They Don't Know What They Don't Know

Many, many years ago I wrote an editorial for the Michigan Garage Key magazine that contained the same title as this mornings commentary. Strangely it dealt with the same issue we are going to discuss this morning, mechanic certification.

As I hope you will remember, two weeks ago I began a short series on shop and mechanic licensing. The first commentary dealt with shop licensing. Today we will talk about the people who get their hands dirty repairing the fleet.

A law that only licenses repair facilities is useless without also certifying that the technicians working on the car actually know what they are doing. When Michigan passed their auto repair law in the mid-seventies the entire repair industry was in an uproar. Techs were afraid they couldn't pass a written test and would therefore not be allowed to practice their trade. Mechanics that had been in the business for years felt they knew everything there was to know about the automobile thus they felt they shouldn't have to pass any test. Most didn't realize that technology was rapidly changing and that they actually didn't know what they didn't know.

Legislators writing the rules were also a little apprehensive. They feared that too many people would end up on the unemployment roles if the certification tests were too difficult. Thus government wanted the tests to be fairly simple. This was pretty silly. Why have a test if it wasn't tough enough to prove what the technician knew about repairing cars. What was also funny was the fact that a large number of technicians had already taken the ASE tests and passed them, but the state would not recognize the ASE test for state certification. Regardless of which state is running a certification program, passing the ASE test must be counted for state certification. ASE after all is the true test of technician competency.

It took a few years for Michigan to iron out all the kinks in their technician testing program, but in the end it is as good a program as can be found in the country. If technicians have passed the ASE test they don't have to take the state test --- although they still have to pay for it to receive their state certificate. Hey, what can I say, that is the way government operates. The state tests have also been updated from time to time to reflect the changes in technology. Plus many of the certification categories require retesting from time to time.

Many of you will think that going through the hassle of working with government to develop a technician certification program is not worth it. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Prior to shop licensing and mechanic testing, auto repair was the number one source of complaints heard at the capitol in Michigan. Now the state has the ability to penalize a technician for anything he does wrong. He can be put on probation. He can lose his license. He may even have to pay a financial penalty. With this hanging over their heads technicians are more careful when repairing a vehicle.

If the repair industry wants respect from the motoring public it only makes sense that they should have licensing and certification programs. You wouldn't go to a doctor who wasn't licensed. You wouldn't trust an attorney who hadn't passed the BAR. What other measuring stick do you have to prove that an auto technician is worth his salt if he doesn't have some way of proving he knows what he is doing. ASE testing is the finest system of testing a technician's knowledge as there is today, but ASE cannot penalize a technician for faulty or fraudulent repairs. That can only happen if you have state certification.

There are only two ways to establish technician certification, let the government do it or the best way, work with your legislators to establish a good program that is fair to all.

Dennis Liphardt  
Email: denlip@mac.com
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