It almost feels like a "back to normal" moment to hear that the biggest challenge facing retail tire and automotive service shop owners this year is a lack of employees. It's not COVID-19 (which hasn't gone anywhere) and the halt to demand in the first half of 2020, and it's not the supply-chain problems of 2021 (though that, too, remains an issue).
Demand is high for service, but many shops are spread thin, and there's a sense that they are "leaving meat on the bone," so to speak.
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Monro Inc., the owner of the most shops in the U.S., has made hiring a top priority.
"Over the last three quarters, we've added about 650 technicians to our ranks. That's about a 15% increase in technicians," Brian D'Ambrosia, executive vice president of finance and chief financial officer at Monro, said. "That's in response to what we feel are demand opportunities that are going unmet."
Several factors affect vehicle maintenance demand. New vehicles are in short supply and selling for a high price, so consumers are holding on to their vehicles longer.
"Because new and used cars are particularly expensive right now, consumers are focused on fixing their cars as opposed to buying new," Ryan Goff, co-owner of Roger's Tire Pros & Auto Care Center in Caldwell and Meridian, Idaho, said. Goff said staffing is a "top priority" at his shops, and they take a proactive approach to keep a full staff by regularly posting job openings and interviewing candidates.
Vehicles in the U.S. are getting older. The average age of light vehicles in operation in the U.S. is up for a fifth straight year, S&P Global Mobility said in a new report, rising nearly 2% over 2021 to 12.2 years.
S&P Global said the increase was driven by the global microchip shortage and supply chain issues causing a "constrained supply of new cars and light trucks, amid a strong demand for personal transportation," according to Tire Business' sister publication Automotive News.
"People do value their vehicles; people do still feel the need to have a vehicle available to them, maybe even more coming out of the pandemic, so that's caused the vehicle fleet just to grow a little bit," said Todd Campau, automotive aftermarket practice lead for S&P Global. "And because the new-vehicle sales haven't been available, it's been growing from within really from vehicles that have been on the road, and they're just staying available longer."
Data from a Cox Automotive analysis shows that sales of high-mileage vehicles grew 7% in the first quarter of 2022.
"People are ready and very willing to maintain their cars for longer life cycles," said Chris Burr, director of operations at Wiygul Automotive Clinic that services the Washington, D.C.-metro area.
This is good news for tire and automotive service shops, especially those that are able find and train quality technicians to keep up with the pace.