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The Gearbox Podcast brings on industry professionals to explore the day-to-day operations of owning and operating a shop. From common frustrations to industry-wide shifts, this podcast covers it with fun and insightful conversations.
Swell AI Transcript: Interview-Micheal First call - Swell Cut.mp3
00:00 Jimmy Purdy All right, we got to start with who you are. Who I am. I am Michael Wright. All right. Yeah. All right. I'm Michael Wright. So today we're going to do a little bit about, um, a little behind the scenes, right? So we're going to talk about how you get the parts you need in the shop as a tech or as an owner to go in the car. And we'll go on for there. We'll see. We'll see where this takes us. Okay. We're going to go down the journey right now. Talk about a rabbit hole. Yeah. So, oh, we won't do any name drops, but you know, if, if, if you had to go, oh, oh, oh, I mean, you could kind of figure it out, right?
00:36 Michael Wright You could probably could. Yeah. I think so. We'll leave it at that. Just say the uniform is meant for St. Patrick's day.
00:42 Jimmy Purdy Well, we'll leave it at that. That's good. That's another good one too. We'll never know who it is. We'll never know. We'll just say the warranty is three years and 36,000 miles nationwide. But that's pretty standard for, uh, it seems to be the new standard coming out. Now you do a lot of conferences when it comes out to stay on top of the parts game, right? We do. So that's pretty interesting because we don't know anything about that. Okay. As a tech, as an owner. Yeah. So, I don't know, kind of walk me through starting in the automotive industry and how that, say you're looking to start in the automotive field. Maybe you don't know enough to get into a shop. Maybe this would be a good segue into that. I mean, how did you, how did you get involved in to where you're at?
01:28 Michael Wright I started as a driver about seven and a half years ago. I was working in a kitchen, minimum wage in California went up to $10 an hour. And I figured if I can get $10 anywhere doing anything, you know, driving sounds good. Yeah. Driving sounds easy. Yeah. Not my own vehicle. I was delivering the correct parts to the correct shops. Nobody had issues with me. And I just kind of promoted up from then. I worked behind the counter for a few years, learned a lot of automotive knowledge through some of our professional sales guys. They call, we call them installer service specialists. ISS for short, but they're essentially, they're just commercial managers. They're commercial account managers. They're the guys looking up your parts and making sure the parts get out to the correct shop. Learned a lot from those guys. Probably the three that I worked with for the longest had at least 75 years of experience between the three of them. And that's parts knowledge, automotive knowledge, a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes. A lot of our paperwork, policies, stuff like that, that really opened up my eyes to seeing beyond the counter. And that's when I started doing outside sales. As an outside salesman, I go from shop to shop promoting what I can get you to buy more parts, get you to buy training classes, setting up accounts with our professional shop programs as our nationwide warranties, taking care of stuff like labor claims and just all sorts of things. I sell tools and equipment. You name it, I can do it.
03:00 Jimmy Purdy Now, rewinding back a little bit into the delivery driver part, kind of joked a little bit, it seems like an easy, anybody can do it. Typically the retired guys are, you know, ends up being your drivers. I mean, we all, anybody who runs a shop or been in a shop knows that the delivery drivers show up. They're typically, typically not the younger guys. It's kind of an old guy is kind of retired and you just want to drive around all day. But there's got to be more to it than just you're going to go pick up the parts and deliver them. Right. I mean, there's got to be some sort of, a little bit more you got to have between the eyes in a sense, or between the ears in a sense, you got to like just pick up parts
03:39 Michael Wright and deliver them. So you know what, that's where, that's where my engagement started. I wanted to know what was in the box, you know, and I would, I would drop off to a shop and ask, you know, Hey, what's this going on? What's this too? What's it for? What's it do? You know, and, and, and a lot of times the shop owner or the technician will, you know, they'll be happy to tell you like, Oh, well, it's a belt. It runs the fan and it keeps the engine cool and, and, and pumps water through the, through the heating cycle. Right. It's like, Oh, okay, cool, cool. You know, then, you know, a lot of the, some of it was self research. My company is, is real big on training. We have daily training you need to do. And a lot of it is automotive systems, you know, not quite
04:17 Jimmy Purdy as advanced as what technicians know, but in order to sell parts, you got to know what they do. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, yeah, you gotta be in the ballpark. If we're gonna start calling out, Oh, this is going to be one thing or another. And I mean, kind of one of the services is checking the, the, the code, right. And then being able to recommend certain parts that would possibly
04:40 Michael Wright fix that problem. Right. Yeah. Yeah. When, when, when our guys behind the counter go out to the parking lot to scan a code, it's only a recommendation based off of what other technicians have said have been solves to the problem. Right. It's not a diagnosis. I really wish customers would understand
04:57 Jimmy Purdy that is not a diagnosis. That is probably the biggest rub for anybody in the industry is when they hear of a certain service being provided such as that is like, Oh, well guys will come out and set your code and tell you exactly what to part, divide or replace. Like, Oh, but I don't think that's what it's supposed to be, but it's definitely, I mean, what's your feedback on that? When, when you get that kind of situation going on, I mean, is that something that you're, you're into? Do you
05:23 Michael Wright like promoting that? Or is it, I mean, how do you feel about that? I try not to do it. I really did try not to do it. You know, I, I would tell a customer like, Hey, listen, I'll scan this code. It could be any number of problems. I once had a girl with a Jaguar. She had 13 codes. Oh, nice. And she just, she nearly broke down in tears. I said, relax. It's probably just one or two main problems setting off everything else. You definitely need to take this to somebody to have it diagnosed. Yeah. You know, it's, it's number of issues and it could be a simple fix. You know, it could be a difficult fix. And she, she sent it to a shop and came back and told me it was basic problem, you know, bad wiring on her, on her ECU. Yeah. It's like, well, you know, I'm,
06:08 Jimmy Purdy I'm glad you didn't freak out on me. Yeah. It's tough to be a parts salesman and then turn away a part sale. But ultimately we're all just trying to do the best thing for the client, right? At the end of the day. And it's just a, a very difficult position to be put in, especially if you're a counter salesman at a, at a large box store like that. And then you're put in the position of, Hey, go check this code and then recommend a part. Yes. And then go install the part. No. You know, like where, where do we draw the line here? Or did, so they go home and they install it and then they come back and say, they didn't fix it. I want my money back.
