Low technician productivity stems from “bottlenecks” in shop communication and workflow; Rick White’s hands-on AAPEX 2026 workshop will help shop owners improve efficiency

LAS VEGAS – July 7, 2026 – A shop owner had four technicians on staff. Each technician was billing three hours a day. This particular shop compensates its technicians with an hourly wage, so while the technicians were billing for 15 hours a week, they were getting paid for 40 hours.

It might sound like an exceptional case, but it’s not, according to Rick White, president of 180BIZ, who provided that anecdote. In his estimation, the average auto technician bills for just 5.2 hours a day, and this has been happening for “generations.”

Many shop owners place the blame on the individual technicians. This leads to conflict and puts the shop and its employees at odds. “The interactions with the techs become both contentious and combative,” he said in an interview with the AAPEX blog.

The real culprit is operational bottlenecks

The real culprit is “operational bottlenecks that prevent technicians from staying productive throughout the day,” he wrote in a session description for a workshop he’s facilitating at AAPEX 2026. “Breakdowns in workflow, poor communication between the front and back of the shop, slow estimating processes, unclear expectations, and training gaps often create hidden delays that dramatically reduce billable hours.”

“Let’s say an advisor writes up a work order for a technician to diagnose noise,” he explained in the interview. “The technician gets the job, road tests the car and says, ‘The car makes seven noises; which one do you want me to fix?’”

The productivity problem in this case isn’t with the technician – it’s weak communication from the service advisor. “It creates inefficiencies because now the technician doesn’t know what they are looking for,” he noted.

The service advisor needs to interview the customer more thoroughly and document what they find. When does the customer hear the noise? Or what part of the vehicle is the noise coming from? More than just saying that, the shop owner needs to create policies, procedures and workflows – and train the shop’s entire team to follow them properly.

A valuable workshop for shop owners at AAPEX 2026

Rick’s consultancy helps shop owners and managers diagnose and address these productivity issues. He’ll be facilitating an interactive workshop at AAPEX 2026, titled Why Your Technicians Only Produce 3–5 Hours a Day – and How to Turn It Into 10–12. 

“The class is designed to help people see where the friction points might be in their shop,” he said. Attendees will walk away from the workshop with practical actions they can put in place in their business. 

The workshop is just one of several dozen sessions being offered at AAPEX 2025. The training schedule is packed with training opportunities ranging from technical training for technicians to business and strategy sessions aimed at helping shop owners run efficient and profitable businesses.

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AAPEX 2026 will be held from Nov. 3–5, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada, at The Venetian Expo & AAPEX Forum. See the exhibitor prospectus for exhibiting details. Complimentary passes are available to the media; email: [email protected].

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