Since the beginning of May many associations and automotive groups have been hosting their trade shows and seminars. They’ve been a marvellous success for the tradesperson, writes IAME President Peter Blanshard.
There were once again fantastic reports about the information and show and shine at the Brisbane Truck Show. This event is a showcase of the heavy-vehicle industry’s best of the best. Every time this event is held, it gets great acclaim and an even stronger following.
SEE ALSO: Autocare 2023 a success
The IAME also had a brilliant seminar for our AATR (Australasian Automatic Transmission Rebuilders) Division. This year was held at Crowne Plaza on the Gold Coast, which has been fully renovated and is an outstanding venue
for a trade show and seminar.
Our two American presenters have never failed our division, and each time they are invited they overwhelm the participants with their technical expertise and knowledge. Our seminar has really changed, with a far bigger flavour around diagnostics and tips and tricks. To back up our US presenters we had Garrett Turbo and PJD Training discussing turbo diagnostics and EV hybrid insights. The whole two-day seminar really had depth for any workshop, not just those focused on transmission rebuilding.
It’s a wealth of knowledge with over 860 pages of electronic notes and supporting documentation. As one US presenter said, “The value of the ticket was obtained just in the notes and the rest of the weekend’s tutorial and trade show was basically free.”
To impress US presenters who do this week to week is quite a feather in the cap or AATR. For more information on our
AATR Division and upcoming seminars visit here.
Acronyms aplenty
More details of the Mining and Automotive Skills Alliance have been announced. It’s an independent industry-led organisation established by the Australian Government to provide industry with a stronger, more strategic voice in ensuring Australia’s Vocational Education and Training (VET). This organisation operates as a jobs and skills council and the Mining and Automotive Skills Alliance will have a Strategic Workforce Advisory Panel (SWAP), one for mining and one for automotive.
In addition, there will be Technical Advisory Groups (TAG) established to support the recommendations made by the Strategic Workforce Advisory Panel. In my time at the IAME I have seen Industry Skills Councils come and go in various forms.
Where we originally operated under ATA, then moved under MSA and then segregated to create our own group known as ASA, followed by operating under PwC with Industry Reference Committees (IRC) through to now AUSMASA. I really hope that this new structure can keep pace with the ever-changing needs of our industry.
The knowhow
I was discussing the visionary needs of a business owner or practitioner with a contact from a university in the UK. The feel for a well-educated, or in fact new, practitioner is that they need to possess the new skill set known as CASE.
The ‘C’ stands for ‘connectivity’. Obviously we have vehicles today that communicate with the OEM and have telematics in times of accidents or distress. But this will grow. In the future, we will have vehicle-to-vehicle communications, vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, and we will have basically vehicle-to-anything communications such as a connection via Bluetooth to a jogger or pedestrian waiting to cross the road.
The ‘A’ is basically for ‘Anonymous Drive’ for advanced driver aids, including ADAS and advanced driver fatigue sensoring, which is directly linked to the connectivity of a vehicle. The ‘S’ is for sharing.
This may not be connected sharing of data, but the ability of a practitioner to share or download everything happening in a motor vehicle, store it, and then put it back in when the repair is complete. The ‘E’ is the power source: ‘electrification’. In my last article I wrote about hydrogen as a power source, but obviously all the electronic communication and sensors will require additional power over and above that of yesterday’s 12-volt battery, so even if the main power plant is a hydrogen-burning engine, we will still require electrification of the vehicle just to drive the onboard systems.
I don’t think anybody really knows how long it will be before you must engage in complete knowledge of CASE systems, but it certainly isn’t too far away.
Mind your language
I have also learnt there is a whole new acronym for our OEM and car sales marketing: VUCA. VUCA basically doesn’t effect us very much in the RS&R market, but it refers to:
- ‘Vulnerability’ which is economy drives effective car sales;
- ‘Uncertainty’ which is created in
a purchaser’s mind about a car’s technology (however, from am OEM’s return on investment, it’s about how long a certain facet of technology is going to be current for); - Complexity. Everybody loves a high-tech motor vehicle, but it gets to the point where the complexity starts to worry the user. It’s probably also the driver of our need for CASE; and
- Ambiguity. Obviously, with things such as driver sensors, driver aids and mode of power plant, a consumer may not have total understanding. Therefore, there is ambiguity from one motor vehicle to another because of the way we describe things is not generic. It’s quite individual and therefore hard to compare one vehicle directly to another.
Keep an EYE out
It’s obvious there’s no guarantee any of these new-fangled acronyms will have a total bearing on our training needs or direction in the manufacture of a new car, but I can’t help but think there’s quite a bit of truth in what I have been advised. It’s also been just recently I’ve heard some EVs are not making enough noise at low speed in either forward or reverse.
This is obviously an OH&S concern in our carparks and workshop environment. Some manufacturers go out of their way to ensure the audible noise is quite apparent where some vehicles don’t make any noise at all. I’m quite sure there is an opportunity to upsell a customer to a reversing beeper to ensure their vehicle offers the best pedestrian safety.