OPINION
Mechanics are key to industry sustainability
By Laura Laker S
ustainability often means reducing our impact on the planet so future generations can inherit a safe healthy place to live, which they can then pass on. Who
wouldn’t want that? Cycling solves so many problems facing society, including environmental ones. These solutions can only exist, however, if the industry can keep people on their bikes. That means backing campaigns pushing for investment in safer routes, but it also means having the staff to keep the wheels turning.
Earlier this year Shimano launched a call for evidence to tackle what it described as a “critical” shortage of mechanics in the industry. Ties van Dijk, Shimano’s advocacy manager, says European customers can face months’ wait for repairs and maintenance over the summer, or several weeks in winter. “Growth is being held back by this problem,” van Dijk says.
“Cycling is about being active, it’s a sustainable mode of transport, it enables those on lower incomes to access the things they need”.
“It can be a good solution and a big problem.” Among the main reasons people stop cycling, after
road safety concerns and alongside the theft of a bike, is a mechanical they can’t fix. Shimano’s forthcoming report will present responses from 25,000 customers, along with its own service centres. This will underline the scale of the problem, as well as setting out some solutions. More than half of large retailers are struggling to find mechanics, and around half to retain them. This, van Dijk says, creates a vicious cycle with shops reluctant to train staff if there’s a risk they’ll jump ship before they’ve repaid the investment. Van Dijk says in the Netherlands 25% of mechanics left the industry last year – and only 10% of mechanics in Europe are now fully qualified. “Those leaving the industry are replaced by unskilled
people,” he says. “We need to solve the skill drain and to make sure we have enough skilled staff coming in.”
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Part of the solution is to improve the prestige of the job, and the career path. Says van Dijk: “If you become a bike mechanic you stay a bike mechanic, there isn’t career development. We need to make the job more attractive, which could mean higher salaries, more opportunities to develop, flexible hours. We also need to look, as an industry, at how we can standardise the curriculum, to have cross-border regularisation.” “There could be new jobs like e-bike mechanic and cargo bike mechanic, that’s something to urge more to the youth in general. In some countries we are unable to get
technical staff, and it’s not just in the bike industry.” Jonathan Harrison, of the Association of Cycle Traders,
agrees the trade needs to boost the prestige of mechanics, recognising the skill and experience it takes to learn the job properly, including to Cytech standards. “It’s a trade qualification,” says Harrison. “It shows professionalism. It shows that [a business has] invested in their staff. It reassures the customer that their bike’s in safe hands, and someone’s done some training to learn not just their way around the bike, but actually what each bit of the bike means and what its function is.”
He points out people don’t expect car mechanics to do a
job cut-price, or to offer discounts, and it should be the same in the cycle industry. “Once we raise it as a profession, guess what? People think of it as a serious career choice, then we can start thinking about upping the pay scale to make it more professional, and for shops to start thinking about increasing servicing, repairs, because it’s actually considered more of a profession. “I’m not saying shops should raise their prices unnecessarily, but it’s having the confidence to say: ‘if you want to go and pay less for your service, go somewhere else. But if you want to get it done to the level, and we’ll do it, it’ll cost you this much’.” In addition, Harrison thinks cycle traders should be visiting schools to help encourage young people to consider a career in the bike trade. Cytech training includes elements like health and safety, consumer legislation and manufacturing
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