06:44 Michael Wright That is the worst part there. When they come back and say, Hey, this didn't fix my issue. Yeah. I mean, how's that situation even handled? It's, it's, then that's where the customer needs to understand like, Hey, this is just a suggested fix to your problem. This isn't a guaranteed fix, you know? And when we do read codes, we used, we use a system called pro demand. Right. A lot of shops use it, you know, a lot of shops will pull up. It'll, and it'll be some, it'll be four
07:06 Jimmy Purdy or five fixes. Yeah. But it still needs to be diagnosed. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Assessed and analyzed and you know, the whole, the whole, the whole, the whole scanner data needs to be,
07:20 Michael Wright we can't be a part changers around here. That's it. See, we're only scanning a code. We're not doing a draw test, load test. We're not doing any of the internal workings. We don't, you know, we're not doing any of that for the vehicle. We're just reading what the computer
07:32 Jimmy Purdy says it is. Yeah. And it seems like it started as like, it always, it always does. It always starts as like the heart's in the right place, trying to do the right thing here. But obviously they've got to be a profit behind it as well. Right. I mean, is that something that they talked about as far as like, what was the, what is the whole grab behind that? Is it, is it basically just to try to up the part sales or is it trying to provide a service that's, hey, here's a code. If you, if you can't afford a scanner, we'll scan it for you and you can do your own research. Yeah. But then you draw on the line and like, well then why are you giving them recommendations? So how far, how far do we, do we keep pushing this line where it's like, okay, now all of a sudden we're doing a disservice to the client because it's like, well, this thing, and then of course the counter guys, there could be some that are AC certified. It could be some that have 30 years, 40 years running a shop and they're at the counter, right? But there could also be guys that have never had any automotive experience. So, and then you got all the colors of the rainbow in between, literally. So that's definitely a tough thing for a corporate situation
08:33 Michael Wright to just hand that down here. All you stores scan codes and then sell apart. Well, little known secret. We only started scanning codes because our competitor did. Our top competitor was scanning codes as well. Yeah. Well, monkey see monkey do. That's why you, that's why in most bigger cities,
08:51 Jimmy Purdy you always see one of my stores across the street from a competitor store or close proximity. Yeah. Down the block, around the corner, all that. You got to stay close. Yeah. I mean, I think it just comes down to client education. It is. That's what we try real hard here at the shop is to educate the clients as much as we can. Get on, you know, whether it's on a podcast or whatever you're doing, just trying to get the word out there. Like you need to just stop for a second and think what you're doing. You might get lucky. And that's the thing too about a lot of shops that are just parts changers. And in this situation, you get a code and you, you know, most of the time you can actually fix a car that way. You get an O2 sensor heater code, more than likely it's going to be the O2 sensor that's bad. You sell them all four O2 sensors, it's probably going to fix the problem. And in the client size, they just saved thousands of dollars, right? Because they just know they go to a shop and they're going to get, you know, ripped off, right? Everyone thinks they go to the shop and they're going to get ripped off. And it's crazy. It's a crazy, crazy thought process to have. But then it's like, well, who was wrong in that situation? You know, they spent $500 in O2 sensors, three of them of which they probably didn't need. But it got the car fixed for $500 versus coming to a shop, paying the assessment fee, paying the diagnostic fee, and then paying for the sensor and then the installation probably would have been close to $500. So who, I mean, what's the, what's the right answer here? You know what I mean? Like, is it, is it $500 in parts that you're selling or is it, you know, you're paying for all these people that work here in the city that, and you're paying for their wages to do all this work. And that's what I feel the money should go to not paying for parts that you don't need. You're supporting a big corporate giant and it's like, do they need the money or does the local shop's techs need the money? You know? So that's for me, but in the client's eyes, $500 is $500, you know? And if they can get it for 450 versus the $500 going to a shop, it's like, well, I'll just do that. Okay. Well, hopefully that fixes it. If you have a wiring issue, then it's like, well, then you need the shop. You haven't been supporting them for the last couple of years. And it's like, well, you know, that was kind of on you.
11:00 Michael Wright Yeah. I can get to you in three weeks, right? Yeah. Yeah. Typically, yeah. Two to three weeks. You know, I'm all for customers, sending customers to shops. You know, hey, if this, if you think this might be beyond your automotive knowledge, go to a shop. Our retail customers can go to our retail website and look up shop referrals for the specific job their vehicle needs or they think they might need. And a lot of these shops are ASE certified, they're nationally accredited, they're backed by our nationwide warranties. And I'm all for sending customers to a shop. And twofold, the shop's making money. Those local guys are making money. The technicians, they're spending that money that they make here locally within our community. It's all going towards taxes and fixing, well, should be fixing roads and education and stuff like that. I'm definitely all for the small guy. You know, and you said that the parts go to, you know, big faceless corporation. Yeah, we're faceless corporation, but we started as a family business. You know, it was run by two brothers in the late 50s and 60s. Two brothers, you know, and those two brothers, their sisters and their children have all been on the board serving as a family company. And on top of that, you know, I'm local. I live here locally. You know, my wages are paid by the parts that those customers buy. You know, should they decide to take on the, solve their self to fix the problems themselves? Do they install themselves? We're there for support. You know, we're not automotive technicians, but we're there. You know, a lot of our guys do know quite a bit, you know, and there's always, you know, there's always YouTube and everybody
12:46 Jimmy Purdy trying to fix it on their own. But generally I do try to recommend going to shops. Yeah. And I mean, the way I see it is those aren't, and it's a harsh way to say it, but those aren't my clients. I mean, that's if you want to take it on and do it yourself, God bless you. Yeah. Let bless your heart. You know, don't come to me helping you bail out water when you're sinking. Yeah. And I like the DIYs and it's not just the guy that's like trying to cut ties and like thinks everybody ripping them off. It could just be a dad trying to show his son how to pick something, you know? You never really know the situation when it comes to the DIYs. And they also get kind of a bad rap between everybody. I mean, with everybody's like, oh, you're going to try to fix yourself. Good luck. It's like, well, I mean, there's some good people out there that are just trying to show their kid how to do it, you know, or whatever it ends up being. And that's why, like, I mean, I do the radio show and I try to help the advocacy as well as like promote it. And if I get a call on there, hey, you know, I think I have the biggest problem because Leanne usually runs the office and she hates it when I answer the phone because that's usually how the conversation goes. Well, what code is it? Oh, okay. What card is it? Oh, well, you know, I've seen a lot of issues with this. You might want to check this out. And I start just rambling on as like, as if it was here and I'm diagnosing it, you know, in the shop and yeah, she hates it. But I mean, you never know who it is that's trying to do it. And it could be, I mean, a retired veteran on a fixed income or, I mean, there's good people out there that just don't have the money to pay for the service. And I'm not going to try to pull that out of them. There's enough people around here that we can promote our service to and they can pay for it. I don't need to like go down to your store and like sit in the parking lot and it's our bad, bad mad dog and everyone, what are you doing? You're working on this too. But as far as like recommending shops, that's got to be kind of tough situation to be put in as well to like recommend a certain shop, right? You can't do that. Not a specific shop. I'll, you know, I definitely will tell them, go to our retail website and do some research. Yeah, that's the best. I mean, you don't want to be put in that situation either. I've had enough. I mean, I know I got friends that own shops in the area and it's like, recommend them. And then you hear about what they did. It's like, I thought I knew you.
