How four-day weeks help maintenance technician retention

With vehicle repair operations desperate to attract talent, and that talent looking for a better work-life balance, more and more shops are trying out four-day work weeks. And they’re not alone. The American Psychological Association’s “Work in America Survey” found that 22% of employers offered a four-day work week in 2024, up from 14% in 2022. And in the same study, 80% of respondents said they thought they’d be happier and just as effective with one less day at the office.

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Technicians appear interested in shorter work weeks, too. In WrenchWay’s 2025 “Voice of Technician Survey,” almost 1 in 3 respondents preferred working four 10-hour days. And when Fleet Maintenance canvassed technicians at Rush Enterprises’ Tech Skills Rodeo, 70% were interested in shorter work weeks as well.

For shops who have leveraged a four-day schedule, some of the benefits include:

Increased shop throughput
Longer business days
Increased technician morale

Meghan and Erick Bock, co-owners of Bock Auto, found this to be true when they swapped to a four-day week in 2022. The couple started by running six days a week since taking over the Amagansett, New York repair shop in 2015.

They soon switched to Monday-Friday when they noticed that Saturday wasn’t bringing the shop much business anyway, they told our affiliate Ratchet + Wrench. This allowed them to spend more time with their three young children. Then in 2021, the Bocks tested their four-day schedule on a rotation, so each technician would have one two-day weekend and the rest a three consecutive days off. Having found success there, the couple transitioned the entire shop to the four-day work week.

Each week, the couple’s shop is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Thursday. The entire shop shuts down from 12 p.m.-1 p.m. for lunch.

With this schedule, technicians can still exceed 40 hours a week, with A-level techs expected to bill 13-14 hours per day. But both employees and customers love the new schedule, according to Meghan Bock, who added some techs said they don’t know if they could ever go back to a shop with a “normal” work week. The shop also reported sales have continued to increase year-over-year.

Bock’s advice to those considering four-day work weeks? “Do it and don’t look back,” she asserted.

Tweaking the work week

This schedule may be ideal for auto repair, but can it work for diesel shops as well?

Bascom Truck & Auto, which provides light truck and tractor maintenance, offers a four-day schedule for the night shift. They work 3 p.m. to 1 a.m., Monday-Thursday. The shop is closed on weekends.

“We wanted them to have a full 40 hours, but also didn't want them to have to start their work week on Sunday night,” said Mandy McWilliams, VP of Finance at Bascom Truck & Auto. “Thus, a four-day week was born, with no weekends.”

This allows the family-run shop to close on Friday evenings for religious reasons, allowing the Bascoms to honor their faith and giving their techs more time off.

The layered schedule does require some coordination, said Mike Bascom, general manager, with some techs finishing what someone else started due to shop space or time constraints. But otherwise, he didn’t note any downsides to having part of the shop run on a four-day work week.

One thing to note is that Bascom Truck & Auto usually hires its new techs to the night shift first, then allows them to work up to the day shift if they want. While they did consider making the day shift run on a four-day schedule as well, they ultimately decided against it.

“That could work well for some shops, especially if they wanted/needed to cover weekend shifts, but it didn't work well for us,” Bascom said. “We have people who choose to stay on nights for the four-day benefit, so offering that also on days took away that incentive for remaining on the night shift.”

As the schedule stands, the four-day week for the night shift is helpful for techs looking for more time to pursue their personal hobbies and reduces the commute time for those who live far away, Dick Bascom, the company’s founder, said in a webinar in February.

Shorter weeks at larger repair vendors?

But the four-day workweek hasn’t only paid off for smaller shops. At Rush Enterprises, Victor Cummings, VP of Service Operations, said that some locations allow four-day work weeks by request.

Cummings noted that “there is no harm or foul with [setting a four-day schedule]. In fact, often it can create greater efficiencies.”

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For instance, he said that when a technician is digging into a complex diagnosis or a heavy engine job, having a longer workday can let a technician finish a job in one day instead of two, creating a positive impact on dwell time. Plus, four-day schedules can have a positive impact for the technician.

“Ultimately, for me, it started by trying to accommodate the technician to make [Rush] a more appealing place to work,” Cummings said. “They wanted to work fewer days, put in the necessary hours to have a longer weekend, and [create] a different dynamic in their home life.”

And the four-day week gives Rush some benefits, too. They let the company schedule more work hours in the day, generate more capacity with the tech, and have some locations stay open later.

That said, Cummings did say that having techs on different hours means that managers need to schedule work carefully. Especially if a shop is using some of their 10-hour guys for a second shift. In that case, managers need to ensure the shop is still properly staffed on the fifth day, and that it’s not over capacity when techs from both schedules clock in.

Plus, “[It is important to] schedule the appropriate back counter and administrative resources to manage the higher tech counts on the days that you have the overlap,” Cummings added. “It does require some creativity and awareness to ensure that there's a proper level of administrative support for the technicians.”

Is a four-day schedule right for your shop?

All of this might sound pretty good for a shop, but before you lock your doors early, it’s also worth noting that both Bascom Truck & Auto and Rush had technicians working on both five-day and four-day schedules. Neither company fully closes on Friday so that they don’t lose out on a full day of revenue.

Knowing that, it could be harder for a smaller shop to run a four-day schedule, Cummings said, as they might not have enough people to fill the support-staff roles technicians would need throughout a 10-hour day. That is, unless service advisors and back counter folks start working 10-hour days as well, or one person takes over both roles in the evening.

Still, Cummings added that shops can’t overlook the benefit of four-day weeks for technician retention, especially for young techs starting or growing their family. To those techs, that extra day off is “invaluable” he stated, and makes all the more difference considering how little effort it takes for the shop to provide that benefit.

“Quite often, when one is focused on tax retention or reducing turnover, it does require some sort of financial investment commitment,” Cummings said. But four-day weeks don’t require that. Instead, “It's an item where you can provide greater value to your employee without even having to make a financial investment.”