Parts suppliers and service centers must grapple with aging vehicles as consumers hold onto their cars and trucks longer while the industry deals with a shortage of qualified service technicians.

DRiV Incorporated

"The combination of improved quality plus the high cost to purchase a new vehicle, is causing an increasing number of consumers to hang onto their vehicles longer, according to a recent JD Power study on aftermarket service satisfaction.

But the task of maintaining aging vehicles is not so simple, given a shortage of qualified service techs, the need for suppliers to produce replacement parts more quickly to satisfy increased demand and concerns over quality of off-brand parts.

Indeed, the average age of vehicles still on the road in the U.S. is 12.9 years, according to global aftermarket parts and service provider DRiV Incorporated.

The Southfield, Michigan-based company produces 31 different brands that include such familiar names as Monroe shock absorbers and struts, Walker exhaust systems, Champion spark plugs and Wagner brakes.

“Our goal at DRiV is consistently 95% coverage in terms of vehicles and operation,” explained company president, Chintan Sopariwala, in an interview.

DRiv breaks down parts into categories, A,B,C and D with category A representing what Sopariwala described as the “sweet spot” for vehicle ages three to 14, representing 80% of sales.

“But at the same time, we go the extra mile and make sure that we have the coverage for the parts outside the sweet spot,” he said. “Think about it like a bell-shaped curve. When you go and talk to our customers who say, hey, I have a 1981 Honda Civic, would you happen to have a brake pad for that? The answer would be, yep, you we probably do.”

DRiV has had to alter some of its operations to keep up with demand as supply chain issues stemming from the Covid pandemic and tariffs on imported components have raised costs.

“We are shifting the sourcing from high cost tariff regions to lower cost tariff regions,” said Sopariwala, “But at the same time, we are significantly improving our productivities in plants and distribution centers. We are using AI to optimize our supply chain. We are predicting part shortages before they happen.”

Simply having the right part requires more than building a vast inventory to cover a wide swath of vehicles over many model years.

“The aftermarket and the NAPAs of the world have an advantage because we have the advantage of knowing what car parts are failing at a at an abnormal rate, and so we can work with our manufacturers to re-engineer those, whether it’s maybe putting more weight or components in it, for it to be able to handle the demand that part is under, so that maybe that part will last twice as long as it did the first time,” explained Jason Rainey, vice president of commercial sales at NAPA, which operates more than 6,000 parts and service stores in the U.S.

Securing the correct part or component is one thing. A growing issue is finding qualified technicians to diagnose problems and choosing and installing the correct parts.

“We have an aging workforce. At the same time, we have fewer new entrants in terms of technician into the business,” said Sopariwala.

A survey taken last fall of 5,500 workers in the automotive service industry by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence and Wrenchway offers sobering insight into the issue.

Just over 20% said they “probably” planned to leave the industry within the next five years while 17% said they would probably retire within that timeframe.

By far, higher pay and better pay structure were cited by respondents as the top two most “urgent” issues.

Informed by the survey along with internal research, both DRiV and NAPA operate extensive programs to recruit, train and retain service industry workers.

NAPA estimates nearly 800,000 technicians will be needed by 2027.

To address the ongoing need for more skilled automotive technicians, six years ago NAPA launched an apprenticeship program, based on one created by the operator of one of its service centers in Utah, explained Rainey.

The program provides a debt-free route from enrollment to credentialed employment in under two years, according to the company.

On April 24^th, the graduation of seven apprentices from the program was celebrated at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway Charlotte, North Carolina in conjunction with National Apprenticeship Week.

The goal is not only to attract new service technicians, but to retain them.

“One of the things that we have really worked on with our shop owners as well as our major account business partners, is building strong cultures,” said Rainey. Of course, it's very important a competitive wage because you're no longer just competing against other shops in the market or a dealership, but you're also competing against other trades. So you need to make sure that you're paying them an attractive wage with set goals and patterns for comp increases, etc.”

DRiV’s program is called Garage Gurus, which provides both online and on-site training and scholarships.

Last year the program trained 12,000 technicians in the U.S. and 75,000 worldwide, according to Sopariwala, who proclaimed, “the industry says there are not enough technicians, but we are essentially creating them, one repair, one shop, and one part at a time.”