14:56 Michael Wright What are you doing, man? That's crazy. Why did you do that? You're making me look bad now. You can't really do that. It's ultimately going to come down to the customer and what they're comfortable with and the decisions they make. Cause it's their vehicle. They're the ones that have to drive that vehicle every day. Get their kids to school, get to work themselves, you know, go get groceries, pay their bills. That's their vehicle, their livelihood. Just like myself, I have one vehicle. I'm one vehicle owner and you know, that's my get around. I drive from shop to shop. I rely on that vehicle, you know, so it's, you know, I can, I can see where people can come
15:31 Jimmy Purdy in and be real worried about their vehicle. Oh yeah. Yeah. Especially when they're trying to budget everything and every dollar all the time. Like, oh, I'm just going to save it all.
15:42 Michael Wright Don't step over a dollar to pick up a dime in this place. Get it done right. When it comes to vehicle maintenance, yes, yes, I a hundred percent agree. Don't try and skimp on any of it. You know, don't buy the cheapest oil, don't buy the cheapest filter, don't go to the cheapest shop, you know, maybe not to go to the most expensive shop, but go to the shop that's got the most certifications. You know, the shops that it's cranking out the most work, they're obviously doing good jobs, you know, and again, look for that nationwide warranty, you know, that's backed by a
16:10 Jimmy Purdy wholesale parts dealer. Yeah. Yeah, that's all. I mean, it's all about the warranty at the end of the day. Right. I mean, that's what matters. Yep. I mean, that's my favorite line from Tommy boys. I can, I can sell you shit in a box. Yeah. As long as it says guarantee. Yeah. As long as there's a guarantee on it, you're going to sleep good at night. Guaranteed piece of shit. It's guaranteed. It's still not a bad thing. So that's, so moving into the drive around, I want to go back to that. So that's your job requirement, right? You drive around and you go to the shop, the shop. Now, a
16:43 Michael Wright lot of owners aren't super happy to see you pull in, I would imagine. Get a lot of that? I do from time to time. Okay. You know, it just, it, maybe it's not a good day for the owner, but you know, my parts have failed and here now I'm, you know, I'm the face of the company, so it's my fault, you know, or just, they just had their butt chewed by a customer over something that wasn't even anything they had to deal with. Yeah. It happens, you know, we all have bad days, we all have good days, you know, and I just take it with a smile and hey, I'll see you next week, you know? Hey, next week we'll both be in better moods. It's happened all around, right? You know what, I've been chased out of this shop. Yeah, that's true. Not by me. I didn't know. No, not by you and Leanne, bless her heart. I love Leanne. She just said, hey, today's not, it's not a good
17:30 Jimmy Purdy time right now. It's not a good day. Hey, that's cool. I can learn to read the room. I'm cool. Yeah. And I think that's pretty fair for a lot of other shop owners. I mean, you get to a point where you realize there's a relationship that needs to be had there and you need to make sure that we're all on the same page. Yep. And I feel like the, how do I put this, not the bigger, but the more efficient you get as a shop, you start delegating your time more appropriately and you start realizing this is what I need to be doing. I don't need to be out there stressing, you know, spinning a circle in the middle of the shop floor. I think there's probably a lot listening right now that may be in that position where there are one, you know, owner operator, maybe with one or two techs and they're kind of right in service and they're trying to be tech too. And then they get the sales guy coming
18:16 Michael Wright in. Right. Yep. Yeah. And something I often forget is that I'm not the only rep out there. You know, you've got, you've got your other rep coming in. You've got this rep, you've got the tool guy coming. Yeah. You know, and then you've got to deal with bonehead drivers sometimes, you know, not all drivers are fantastic drivers. You know, some of them drop parts off at the wrong counter. Some of them will bring them to the wrong shop, you know, or just get lost on the way. There you go. Just, it's a, it's a plethora of things. You know, there's, there's other stuff that goes on that I don't see, you know, so maybe, maybe it was just the last parts, the last rep that was in here. You know, Hey, you know, this is the third rep today. You know, can you guys give me a break?
18:53 Jimmy Purdy Yeah. Trying to work. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, how would you sell that situation? You come in and I mean, what would you say to somebody that's in that situation? Maybe listening right now, like, what is the most important thing to taking the time to listen to these different sales pitches? I guess elevator pitch, if you call it. Is there something that you would tell them, Hey, this is important because I mean, just to hear like a breakdown, I mean, for us, it's obviously knowing the different parts warranties, you know, and then the pricing and then how it all works. But you can't just call them over the phone and say, Hey, look, this is what we do. So in that situation, how is that? So you walk, you come into a new shop and how is that, how does that conversation go for you
19:40 Michael Wright on a new client? On a brand new, we call them cold calls on a brand new client. You know, I just, honestly, I just walked in, introduced myself. I had no flyers, just business card. Hey, listen, we deliver to your area. We deliver free. You know, we, you know, all well, I'm, you know, I'm an ag shop. It's like, well, we do act, we, you know, we do batteries, alternators. I mean, or, you know, I, I don't, I don't do automotive, I'm marine. Okay. We sell starters and stuff too. You know, Hey, we want to be dominant supplier in anything we do and a customer, you know, just leave it for the customer. You know, Hey, I'm Michael, you know, I work with so and so I leave a, what we call a phone sticker for the parts guy on the counter working at the store. Hey, he's got great knowledge. He's been in the company for 25 years. He's, you know, worked on his own vehicles. He's, you know, got backed up. We've got drivers here, you know, and leave it in the, in the, in the customer's hands. You know, if I don't hear from the guy in a week or two, pop it again, you know, leave a flyers like, Hey, I just wanted to, you know, just wanted to follow up and see if there was anything you needed. You know, we, we, we've got great parts, great service and, and our warranties are fantastic. We're covered by nation, you know, we're covered nationwide. We've got over 6,000 stores. Our inventory is, is on par with any other parts house you deal with. RG And then another interesting thing, and this will probably be another tattletale, but the trucks that are driving around, don't know who it is. What's the thought process behind that? JL We don't need customers to know who we are. You know, our, our parts and service stand for who we are. You know, that's one of the reasons why we, we are under a different umbrella than our mother, than our mother company. That's about to change just to be more uniform so that everybody in the store looks the same. The same. Yep. Yep. But my, the thought behind that being that, you know, Hey, your, your customer is as, as my driver walks in, drops off parts, your customer doesn't need to know where you're getting them from. You know, they just need to know that you're backed by that nationwide warranty. We're a nationwide wholesaler. We sell great parts at a great price. Tested, you know, we, we get, we get parts from, from factories
21:52 Jimmy Purdy all over the world that are, that are tested and tested and tested. RG And stores everywhere. You were just telling me the other day, what was it number? Was it 5,000? JL Opened 6,000 stores.
