Adam Duplin, diesel department coordinator at NVI-Blairsville in Pennsylvania, started learning about truck maintenance with his dad, the owner of a small fleet of dump trucks, in his driveway (and sometimes during road calls). While he grew up immersed in the world of maintenance, he said that’s not a prerequisite to thrive in a shop after finishing the new automotive trade school's six-month diesel program, which saw its first class graduate in late June.
“We can take a student with little mechanical knowledge whatsoever, and develop them into a great entry-level technician,” Duplin asserted.
Read more about NVI and the technician shortage here.
One of these may be Bryce Williamson, a 19-year-old from Daytona Beach, a former football player who left college and a kinesiology degree in sunny Florida to pursue a new career in the Pennsylvania wilderness in April. There is nary a night club in sight, though a Walmart is across the street.
“I’ve never changed even a light bulb before I came up here—the only thing I did with anything is fill up my car with gas,” Williamson admitted. He’s now a lot more confident in his abilities, and when he talks to his grandfather, a truck driver for Walmart, about the profession, he can keep up.
“When he started talking about things back then [before attending NVI], my head would get lost,” he said. “Now, we have a little bit more conversation about things.”
Williamson already learned one of the most important lessons—the ability to do his job correctly directly impacts people on the road. “I wouldn’t want anyone to put his life in danger, so I need to do my job the best I can,” he said.
The diesel technology school also is attracting people burnt out from other trades. Jonathan Lawson from nearby Indiana, Pennsylvania, was a factory worker who assembled, sandblasted, powder-coated, and did any other repetitive task his employers asked.
“I just couldn’t take it anymore,” the 31-year-old said. “I couldn’t stand doing the same thing, just standing in the same aisle.”
He has a jump start on other students because he already learned the basics of wiring and electrical systems at a previous technical school and has worked on residential housing.
Internal combustion, though, gets his motor running. His father was a demolition derby racer, which also has given him an edge. “I’ve been working on those cars since I could walk,” Lawson said. “I was pretty proficient at it, so I decided to go to the other end of the spectrum with diesel.”
One reason is because he loves farm equipment—and has already talked to West Central Ag about a job. Wherever he goes, the positivity of the environment will determine how long he stays. “Morale is one of the biggest things with me because every job I’ve had out at those factories, the morale was just crap,” he asserted. “People were unhappy, didn’t like the management—it takes a toll on you.”
Matt Dalton, 30, also is from the nearby city of Indiana, known for being Jimmy Stewart’s hometown. After high school, Dalton joined the Air Force and was a B-52 crew chief in Louisiana.
“We would tow a jet into the hangar and over a period of two weeks would basically take the jet apart, inspect everything, fix what was broken, lubricate it, put it back together, and send it back out on the line,” Dalton explained. He was essentially the shop supervisor, coordinating with different shops and writing up work orders.
Stewart would likely approve—the highly decorated World War II aviator flew B-52 missions for the Army/Air Force.
Dalton found only “dead-end jobs” after the service, but the grant to attend NVI at no cost may just lead him to a wonderful life.
Despite his military experience with training and managing people, that life will likely be more on the floor than in an office. He prefers doing to teaching.
“I’m just excited to get into a good work environment where I can just do what I love—which is just fixing things,” Dalton said.
Brima Kallon, who hails from Boston, has the most experience, having worked as a diesel mechanic with his father already and having run his own mobile maintenance van. The 35-year-old came to NVI to expand his skillset and be able to work on more complex electronic components as well as get down to the “nitty gritty” of diesel maintenance and become more precise at repairs. “I want to get the letters and numbers, everything right. That’s why I’m here,” he emphasized.
He would prefer working for a fleet but would be fine with an independent shop or even going back to road service.
“Being on the road for me is more fun, and you make more money being on the road,” he said.
What Kallon wants in an employer is what nearly any technician, from trainee to veteran, wants—and deserves: “continuing education, a place that I can look forward to improving me more, a 401k, and family time.”
These students are from vastly different backgrounds, ages, and experience, but the thing they have in common is what they want out of their future employer: respect and fairness. If a shop can’t provide those, they shouldn’t be in business anyway.
