Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/751200
26 commercial carrier journal | november 2016 they're going," said Derek Southerland, fleet maintenance manager for FedEx Freight. Southerland and several of his peers spoke last month at the American Trucking Associations' Management Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas on the topic of a looming technician shortage. All agreed that in the quest to find them, you have to hunt on their grounds and not on your terms. George Arrants, program director for WheelTime University's coursework and training, has long been a proponent of getting involved in the classroom, from high school vocational programs up through trade and technical schools. But it's not enough to speak with students today; you also have to connect with them. at's why Arrants recommends sending some of your higher-performing young techs to talk to classes, especially if they graduated from that particular program. ey need to see someone who looks like them and talks like them – someone they can look at and say "that could be me in a year" and not "that could be me in 30 years." From there, Arrants said, students can get firsthand information from a guy or gal who is working their way up what he calls the "career lattice." W hen I was a junior in high school, I started looking for a job. The most logical place to find one at the time was in the local newspaper. You remember those, right? Somebody used to ride through your neighborhood and throw them in your driveway several days a week, if not every day. I later started my career in newspapers and spent more than a decade providing the news and classifieds to people all over Alabama. I still think newspapers are a great and viable source of information, but the fact is that reading habits are changing. Our own internal data suggests thou- sands of you will read this in the Novem- ber print issue of CCJ, while thousands more will read it on CCJDigital.com. But the employees of today, and tomor- row, are not combing the classifieds like I was in the mid-'90s. "We're going to have to get it out there in social media and a lot of your job search websites, because that's where PRODUCT REVIEWS, OEM & SUPPLIER NEWS AND EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT TRENDS BY JASON CANNON A technical challenge Solving diesel tech shortage requires new way of thinking A diesel technician's job is about as advanced a technological career field as anything on the market and hits just about every major push in the STEM curriculum. RELATABLE INSPIRATION: Potential students need to see someone who looks like them and talks like them. WIRED SIMILARLY: Technicians old and young don't like to waste time waiting on parts or walking around the shop. PART OF THE FAMILY: A sense of belonging will make your shop attractive in ways a fat paycheck never could.