22:01 Michael Wright Last Wednesday we opened our 6,000 store in Fort Glenn, Oklahoma. RG Crazy. JL Yeah. RG This is everywhere you go. JL Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, we're, we're actually opening um, uh, DC in Mexico. We're opening a DC in Puerto Rico stores and I believe four stores in Puerto Rico. We have several stores in Mexico right now under our, um, under our partnership company. And you know, we're, we're looking to go, um, soon international, you know, we hope to be in Canada
22:31 Jimmy Purdy and other elsewhere as well. RG Just keep pushing them. Yeah, that works out for everybody. I mean, JL It's nice as that grows, the inventory grows. Cause one of the biggest problems is trying to stock inventory as a shop owner, as a shop, you don't have room. You can't, you can't, you can't. I mean, I'm a transmission specialist. So it's like, if I try to stock my general auto side and I try to stock my transmission rebuilding side, I mean, the shop would be full and I wouldn't have any lifts in here. I'm a warehouse. I, why is this impossible? So be able to have, you know, access to parts quickly like that is the most important thing. I mean, you can get it. I mean, as far as parts delivery and having that stuff taken care of, it's, it's so much easier and more efficient that way. And then of course, not having to wait a day or two days or three days for parts to come in. That's another big issue too. I think the performance side probably still needs a little bit of help, but I don't know if we're going to get into the performance side of parts. I know we've talked about that before, but.
23:35 Michael Wright That's something that we, something we dabble in a bit, you know, but not a whole lot. Yeah. You know, that stuff like that. Tough profit margin on it. It is, it is, you know, stuff like that. People are going to like jegs and summit and stuff like that and they're getting it, you know, dirt cheap and it's direct to your door the next day,
23:52 Jimmy Purdy stuff like that. Yeah. It's not even worth trying. Same with transmission parts. That's, that's the biggest issue I have is trying to find a good transmission parts supplier. It's crazy right now. I just, it's just, it's insane. I've brought this up multiple times. It's like trying to find internal automatic transmission parts. Like Transstar is just not, it's been off the planet lately. I can't get any parts from them. And then you find the part on Amazon and you order it off of Amazon. You're like, wow, that's like 30 bucks cheaper. And it was just today, I had some parts come in and I bought it from Amazon, came in and came out of a Transstar box. And I looked up and it was like the same exact part number and in their box, but just $30 cheaper because I went through Amazon.
24:35 Michael Wright Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I've seen it. I mean, I've, I've Bosch for instance, a Bosch O2 sensor, you know, this, this guy comes up and say, Hey, listen, I can get it from Amazon. It'll be here two days from now. I said, but I have it, you know, and he's like, well, I don't want to pay that much for it. And I, my price matched it for the retail customer and I caught hell from it for, for, for doing it. And, and, but it was the right thing to do. You know, the customer needed it and
25:01 Jimmy Purdy he, Hey, it was a legitimate price. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's gotta be tough. I mean, how do you compete with something like Amazon?
25:08 Michael Wright Well, at the time we were, this was when I lived in the central valley and Amazon has a huge, huge warehouse. I believe it's, it was at the time the largest warehouse on the west coast, you know, and this is something that he said, he could have had it in his door the next day. Yeah. It is one of the hugest distribution centers on the west coast. I don't know if it still is, but it's massive. I mean, I drove by several times and it's just like, Oh my God, what the
25:33 Jimmy Purdy Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. Amazon now is like a global power. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the prices is like, you look up anything on there and it's in there. Just get the part number and look it up and it's like, Oh, there it is. Yeah. Holy moly. Yeah. But, but with Amazon, who's going to warranty it? Yeah. I mean, just like rock auto and all the other ones is like, yeah, that's great and all, but I mean, if it's me, okay, maybe, you know, but still I'm in the warranty I get. I'm, I'm probably just going to get it from you guys. Cause if something happens, I can just put my own warranty and I can pay myself to do the job again. Cause it's parts and labor warranty. It's not just a part warranty. So that's, I mean, that's depends on how much I'm going to, I'm going to save, I guess. Yeah. Like a couple hundred dollars for like a half hour job. I'm probably going to buy that part. Cause I'm not too worried about spending a half an hour to replace it again. But if it's an in-depth part, I don't know, I'm definitely having that conversation. And that's with myself, you know, doing the work myself. And so that's always, it's always fun. And then you always got the price shoppers to come in and they do the same thing. And you know, it's just a tough conversation cause you got to understand like, Hey, look, I'm selling you a service with this part. The parts, just the cherry on top, you know, it's, you're not just coming here, buying this part for me. And then paying my guys two hours put on, no, no, you're paying for all service here. This is like
26:52 Michael Wright a whole thing. Yup. Yup. I believe one of the worst things for this industry has been this smartphone. Yeah. You know, you, you get a customer walk into your shop and ask for a replacement on a battery. Could be a super simple battery on a, you know, on a 95 Chevrolet Silverado, simple battery, not super expensive, not super cheap, you know, easy job. But what the customer doesn't know is that, yeah, he can get it for $50 cheaper from my store, but he doesn't know that you're backing it with roadside assistance, free roadside assistance, just like his insurance company would AAA. It's roadside assistance. It's nationwide warranty. He's covered for the two years or the three years the battery is warrantied for. That's where that extra comes in, you know, plus you got to keep a shop running. You know, you can't keep a shop and maintain technicians
27:43 Jimmy Purdy out on your floor, keep business flowing off of charity. You just can't. And that's the hard thing too with, with parts is always kind of driven me kind of crazy is that as they can call the store and then get the price and their price is what the price we pay. So we really have to promote that we're, like you said, giving them a service. Like, hey, there's a lot more going on. And I kind of like that instead of, I mean, of course I'd always like less money, right? Like everybody would like to have like a commercial discount, an actual commercial discount, like a deep discount. Okay, the battery is 120 for the consumer or the walk in and it's 80 bucks for the shop, you know, because everyone thinks that I get parts cheap too. I get friends that ask me, family, oh, what's your price on it? Like my price is your price. Like it's the same. But I'm going to sell, I'm going to sell you a service on top. And I appreciate that because I think that works better logistically, you know, for the company both ways, because I can sell the part and then I can sell my service on top of it. And I don't have to personally back that warranty. Right. So I can still charge my or pay my techs for their time for their labor. But then I can also, if it fails, pay them again, not out of my pocket. I was like, yeah, that makes sense.
