Shop Floor Report: June 6, 2026

Trump Tells Automakers to Let People Fix Their Cars

This one got my attention. President Trump sat down with Ford leadership and GM CEO Mary Barra at the White House this week, and the conversation turned to independent repair access. His quote: "They don’t want people to fix their car. I said ‘That’s strange!’" He also met with NADA — the National Automobile Dealers Association — and made it clear he thinks restricting repair access is a problem.

Now, politicians say a lot of things. We’ve all heard promises before. But this is different for two reasons. First, it came directly from a meeting with the CEOs of the two biggest domestic automakers — not a campaign rally, not a press release, a face-to-face conversation. Second, Congress is already moving on this. There’s bipartisan legislation advancing through committee right now that would require automakers to share diagnostic data, tools, and calibration software with independent shops on fair and reasonable terms.

If you read last week’s report, you know the REPAIR Act got gutted — the telematics mandate was stripped out. But this is a different angle. When the White House is publicly calling out the practice and Congress has bipartisan support, the pressure on automakers is coming from multiple directions at once. That’s harder to lobby away.

What this means for your shop: If you’re at a dealership, this doesn’t change your day-to-day — you already have OEM access. If you’re independent, or if you ever plan to go independent, pay attention. The fight for fair access to manufacturer diagnostic data and tools has been going on for years. This is the most political momentum it’s had in a long time. Nothing has changed yet — but the conversation is happening at the highest level, and that matters. In the meantime, keep investing in your scan tool capabilities and stay current on the access you do have. The techs who can diagnose modern vehicles despite the data gaps are the ones who will own the independent market when the doors finally open.

TechForce: The Pipeline Is Only Producing 42% of What We Need

TechForce Foundation released updated workforce numbers this week, and they’re worse than last year. The industry needs 971,000 new automotive technicians by 2028. That’s not total positions — that’s how many new techs the industry needs to fill retirements, attrition, and growth. To hit that number, we need roughly 242,000 new technicians entering the trade every year.

Trade schools, community colleges, and vocational programs across the country are graduating about 101,000 automotive students per year. That’s 42% of what the industry needs. For every ten bays that need a tech, we’re only producing four. The other six stay empty.

The gap isn’t new. But it’s getting wider. Experienced techs are aging out faster than new ones are coming in, and the new ones who do enter often leave within the first two years. The reasons are the same ones we talk about every week — flat rate pressure, tool debt, physical wear, and shops that don’t invest in their people.

What this means for your career: If you’re already in the trade and you’re good at what you do, your leverage is increasing every single year. There are more open bays than there are qualified techs to fill them. That means negotiating power on pay, hours, benefits, and working conditions. If a shop won’t pay you what you’re worth, the one down the road will. But leverage only works if you’re bringing value — stay current on your training, keep your ASE certs active, and invest in the diagnostic skills that shops are desperate to find. The shortage is real, and it’s not getting better anytime soon. Position yourself accordingly.

CTC Modernizes Auto Curriculum for the EV Era

Canadian Technological College announced a major curriculum overhaul this week. They’re adding power electronics, battery thermal management systems, and regenerative braking diagnostics to their automotive program. This isn’t a one-off elective — it’s being built into the core curriculum.

This matters because the vehicles rolling into service bays right now are changing faster than most training programs can keep up. Hybrids are already everywhere. Full EVs are growing every quarter. A tech who graduated two years ago with no EV training is already behind. CTC is trying to make sure their graduates aren’t.

Power electronics is the big one. Every hybrid and EV has a high-voltage inverter that converts DC battery power to AC for the drive motor. Understanding how that system works, how to test it safely, and how to diagnose faults in it is going to be as fundamental as understanding fuel injection is today. Battery thermal management is right behind it — those battery packs have dedicated cooling circuits, temperature sensors, and control modules that need diagnosis and service. And regenerative braking changes how you approach brake system diagnostics entirely — the friction brakes don’t do what you think they do on a vehicle that recovers energy during deceleration.

What this means for your shop: Whether you’re at a dealership or independent, EVs and hybrids are in your service drive now. If your shop doesn’t have a tech who understands high-voltage systems, you’re turning away work. If you’re a tech who hasn’t started learning EV fundamentals yet, start now. You don’t have to become an EV specialist overnight, but you need to understand the basics — high-voltage safety, how the hybrid drive system works, and how to use your scan tool on these systems without guessing. The shops that invest in this training now are the ones that will own that work in three years. The ones that don’t will be sending customers to the dealer.

For You: 4 Diagnostic Tips Every Technician Should Know

I did a video on this last week and the response was big, so I want to put it here for the techs who read the report every Saturday. These are not advanced techniques. They’re not secrets. They’re four fundamental habits that separate the techs who find problems from the ones who throw parts at them.

1. Swap Test. If the suspect part is easily swappable with a known good part — do it. Swap the coil from cylinder 4 with the coil from cylinder 3. Clear the code. Drive it. If the misfire moves, you just confirmed the failure in 30 seconds. This works with coils, plugs, injectors, relays — any non-programmed component. And if you have a known good sensor sitting around and it’s easy access, swap that too. A M.A.F. sensor, a throttle position sensor, a cam or crank sensor — if you can swap it in two minutes, do it before you spend twenty minutes testing it. It’s the single fastest diagnostic technique in the trade and most techs don’t use it enough.

2. Jumper Wire. When you suspect an intermittent wiring issue, run a temporary jumper wire to bypass the suspect section. If the jumper fixes the condition, you just confirmed the wiring fault without spending two hours tracing the harness with a meter. Confirm first, repair second. The jumper is a diagnostic tool, not a permanent fix.

3. Know Your Four Electrical Tests. Short to ground. Short to voltage. Open circuit. High resistance. Every electrical fault on every vehicle falls into one of these four categories. The point isn’t to memorize every step on a flowchart — it’s to understand what the flowchart is asking you to do. When you can read a diagnostic tree, understand the test it wants, and go perform it without following every single step one by one, you save a massive amount of time. You’re not skipping steps — you’re understanding the logic well enough to get to the answer faster. AI can help you interpret data, but your knowledge is the foundation.

4. Basics First. Before you go deep on any diagnosis, check the battery, fuses, grounds, connectors, and fluid levels. Scan all modules — not just the engine. A code in the BCM or ABS module might explain the engine symptom you’re chasing. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a tech get burned by a blown fuse — but it’s too many. Hours into a diagnosis, pulling modules apart, and the whole time it was a $0.50 fuse. Check the easy stuff first, every time.

I broke all four of these down in detail with real examples in the full article: 4 Diagnostic Tips Every Technician Should Know. There’s also a video walkthrough and a podcast episode. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out this weekend.

The Bottom Line

Trump called out automakers on repair access this week — the most political momentum right-to-repair has had in years. The technician shortage is getting worse, not better — 42% pipeline coverage means your skills are more valuable every year. CTC is building EV diagnostics into their core curriculum because the industry isn’t waiting. And four simple diagnostic habits can make you faster, more accurate, and harder to replace. Stay sharp out there. See you next week.