Diesel Techs Earning $160K?! Yep, It’s Real. A Diesel Stories Recap.

When people talk about careers in heavy-duty repair, the same numbers tend to surface: $40,000 a year, maybe $60,000…if you’re lucky.

Ashley Sowell, co-founder of Integrity Fleet Services in Texas, thinks those numbers are outdated and don’t reflect the reality of today’s diesel repair industry. Seriously. Technicians at her shop routinely clear six figures.

Dude. Dude. What exactly is Integrity doing that they earn so much? 

Well, for starters, they do good work. But shop culture and hiring practices come into play, too. 

In this episode of Diesel Stories, Ashley joined Peter Cooper of Ascend Consulting to talk about what it actually takes to build a shop techs want to work for. They hit on shop culture and career development, as well as why the industry as a whole needs to rethink how it talks about skilled trades. 

We hope you’ll listen to (or watch) the entire podcast, but we’ve also collected some takeaways. 

Let’s start with the big one, and the reason you all clicked on this article: tech salaries.

Techs Earn More Than People Think

Let’s be frank: the average person thinks about diesel mechanics and conjures up the mental image of a big burly dude covered in grease and not making nearly enough money to survive. This individual is fueled by coffee and sometimes snacks on tire treads. They don’t talk so much as mumble about where their 10mm went off to.

The bits about the coffee and the 10mm are accurate. Being grossly underpaid, however, is not. 

It’s easy to see why people believe it. Not to push conspiracy theories, but we as a society have spent decades essentially trashing all the trades, pushing at least two generations to go to four-year universities under the guise of getting better-paying white-collar jobs. Heck, even the Bureau of Labor Statistics — which has been the go-to place for salary information for millions (including us) — confidently states that diesel techs make about $60K per year. 

So yeah. People think the trades don’t pay.

Anyway, the techs at Integrity Fleet Services average between $120,000 and $160,000 annually. Peter, for his part, hardly batted an eye at those numbers; instead, he recalled his four-bay shop in a two-street Iowa town where the average technician pulled in $80,000. 

(Side note: Our friends at WrenchWay have looked into the tech pay discrepancy and even have an entire page dedicated to presenting more accurate technician salaries. They quote over $80K for diesel techs, too.)

Happy Technicians Are More Profitable

So how, exactly, are Ashley’s technicians bringing in that much cheddar? They’re undoubtedly good at what they do, but they’re also happy where they work. “Happy, efficient technicians are very profitable technicians,” Peter observed. 

(It’s true! There are studies! Happy workers are more productive!) 

The happy tech isn’t just going to be more willing to go the extra mile or throw in some overtime. Productivity in general tends to go up, and the customer experience improves too. 

And where do happy technicians come from? Shops with good cultures. 

“If you have a bad culture, that’s gonna cost you customers,” Ashley observed, noting that an unhappy employee is ultimately going to drive people (and revenue) away. Look, someone super unhappy with their job is not going to be Suzie Sunshine…to anyone. And if that person is in a role where they need to interact with people, whether it’s customers, vendors, or fellow employees, they will eventually start to push folks away. 

“If you have a bad culture and your people have bad attitudes,” she concluded, “that’s gonna cost you money in the end.”

A Good Shop Culture Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive

During the conversation, Ashley made an interesting point: a great shop culture doesn’t require a big budget. Even an operation running on a shoestring budget can make people feel valued.

And look, that’s really what shop culture comes down to: showing people they’re valued, and that they’re part of something. Something as simple as bragging rights is a good place to start. The Integrity crew started out with a kingpin that they would hand to techs who had done well; each winner would sign it. As it got passed around, new winners signed over existing signatures. 

“It started the trend of getting people involved and caring about what they do,” she said. “[It shows them] that they matter to the company too, because you’re setting that time aside specifically for them to showcase them and show them that what they’re doing matters.”

Low-cost culture boons Ashley has used: 

• Certification raffle entries.
• “Tech-of-the-month” championship belts (using a real heavyweight belt!).
• Praise for good work and good customer reviews. 

Yes, monetary compensation is great, and as a shop brings in more revenue, rewarding employees with things like catered dinners and new cars is great fun for all. But consistency and recognition are the bedrock of shop culture, and those don’t have to be monetary at all. 

Above all, shops should celebrate the successes of their employees. “Every win is worth mentioning,” she said. “It’s very difficult to make time for the positives, and we just have to make that a habit.

But Wait, There’s More

While those were some of the highlights, the conversation covered several other topics, including:

• The industry’s technician pipeline problem (and how to start solving it). 
• Why word-of-mouth reputation matters for recruiting techs.
• Creating career paths and leadership training for technicians.
• How Integrity Fleet Services supports continuing education for their techs. 

It’s an interesting conversation, one well worth listening to if you have about half an hour to spare. Catch the full episode on YouTube to hear the rest!