29:00 Michael Wright That makes sense why the parts marked up. Yeah. Or as they're traveling as well. The way your warranty works, as long as they're outside of a 25 mile radius from this shop, they can be towed to another shop and have the service done at the original price of the invoicing
29:15 Jimmy Purdy for free. You know, I've asked too on the, on it, it's like the, you said the roadside assistance, flat tire battery. Now, how does that exactly work? Is that any repair or is it just, if you had a battery place, you get free jumpstart. That's one thing I haven't really looked too much into, but I was always kind of curious about it. And I kind of sell it like that a little bit and I'm, you know, like, oh yeah, you'll have to call the 1-800 number just to verify,
29:44 Michael Wright but most of the time you should be covered for that kind of stuff. So the way our nationwide warranty program works for our partnership shops, our professional shops, we call it the certified auto repair program. The way that works is as long as there's any service of $25 or more done to that vehicle, they're covered by a roadside assistance. And that's 24 months, free roadside assistance, up to two claims a year. They would need to pay ahead and reimburse the backend. As far as installation of parts, those parts are covered for your three years, the 36-36. So the owner of the vehicle gets two claims a year for two years. So you get four basically bailouts for any reason. Yep. And that policy is the same for any of our general repair shops that are replacing batteries that aren't under our partnership. They're just replacing our batteries with two years or better. I see. Yeah. And that goes, that's extended out to any
30:42 Jimmy Purdy shop that replaces one of our batteries. Oh, that's the outcome. Other than that, if it goes to the shop, 25 or more covered two years, that is an extended three years, the extra years just for the part replacement only. So you get two years roadside assistance with that. And then you get the third year. The third year for the part only. It's just the part only. You don't get any more bailouts. Yep. You left your key on or you ran over too many nails already or whatever you did.
31:08 Michael Wright Quit doing that. Typically a customer is going to come in and have another service done within the three years. I mean, yeah, that's the idea. I mean, you definitely don't want to not see a client for two years. Like, Hey, remember I recommended shocks two months ago? Yeah. Well, this is three years later. Yeah. What's going on here? I've seen transmissions last that long. Yeah. Oil changes, you know, to any, any smog shops that do, you know, charge for smogs. Yeah. That customer that comes in just for a smog, as long as that shop is a certified auto repair, they're
31:38 Jimmy Purdy covered for the 24 months of roadside assistance. Wow. And that's with no parts being replaced. No parts repaired. Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah. Learn something new every day, I guess. Yeah. See that? That's a good thing I asked. You got to ask questions, you know? You never know. Speaking of questions, so getting back, let's go back into the beginning of this thing. So getting into the automotive field, it's an interesting, it's all interesting what path you can take to be involved. Right. Yes. And obviously you took the part side. Have you had any experience in the service side as far as repairs other than your basic training? Just working on the vehicles I've owned, basic repairs. But no like, in air quotes, professional. No, yeah, no professional. Technical auto, okay. Nothing like that. But you've moved from being a delivery driver all the way up
32:30 Michael Wright to your position now? As an outside sales rep, we call them territory sales managers. Okay. And I cover a territory of the entire San Luis Obispo County, and I cover about 145 to 150 shops that I see on a monthly basis. Some of them I see weekly, some I see bi-weekly. And again, I'm just out there promoting our parts and service, training, tools and equipment. Right. Anything that the shop needs. Building that partnership relationship. Right. Getting the
33:03 Jimmy Purdy customer to buy into why we're the best parts provider out there. Yeah. Sell the parts. But that's a, I don't know if I call it easy, a little more simple than some of the other paths you can take to be in the industry. Right. So it's definitely a good path to take if you're looking to maybe not get dirty in the industry. But was there a certain aspect or certain thing that drew you into that? Or is it just, you just kind of took the path and you fell there? What's the story behind it? At first, I will agree with you. I do like the fact that I don't have to get dirty. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah. Now if I do, I will. But typically, it's not in my job description. You got your shiny shoes on all the time. Yeah. Okay. Okay. What was the question again? As far as… What drew you into that position? So did you start as a driver and you're just like, hey, where's this going to go? Or did you latch onto that and you're like, I want to get to the
34:00 Michael Wright top of this chain? Well, starting as a driver, again, just looking at what's in the box, learning what parts are. And when I started as a driver, I knew what a spark plug was. I knew what a alternator and a starter was, but I had no idea what a coil or any of that advanced stuff was. Blower motor, any of that. I had no idea what any of that was. So that really drove my hunger for knowledge is looking for that. Also, I started looking at the professional flyers that we were sending out to our shops. What is this? We're giving away a promo. What is this promo? What's this training class? What is all this that we're sending out? We had a guy that was doing it once a week in our store and he was promoted to another store. And I just… I asked the store manager at the time, like, hey, who's going to go out and see his customers? And the store manager had no idea. So what can I do it? And my story is not the typical story, but I was like a fish to water when it came to sales. And if anybody knows me personally, I'm not a talker. Yeah, it's been pretty hard. It's been pretty hard so far. I'm not. I'm really pulling at it right now. But when it comes to sales, when it comes to sales and promoting the business and the stuff that we talk about, it comes naturally. Actually, my dad was store manager for almost 21 years. At the Craiggans? Yeah, he started the old school Craiggan. Yeah. And in fact, it was his passing that opened up my eyes and like, hey, life's too short. I'm not happy in a kitchen. I could be doing something else. And I went to one of his friends who was a store manager at the time. He says, yeah, I'll hire you. You can drive, right? And I'm like, yeah, I got a good license. I drove here. Yeah. I made it here. Yeah. And then that's where that all started. Looking at the parts in the boxes, looking at the sales flyers, asking the shop, the technician, hey, what's that do? What's it for? Okay, well, that's cool. Learning from the installer specialist, the guys behind the counter working the pro counter. You're learning a lot from them. But if anybody's looking to get in, whether they want to be a technician or even a parts guy, you got to start somewhere. And I would say if you have the ambition starting as a parts driver, a delivery driver is a great place. You're in an air conditioned vehicle. Brand new air conditioned vehicle. It's not yours. You can drive it like you stole it. I wouldn't recommend it because we like to try and keep them long as we can. They got GPS on them. But the advancements in the drive, yeah, we've got GPS scanners. We're not always watching you, but those scanners help us find out where, hey, Jimmy calls up, says, where's my parts? We can look at the GPS scanners and hey, he's right down the block. He's, you know,
36:55 Jimmy Purdy he's turning on at the red light now. I don't know. He's been parked in the corner of, what is it right there? Is that a Hooters restaurant? I think there's a Hooters restaurant. What does that guy do? There are no Hooters in North County, Jimmy. I know. I know. I love their wings. They got the best wings. I'm not going to lie. It's like they just have really good food. Yeah. Yeah. But no, that's a good starting point. I mean, you can learn a lot, right? I mean, just by delivering parts, like getting into the shops and then not to say that, you know, get a delivery driver job as a leapfrog, but you never know who you're going to meet, what shop you walk into, who they're looking for. Maybe that's what you're in to get into a shop. Maybe you've been interviewing at different shops and you're not having any luck. I mean, I don't know how that would happen right now in this day and age, but it gets your foot in the door to a lot of, and I feel like maybe 15 years ago, that was like a really good end maybe, right? Yeah. Because a lot of the time you're not going to get to see the owner because he's busy. He doesn't want to deal with kid coming in wanting to get a job or, you know, and he's just pulling his hair out every day, just trying to make ends meet. Like I'm not going to hire anybody, but if you see someone come in day after day after day, you build a relationship, you know? You can't help it. You see him every day and he's bringing you something you need.
