I read this entire thread from the beginning. As a 25+ year tech who has been all over the map, I found this to be a timeless topic. I have been everything from the shop dog to service manager, technical trainer and everything in between. Currently a road tech, my favorite place. I finally got a raise and am up to making what I did back in 2002. Man, I could write a book on everything mentioned. My current employer has GPS on the vans and watches like a hawk. I don't really care, but it gets annoying when they micro manage. I have over a half million miles logged in company vans with never a charged accident and 2 speeding tickets. The GM gets an email if we go over 72 mph and we show up on the overspeed report. After my first week my road supervisor says I was speeding twice. I said holy crap, that's all! My driving record is not good or very good, it's exceptional and now all of the sudden it's not acceptable? Go scratch your ***! I've not heard a word about it again.
In my interview, I asked about travel time. They asked what my current employer gave, I said first and last 30 minutes. Service manager says "well ours is better than that!" Should have asked him to elaborate, took him at his word. I live 45 minutes from the shop and that's what I was told to give, after filling out my time card giving 30 minutes for the first week. I asked about a SOP manual, standard operating procedures. They have 30 techs but no SOP. I asked a road foreman about all this and he said everybody has their own deal so there will never be a SOP.
I heard someone mention something about the GPS. something about mass floggings downing morale. So true. When I was service manager I gave my guys plenty of rope. But I also told them if need be, I would hang them with it. My good guys loved me, the slugs hated me.
Sorry if I rambled. If anybody in the northeast Pa, NY NJ area is looking for a dedicated tech, lemme know.