Good luck finding a tech that correctly diagnoses any difficult issues right off the bat! Service and mechanical repair are your bread and butter. Diagnosis is what gives you headaches, lost time,comebacks, upset customers and a bad name. Even the best seasoned tech's have truck's that are nightmares to fix. If it's an off brand, even worse since you may not have any resources or info to properly diagnose. As a veteran diagnostic tech with 30 years experience on forklifts, cars and trucks, genie booms and skyjacks, I can yell you Renee b, it is unreasonable to only want to pay a tech for "the solution" I worked at a large forklift company with lots of help. all the manuals, tech support, factory help. Still, brand new trucks came in with electrical faults that no one could help you with. Do you think I would work on this for free? On my own time to "get that solution"?? No way.
In Ottawa Canada, successful automobile garages with customer's beating the doors down have stopped electrical troubleshooting. They do everything else but will send you down the road for any difficult trouble codes or electrical diag. By doing this, profits soared, they only get easy service jobs and customers are happy.
Getting back to the topic of this post, I say they're should be a wage increase for diagnostic techs, who take pride in their work and always spend time after hours researching fixes, troubleshooting methods, and electrical advancement.
As far as the majority parts changers, actor type mechanics who can convince customers they know it all, there should be a roll back in wages! You know the type, the guy who never opens a manual, always calls anyone and everyone for help, bolts on multiple parts and takes all day then convinces the customer "you need this" with a smile.
Wait now, if you look at the company's point of view, who makes the most profit? The guy that bolted on parts and tons of labor and kept a poker face while the customer signed the bill?
Or the diagnostic tech who changed a bad deadman switch wire in.8 of an hour with.50 cent connector?
There is no money to be made in diagnosis. There is no incentive for any tech to try and learn more than his co-workers.
One day, it has been said there will be a different classes of techs, with electrical troubleshooter's at the highest rate.
No wage increase is imminent for them or ever will be. Trouble shooter's require the most schooling, diagnostic tools and equipment, manuals but lose the most time. They are the biggest investment a company makes but also the smallest profit return.
We need to educate young people to get into trades. College or university educated people often make way less than $35 hour, and have huge student loans to pay. Good job to have, just don't be the troubleshooter...