38:16 Jimmy Purdy Hey, this guy's employed. I kind of like this kid a little bit. He's employed and he works every day. Okay. You keep bringing me stuff that I need. That's awesome.
38:23 Jimmy Purdy So not to say that you'd be poaching employees from you guys, but you know, if you're looking to get into the field and you can put a year or two years in as a delivery driver, you got to figure out where to go from there. Like I said in the beginning, it's like a retired man's game. And if you're young and you're a delivery driver, I mean, you're not planning on being a delivery driver for the rest of your life. I feel like that's like an unspoken contract, right? Like, okay, I understand. You're probably going to do this for a year or so, and then you're either going to move up or you're going to move out. You're probably not planning on keeping delivery drivers more than maybe a decade. That's typically how it happens. Yes. Right. It's got to be the hardest thing to keep cycling, but it's a fairly simple job. Get in, drive,
39:04 Michael Wright take this part over here. Cool. I can do that. The great thing about this industry is there's always room for advancement. Yeah. Period. Whether you want to stay a driver or not, there's always that room for advancement because like you said, that next driver is up. You know, my counter guys not been poached, but you know, hey, they have other aspirations. Hey, I've only been doing this part-time because I do want to be a technician or I do want to be a shop owner. I do want to be a service writer. Yeah. Or, you know, I'm going back to college, you know, there's always
39:31 Jimmy Purdy that room for advancement and that's what's great about the automotive industry. Yeah. Yeah. Other than the high turnover, but I mean, I'm looking for golden handcuffs on my tech, so it's like, I don't want them going anywhere. I mean, it's the hardest thing in the world to find a tech that'll show up, you know, and then be knowledgeable and want to do good work for his own sake and then realize that he's making other people money with his hard work. I think that's the big realization that techs have is as they start, you know, getting better and better, they start realizing like, wow, that was a $2,500 ticket and I got paid $400 to do it. And they just, their eyes get big and they think they can, oh, I want to take all that. And it's like, oh man, don't, that's such a bad way to view that situation. You know, it's like you'd start chasing the dollar and that's when, that's when you go, I think in the wrong direction. But I mean, obviously in your kind of situation, that was probably the most motivation, right? As you start advancing, you get paid more obviously. I would think you get paid more now than as a driver. I do. I do. I wouldn't do this for driver wages. No. Yeah. So, so obviously the advancement also comes with, with, with benefits and a promotion, but you're not really looking at it as like, oh wow, I'm selling this account, $10,000 account and I'm, I'm taking home 10% of that or 20% or whatever. Then the numbers end up being, but you got to keep that mentality and stay humble, right? Like, oh yes, you're not going to go start opening, you're not going to go open a parts store. No. You know, you're like, oh, I just sold all these accounts. I got, what'd you say, 400 stores or that are in the North County service? Uh, 145. 145. I got a four on there. I don't know what, 145. So you got 145 stores. Like I sold all these guys and you know, they're all 8,000, $10,000 accounts. It's like, oh, I'll just, I'll just open my own parts store and I'll start selling them my parts, right? It's like, why would you do that? And I just take that situation and it's like, that's the exact same thing that some techs think as well. You know, it's like, oh, I'm so I'm doing these jobs and they're, they're billing for three, four or $5,000. And it's like, I could do this on my own. It's like, I don't know how that seems so much simpler than like what I had just explained about a part story. Like, it's crazy. It's like, there's so much that goes behind the scenes that no one realizes when
41:47 Michael Wright it comes to that kind of stuff. Yeah. And I wish these guys that think like that would actually take the time to do the research or maybe ask their boss or another shop owner, you know, hey, what does it take to run a shop? Well, what it takes to run a shop is I pay for your insurance. I pay for the insurance on this building. I pay for the lights, pay for the lease, pay for the licensing, the ASC certifications. I pay the, you know, I pay for the EPA certs and I pay the oil guy to come pick this up. I pay the service counter. I pay my parts. I pay, you know, like, hey, at the bottom dollar, you know, I'm only bringing home 15% of that 2,500.
42:22 Jimmy Purdy Well, hopefully about 12, but yeah. 2020 is like the number, but I don't know if anybody actually does a 20 net. Like, that's crazy, but maybe one day we'll see. Just keep trying. Yeah. When you think about it, 15% is about that 400 he made. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's about where it lands. And it's, yeah, I mean, the problem is there's not a lot of information out there. So he's like, you kind of just got to do it. And I've said that before is like, you get in and you just got to do it. Like if that's what you want to do, you got to do it. But I think doing it for the money is the wrong reason to do it.
42:56 Michael Wright No, definitely not. The guys that are in this business, fixing cars are doing it because they like it. Doing it because they want to keep families safe and on the road, want to get a mother to her children at school, get a mom to work so that she can provide for the family. They want to make sure the cops are staying on the road. They want to make sure that the judge, the people working in the service industry, they want to make sure that they're still able to get to work. You wouldn't be doing this if it were just about the dollar because you could make a lot
43:24 Jimmy Purdy more money doing a lot less work. Yeah. Yes. I mean, I could probably just go sell parts and make a lot more money. I wouldn't say that. That sounds like the easy way out, you know? But maybe that is, maybe you are burnt out being a shop owner and you don't want to get out of the industry. So there is a pivot, you know? You have plenty of retired shop owners that have come to the store that are working for you now. Works out. You don't have to be retired and do nothing, but you would deliver your driver or counter sales. So a lot of people would probably appreciate somebody with a little bit of knowledge in the automotive field sitting at the counter selling them parts. Especially if they have enough knowledge to know, hey, this part is cataloged to fit that car, but I know from experience you need this one. Like, oh, I'm coming back here for the rest of my life now. Like, you're the man, you know? Yeah. And I feel like that old school part sales is like, has gone away because of technology, because of the amount of not having to know what you're doing anymore. You get these guys going to the counter and they just know they can just type in the VIN or the license plate. It'll populate a part. This is the part number. That part number matches that part number. Here's your part. Not like it used to be where you'd walk in, you could have a conversation and it was, oh, there's a VA. They would just know what it is, what you're looking for. Part number is memorized. You don't have that anymore. And that was like only not even 10 years ago you could go in and someone would say, oh, you need this U joint. 231C, that's it for this. Holy, how do you know that? That's impressive, man. They could just look at certain parts and it was like, oh, you're definitely a part specialist. You look at something, you can ID it and actually tell you exactly what part number it is. I feel like that's
45:10 Michael Wright a dying breed. Yeah. My favorite thing to do on the counter was to open a paper catalog. Yeah. Yeah. Because you said you hit the nail right on the head that you just type in the VIN and it's right there on the computer and the computer says it's right. That's what you need. It's not always the case. Sometimes you do have to break down and open up that paper catalog. As I said, my favorite thing to do was open up a catalog. You get these old timers that are like, whoa. They stand back and watch you thumb through a catalog to find their parts and all amazed because you found it and it was the correct part. Well, not everything's on the computer. I love to teach in the other guys at the counter. If you can't find it, measure it. Measure it. Keep a measuring tape in your pocket. Yeah. There it is. I literally have measuring tape in my pocket. A dial indicator, micrometer. There it is. No, no, just a simple pocket measuring tape. You got to measure six feet of hose. Well, hey, here's three. Three. Hey, is that three eights or is that a quarter inch? It's all easy, simple stuff.
