equipped to conduct the training. They are most often the ones who foot the bill for traveling the country to conduct technician training in dealerships and other venues. Naturally RVIA has its reasons for wanting to be in charge of tech training too. Both have very valid reasons for wanting to oversee this aspect of education.

Lately, I’ve seen signs that the training issue is being pushed to the back burner with the economy impacting the industry. I understand we all have real challenges that take priority but the trend of cutting back on training seriously concerns me. An example, due to mandatory budget cuts, RVIA recently laid off its Director of Education. For as long as anyone can remember RVIA has had someone in this position. I think the position plays a vital role in helping facilitate our industry’s training and really question RVIA’s decision on making this tough choice and not having a director of education.

For a long time I’ve sat on the sidelines and merely reported on technician issues and training but have always wanted to contribute in some greater way to this important issue. Alas, sometimes the industry press is viewed as “the press” rather than an active member of the industry (which is very narrow-sighted in my opinion) and my many offers to help any way I could have never been taken advantage of. They say, “See a need and fill it,” so that is what RV Trade Digest is going to do. In my many years covering RV technician issues, I’ve learned that there are times when technicians run into problems when trying to diagnose and fix RVs. Getting an answer quickly to what may be wrong with a water heater, furnace or electrical problem can be difficult and time-consuming when technicians have limited resources. Having an experienced reliable resource to fire a technical question at would be an awesome benefit to technicians nation wide. Why hasn’t this already been done?

There has been a fear by some in the industry that if technicians ever start communicating with each other they will discuss their salaries, flat rates and other taboo subjects. Another concern that has been brought up is that dealers wouldn’t want consumers or competitors to necessarily know when their employees have questions about certain repair issues. Those are valid concerns but I believe technician networking can be used in a very positive way where those issues never happen.

They say “Identify a problem, find a solution.” To that end RV Trade Digest will start a new technician forum where they can pose difficult repair and diagnostic questions that will be monitored by seven industry leading RV technicians who will answer questions and moderate the content so no taboo subjects are broached. Every time a post is made, the post will be immediately e-mailed to 10 different moderators who will review the content to make sure there are no problems. Gary Motley of Motley RV has volunteered to work with me on the forum and offer this resource to the industry. While the forum will be moderated by the seven “major league” technicians to answer questions, I want to encourage technicians industry-wide to participate in the forum and help each other out by answering each other’s diagnostic and repair questions.

The rules will be simple:
1. Don’t talk about money: that means salaries and compensation, flat rates, warranty payments, or labor rates charged to the consumer, etc.
2. Do not put self-identifying information in your posts. (Just use your first name and the state where you work) i.e., don’t include your last name, the dealership name where you are employed or the city in which you work. And do not post your e-mail or phone number anywhere in your post.
3. Be nice. Offer your opinion and technical advice without degrading companies or people in the forum.

As we move ahead with this in the next couple weeks, I’d like some industry input as to any other concerns we may need to address prior to launch. Let me know your thoughts. If we get it right in the very beginning, make the rules abundantly clear, and then closely monitor it, I believe this will be a valuable resource for the entire industry.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 6:43 pm and is filed under Dana Nelsen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.