MOTOR Products and How to Use Them

By now, you’ve likely heard the legend of Fullbay’s MOTOR integration—how glorious the included tools are, how much time they can save you, how they can help your shop increase its revenue…the accolades go on.

But some Fullbay members have held off. “What’s so great about the MOTOR guides?” they ask. “And even if I did have them, where do they belong in the workflow?”

Well, friends, we have answers. We pinned down Louis Barrales, Fullbay’s Product Marketing Manager, to help us help you. Behold, a product by product snapshot of our MOTOR integration and how you can use it!

Labor Time Guides

Louis broke out the superlatives for this one: “This is,” he says, “your golden estimating tool.” Its industry-standard times for repairs of various makes and models are validation for your shop and your customer when you’re creating an estimate.

“It’s invaluable for planning shop bandwidth and how much actual repair time a job might take, and what that actually adjusts to in cost,” Louis goes on.

Translation: the general time estimate lets you drill down on an estimated price.

We’ve heard about Fullbay users putting the labor time guide to work while crafting MSAs (Master Service Agreements), especially with repeat customers who may obtain newer vehicles during their time with you. (Newer vehicles that you’ll need to learn how to work on!)

Cool feature: It opens up right in Fullbay—no need to have multiple apps draining your device’s energy!

Parts Cross-Reference

Sadly, the parts shortage continues, which means you may often need to find a compatible component rather than one from a particular manufacturer. We see our customers using it as a sort of failsafe; if you just ran out of one part but have several types of another, you can use the cross-reference to identify a replacement part quickly.

This tool can play a big role in reducing costs—finding a less expensive component, for example—but it’s also quite useful if a manufacturer has identified problems in some of its existing parts. Yes, you could wait for a recall or get a vehicle serviced under warranty, but that can take a lot of time. Head for the cross-reference to find a replacement now and preserve your customer’s uptime.

(Your parts manager will also love you for it, as a cross-reference gives them new flexibility to build out and execute an inventory strategy. Trying to lower your spend in that area? The cross-reference is perfect for that.)

Truck Service Guides

These are always fun—digging into them, you’ll find wiring diagrams and service guides that will let you fix just about anything. “There are countless systems across different makes and models, across so many different years, that only a master tech with a lot of years of experience will be able to immediately open a hood and dive in,” Louis says. “But even then, it’s better to have a guide, especially if you see something that’s a little…unique.”

(Come on, we’ve all seen weird little modifications when we pop the hood, right?)

Most of our customers use this tool to reference during the service itself, but we have seen some put it to work during the estimating phase, especially if they’re looking at an unfamiliar vehicle.

We’ve also seen it used as a resource for training newer and younger technicians. Yes, ideally you have a senior tech to guide the younglings in their quest to become Jedi Knights—er, proper diesel techs—but these guides are invaluable for the growing and learning tech.

Auto Labor & Service Guide

Not all of our customers look at this module, but it’s a hybrid between your labor times and your truck service guides centered on the medium- and light-duty vehicles you may come across. Think box trucks and service vans.

“It’s kind of like a Swiss Army Knife for these types of tools,” Louis says, which is how we are going to refer to this module going forward.

Now…these lighter vehicles may not be your shop’s bread and butter, but a lot of our customers look after fleets that include them. You might also be looking after your employees’ daily drivers which probably aren’t 18-wheelers. And let’s be frank; a heavy-duty commercial tech probably isn’t super up to date on smaller vehicles.

It’s a tool for a specific time—and just because you don’t need it now doesn’t mean you’ll never need it. “I have more tools than I can use in one week in my garage,” Chris O’Brien, Fullbay’s COO, tells us. “The reason why is because once a month or once a year I need a tool and it is very, very painful if I don’t have it when I need it.”

In short, keep this on hand for those times when you need it to ensure safe repairs (that might even prove profitable).

Get All This MOTOR Stuff

That MOTOR integration sounds pretty dang sweet, right? You’re probably wondering how to get your hands on it. If you’re not already Fullbay customers, then allow me to point you toward our free demo, where you can learn all about Fullbay itself, the various integrations (including MOTOR), and what it can do for you.

If you are already a Fullbay subscriber and haven’t tried out MOTOR yet…well, learn more about the integration and Fullbay Connect and start reaping the benefits!