46:14 Jimmy Purdy Yeah. No one does it anymore. That nobody does it. Yes, exactly. That nobody does it anymore. Like you said, the phone is the downfall of the whole thing. All the way around. I was just looking up. I was looking up and giving a part number. That's not always going to work that way. It never, well, never, never, but it just never seems to fail. As soon as you're counting on it and you get comfortable, boom, wrong part. Or someone grabbed it and it was supposed to be an A, not a B or whatever. One number off. Those are the worst. One number off and it's a completely different part. Wow. That's crazy. What happened there? And then also you open the box and it's just box wrong. It happens. It happens. Yeah. It happens. Yeah. Humans aren't perfect. Or you put a new, another big gripe too is put a new part on and it's bad out of the box. So you start looking at other situations and it's like, there's just no way to get around that. There's just so much being mass produced right now to say that every brand new part is going to work on your vehicle or fix the problem. It's another important part of taking the time to assess the situation and to make sure that it's a proper assessment that that part needs to be replaced. Because if it doesn't work, you already know you checked everything else. I need another part. Spend three hours looking at everything else, pulling the harness apart, replacing the module problem, ordering more parts and it's still the same issue, same issue. It's like, oh, it was the original part. I just got a bad part out of the box. You can't get away from that. There's no way you can fix that situation because there's just so much of everything. And I'm sure you deal with that a lot. Oh yeah. It's common occurrence. Yeah. You can't get away from it. And you got to make sure that that part you're replacing is the part you need. I mean, that's the bottom line. If it needs an O2 sensor and you put one in and it still says it needs an O2 sensor, well now you're really up a creek without a paddle because you didn't do any testing.
48:08 Michael Wright How do you verify that? If you didn't do it, then- Hey, the code told me that's what it was.
48:12 Jimmy Purdy That's it. And it didn't fix it. And maybe you guys probably deal with that too at the shop, the same situation. Hey, they didn't fix the problem. So do you warranty and give them another one? Or it's like, you need to go to a shop because I can't just keep giving you parts.
48:28 Michael Wright Maybe warranty it the first time. I don't know. It's a tough situation to be put in. Well, funny story with the code reading. My brother owned a 2002 Buickless Sabre and he had a lean code on his vehicle. That's a fun one. Well, he went to our competitor to have the code read. I don't know why. He went to our competitor for the parts. I don't know why. He went to our competitor. I don't know why. He went back to the competitor because the O2 sensor didn't fix it. He threw all O2 sensors at it. Mass airflow sensor. I think a throttle body assembly too. Typically, yeah. That's usually what I hear. All to find out that it was vacuum leaks in his hoses. I said, how'd you find that out? YouTube told me to blow cigar smoke in it. He said, yeah. It just came out everywhere. Vacuum leaks, huh? Why did you go to that other parts store? Oh, the girls are cute. It's probably a Hooters, huh? They don't fix cars there. What did you learn? He's like, well, I guess I should probably come to you. I didn't know everything at the time, but I knew people who knew a lot of stuff. At that time, I was out visiting shops. I could have said, hey, my brother's got a code. What do you think?
49:56 Jimmy Purdy They probably could have told me. Smoke test it. Yeah, give you a little bit more direction. Step one with the lean code for sure. You could have just had one vacuum hose off.
50:06 Michael Wright It's a lot cheaper than 402 sensors, a mass airflow, and a throttle actuator. Yeah. I think that total cost him about $600. Yeah, that's about right. The hoses that he replaced only cost about $40.
