From lifts to diagnostic equipment, tire changers and even basic wrenches, tools play an important role in the life of a repair shop. They can be some of the most important assets your business owns. They’re used every day — often all day — by your employees. And they’re essential to getting the job done and serving your customers.
Having better quality tools can come with many advantages. However, there are always trade-offs. Cost is the big one. A new piece of equipment is an added expense for a business that has to make sense financially. Resistance to change and uncertainty of how a new tool will perform are other reasons that many businesses stick with older or potentially outdated tools. Even so, the investment and disruption may be worth it.
Here’s what to know about the benefits of better tools and whether it may make sense for your shop.
Workplace Safety
With today’s strict regulations, high medical costs and frequent lawsuits, workplace safety is a high priority. Older tools and equipment are reliable and safe — until one day they aren’t. Everything has a lifespan, including automotive tools, and using a piece of equipment past its prime carries the risk of injury to a technician or damage to the shop or a customer’s property. Better equipment has the advantage of being made with higher quality materials that are less likely to fail under pressure. Newer and higher quality tools may also come with more safety features your current tool line-up lacks, such as machine guards and emergency shut-offs.
Financial Savings
While it’s absolutely true that better tools have a higher cost upfront, aftermarket businesses that purchase them may also save money in the long run. Cheaper tools wear out and break more frequently than better ones, meaning that shops will need to replace them more often. Better tools wear longer and break less frequently, leading to savings over time. Additionally, the tools and equipment owned by your shop are assets that add to the value of your business. If you decide to sell, need to obtain a loan or file an insurance claim, the higher asset value will count positively for your business.
Lasting Value
Better tools are often considered a valuable investment and, in many ways, that value can last a long time. High quality tools often come with a good warranty, meaning that if they do break or a defect becomes apparent, you can get them replaced or repaired without an additional cost. Some of these warranties cover tools for up to five years or more. Since manufacturers offer such warranties, they often make more reliable and durable tools to start. Such tools can have a reputation that makes it easy to resell or repurpose them years after you bought them, as well.
Ease of Use
While there are exceptions, it is often true that you get what you pay for with tools. Some bargain tools can just be difficult to use, whether due to cheaper materials, poorer design or less attention to the finishing touches. Technicians often find that higher quality tools have more thought put into them. Lightweight designs, ergonomic and non-slip handles, interchangeable parts and multiple functions make many top quality tools easier to use overall.
Shop Productivity
Not having the right tool for the job can mean more broken bolts, stripped screws or even hand and wrist injuries. And it’s the kind of problem that can take the book time for a job from minutes to hours. Even a tool that does the job (but doesn’t do it well) can be a drain on a shop’s overall productivity. If a technician has to struggle with an old or outdated tire changer or wheel balancer, each service will take longer to perform and fewer services will be able to be performed within a day. With better equipment, individual services will go quicker, which may translate to the shop being able to complete more jobs per day, increasing productivity and revenue.
Employee Satisfaction
Besides their downsides for the shop and the business, cheap and outdated tools can also have downsides for your workforce. They may add to a technician’s daily frustrations, complicate performing routine or complex services, impact the ability to meet shop expectations or increase the risk of mental burnout or physical injuries. Such issues can lead to lower job satisfaction and make it harder for your shop to retain valued employees, which is already a challenge in the industry. Better tools may help here, too. Frustrations are minimized, services go smoother, workers feel better throughout the day and business at the shop runs smoothly.
Protecting the Tools You Rely on
Better tools have many benefits in today’s busy repair shops. The added value, safety and productivity benefits alone are often enough to justify the upfront investment.
Yet bargain or investment, whatever tools you have should be protected with insurance. That’s especially true when you make the move to upgrade tools to benefit your workplace and your business.
The Lockton Affinity Aftermarket Insurance Program offers a unique combination of policies and limits that can protect your automotive aftermarket business in ways competitors do not. Property coverage is available that includes Business Income with Extra Expense, helping protect your building and its contents, including if an emergency were to cause disruptions to your regular operations.
Our tailored coverage options also include Employee Tool coverage, with limits starting at $100,000 on premises and $10,000 off premises and in transit, helping you protect the tools that make your business run, no matter how and where your employees use them.
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