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Articles by Devin Purcell
Training for the Inspection
mayAll DaysepAAPEX: A 12-Part Webinar training seriesFocuses on European Vehicle Diagnostics, Communicating With Customers 45 minutes each Starting at 2PM ET (11 AM PT) This webinar series brings you helpful technical training as well as important management content for owners and shop leaders.
Who Should be Responsible?
Understanding the mechanics of buying tools For most people, the purchase of a vehicle is the second biggest purchase (a house being the first) that they will make in their lifetime. For any technician who has been in the industry for long, we know that tools far outweigh the purchase of any car. Investing in tools is important as it directly affects our abilities as technicians to fix vehicles correctly and most importantly efficiently.
Genius Design or Deathtrap: The Chevrolet Corvair
by Devin Purcell - 05/03/2023 Can you imagine a vehicle so unsafe that it deserved the moniker, death trap? Or a vehicle that was so unsafe that Congress felt they had to intervene? The Chevrolet Corvair may have been that vehicle. In the 1950s American auto manufacturers were producing vehicles that were large and spacious. The term compact car was foreign to them. After all, they were producing vehicles that Americans demanded.
Engaging the Next Generation of Technicians
Effective recruitment strategies for independent shops in era of labour shortages. As far as the labour market for independent shops in the automotive industry goes, things are tough. Finding a good employee seems to be as easy as finding a needle in a haystack. This doesn’t even include finding a top-tier technician or service advisor to join your ranks. So, what can an independent shop do to ensure that they are not just hiring the next warm body that walks through the door?
It’s a Bird, it’s a Plane, it’s the Thrust SSC
by Devin Purcell - 10/09/2022 Every car enthusiast with gasoline running through their veins has the same thing in common. The need for speed. Have you ever sat down with a cold one in your hand and wondered why?We can thank our automotive forefathers for ingraining this love of speed in our automotive souls because the race to be the fastest started early. If you were able to jump into a time machine you could be there to witness the first-speed record firsthand.
Top Technician Succession Planning
Autosphere » Mechanical » Top Technician Succession Planning Devin Purcell is a Red Seal Automotive Technician with over 20 years of experience and a professor at Fanshawe College, London, Ont., in the School of Transportation Technology and Apprenticeship. You can reach him at [email protected] or find out more of his opinions at https://www.autoknowit.com.
Getting the Drop on Voltage Testing
Autosphere » Mechanical » Getting the Drop on Voltage Testing Devin Purcell, Professor, School of Transportation Technology and Apprenticeship, Fanshawe College, London, Ont. PHOTO Devin Purcell Like many others, I have found myself using resistance testing when confirming faulty wiring problems in a vehicle. Following the lead of the automotive industry has resulted in forgetting the basics that I learned years ago.
Follow a process for ADAS repairs
ADAS systems have been around in some form since the 1950s with the invention of anti-lock braking systems. However, the current generation systems that are starting to be more common in our service bays are starting to create a challenge for the industry.
Part 3: The Apprentice Perspective
Devin Purcell, Professor, School of Transportation Technology and Apprenticeship, Fanshawe College, London, Ont. PHOTO Devin Purcell Part 1: Change Your Tactics for Hiring and Mentoring Next-Gen Technicians Part 2: An Employer’s Perspective on Apprenticeships Not only finding good apprentices but keeping them is the key to long-term success. Most technicians start their career as lube technicians, tire changers or in the wash bay.
Part 2: An Employer’s Perspective on Apprenticeships
Devin Purcell, Professor, School of Transportation Technology and Apprenticeship, Fanshawe College, London, Ont. PHOTO Devin Purcell Click here for Part 1. In the second of a three-article series on apprenticeships in the modern automotive service environment, Devin Purcell assesses the employer’s perspective.
Change Your Tactics for Hiring and Mentoring Next-Gen Technicians
Devin Purcell, Professor, School of Transportation Technoogy and Apprenticeship, Fanshawe College, London, Ont. PHOTO Devin Purcell We need to change the way we hire and mentor the next generation of technicians—the future of our industry depends upon it. If we rewind the clock 20 years and find an eager, young person with an insatiable appetite to learn everything about fixing cars who has just been hired by a service repair shop, the scenario would appear a dream come true.
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