50:18 Jimmy Purdy And the real problem with that is that they spend that kind of money, or even if they go to another shop, one of my competitor shops, I don't like to say the competitors because I am the competition, but anyway, they go to another shop and they go to a parts swap shop and they shop a bunch of parts there, right? That bill went from $600 to probably close to $1,000. Let's just round it to $1,000. It doesn't fix the problem. Now they're coming to me, or somebody else is actually going to assess the situation and they're like, hey, the intake manifold is leaking and it's going to be $300 to replace it. They just can't do it because they just spent $1,000 on nothing. I already spent $1,000. I can't spend another $300. How is that my problem? It's not my problem, but you can't say that. You got to be nice. It just puts everyone in a difficult situation because they've spent a fair amount of money. That's not a little bit of money. They spend a good amount of money. And what do they go back and try to get their money back? They're just ready to cut ties and move forward. I can't do it for free, but that's the problem with the parts swapping is that situation. It's like, man, you could have saved yourself so much time and money. We could have built a really good relationship. We could have had a really nice time here, but now I'm explaining to you why you don't do what you do. I just hope they take it as a life lesson. The next time around they're like, and do I discount it? Probably, just so I can really lock in and see that relationship moving forward. Don't go there anymore. Don't do that again. I'll take care of you. It is a good situation to open the door for me, but it's just tough. Part swapping is crazy. It drives me up the wall. Not to say that I wouldn't help, but I get that a lot. People come in and say, hey, so I replaced this, this, and this for this code. What else do you think you could be? Oh my God. I just had a call the other day from a friend of mine doing the same thing. And I think it was for a lien code. It was something like that. Or a misfire. I don't know what it was, but it's like,
52:28 Michael Wright what are you doing, man? Why did you replace all those things? Call me first. Call me first. Codes are tricky. That's why technicians charge for a diagnostic fee. And most good shops will waive that fee if you decide to go with that shop to do repair, because they're making money on the
52:48 Jimmy Purdy repair. And it's just the accessibility of parts and information, like you said, it just makes it so easy for a consumer or a client to go out there and look up real quick, oh, and they got that part in
52:59 Michael Wright stock. I'll just go buy it and throw it on there and see what happens. Oh man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The smartphone, you know, you can price shop, you can go on YouTube and see how easy the job is. Scott the parts guy, the car, Scott the car guy, that, that these, yeah, these, these car guys. I'm all about scanner, danner. Yeah. These, these car guys on TV, you know, like, yeah, I owned a shop for 20 something years. I was like, yeah, that was, you know, 40 years ago. You know, you were only working on fuel injection and, and carburetor and, you know, TBI. Yeah. It's, it's
53:30 Jimmy Purdy like now, you know, nowadays, you know, different. Well, not only just a little different, but you get rusty quickly, you know, and yeah, I mean, all the systems change. You can take an, an O2 sensor, something simple as an O2 sensor. And just in the past decade, how much it has advanced. I mean, you got air fuel ratio sensors, five wires, six wires, like I say, same with mass air flow sensors, bain air. So, I mean, you can just go on and on and on, but how different just the fuel control of, of an engine is, and then you can get into like transmissions and it's like, yeah, you want to open another book? Like, let's have a lot, let's have a conversation. You know, it's like, that's, that's crazy too. And the people shotgunning transmissions is like another gripe I have, because that does fix the problem. If you had a transmission solenoid code and it's like, there's someone is like the dealership, you need a transmission. Yeah, that's going to fix the problem, but it's because they're too, too lazy to take the time to actually, you know, look any deeper. Maybe it just needs a solenoid, maybe it needs a valve body. I mean, maybe it just needs a torque converter. It's like, there's so many other things that it could be. Try flushing it first. I mean, yeah. And I mean, the converter could be bad and yeah, the transmission needs to be rebuilt and replaced at that time, but like you're going to shotgun a whole transmission at it. I'll just, I'll just listen, uh, looking at a post yesterday, but a guy that did that, he had a lost third and fourth gear in a Chevy truck, right? Stay off the freeway. Yeah. So he, yeah, one and two, whatever he's driving around for weeks that I can't get on the freeway. You know, I've got to take the back roads to work. So I'm going to try to fix this myself, you know? So he buys a transmission, puts it in, same problem. Okay. So he puts a whole new transmission in or not new, but used, and he's got the same problem. Well, it ends up being that the speed sensor on the transfer case was bad and that's the output speed sensor that allows the three, four shifts solenoid to activate. And so anyway, that ended up being just a speed sensor on the transfer case is like, holy moly, like to go through all that because you want to tackle it yourself, just go buy a part and put it in. It's like, I don't know. That's just, that's next level right there. That's a lot of heartache. That's dedication and following the wrong steps. That's a, quite a learning experience. What did you learn? Don't have my code scanned. Yeah. Don't buy parts because the code says to. That's for sure. That's definitely not what you want to do. Yeah. That's funny. Well, cool. This has been fun. Yeah. Got a lot of information out there, huh? There's a lot. Hopefully people looking to get in, they can see a different path. Yeah. A little bit of insight behind the parts, you know, the parts and how they get to you. Any other
56:15 Michael Wright parting words? The automotive industry is one of those that we don't have people beating down our door to come work for us in the shop, in the part, in the parts house and the dealerships. We just don't have that hiring pool that people want to go, I want to be nurses. I want to be a computer tech. I want to be an influencer. We just don't have that amount of people that just want to be in this business. Yeah. It's not a lowbrow business anymore. We're not shade tree mechanics. We're not going to rip you off. These guys are highly trained professionals. Yeah. It takes a lot of money to run a shop. It takes a lot of knowledge to run a shop. It takes a lot of dedication and passion to run a shop. And relationships. Yeah. And building those relationships with your customers, with your parts provider, with other shops as well. It's not just, we're not just this working class blue collar, lowbrow. This is definitely a business
57:19 Jimmy Purdy and an industry that's still going to be advancing far beyond electric vehicles. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's not going to be a shortage of work for us. That's for sure. No. You know, the tools will be different. The parts will be different. The vehicles might not have wheels. Yeah. We'll see. But we'll see. But there's still going to be a need for technicians to fix this and fix that. Yeah. I mean, Hey, I got a code red. Can you help me? Yeah. My car won't fly anymore. It's in drive mode. It's stuck in drive mode. I need to fly. I need to get over and I can't do it anymore. Who knows what the next thing, like flight actuators and oh man, it's, I mean, a lot of people are scared of the EVs and what this industry is going to turn into. But if you're with it and you're into it, it's exciting. Yeah. Because it opens new doors. It opens new avenues because you got technicians, just like you said, it's everyone thinks you're just going to be wearing overalls, getting greasy. I mean, that's the heavy duty guys. Those are the diesel techs. Those are the ad guys. They're still out there, but yeah, they're wearing overalls. They're crawling underneath tractors and they're getting dirty and greasy and whatnot. And that's not how the automotive industry is. It hasn't been for years. It's very technical and it's getting more technical. Oh yes. And you talk about not getting dirty. Well, pretty soon here, we're going to be doing the same thing in the shop. You know, when you talk about EVs with no oil, you know, you got the gear oil in the back and whatnot and brake fluid still and coolant, but it's definitely a lot cleaner and a lot more in your head, a lot more thinking that's involved. You're dealing with high voltage. You got to think about how electric motors work, how electricity works, you know, and there's still going to be parts, obviously that need to be replaced. It's just going to be, I mean, I don't know what they're going to be, but they're going to be something. You know, the Priuses have had, you know, parts being replaced and those electric motors for years now, you know, and guys getting smarter and smarter and smarter being able to tear these hybrids apart and replace capacitors and replace certain components in the vehicles. I mean, there's always going to be a market for it. It's just constantly evolving. It's like when the drum brakes went to disc brakes, everyone's scared. Yeah. Well, I'd rather do disc brakes than drum brakes. That's for sure. I've heard that. You don't have any personal experience though, but I do not know. Disc brakes are a lot easier than drum brakes. We'll just leave it at that, right? I mean, yeah, some of the other jobs like timing chains on some engines are definitely a
59:46 Michael Wright little more difficult now, but not for every single thing is going to be harder. So yeah. See how it goes though. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's an ever expanding industry. Yeah. Period. Cut and dry. Yeah. And then it doesn't matter if you want to be again behind the counter or under the car,
01:00:04 Jimmy Purdy turning wrenches. Yeah. Or in the future, laser beams. There's a place where you're going to do laser beam windshield. You're still going to do free windshield wiper replacement if they're lasers. That's yet to be seen. We'll see. Well, thanks for coming. This was fun. Thanks for having me.