LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Many people are trying to avoid public places as much as possible during this pandemic, and that's led to the rise of mobile services.
From food to alcohol to your laundry, most everything these days can be delivered right to your door, and that list now includes a car mechanic.
Most drivers have been there before, when you get a flat tire or your car starts making a strange noise and you have to take it into the shop to get checked out. But, at a time when people are trying to avoid leaving the house, there's at least one company willing to send a technician to you, and they're also looking to hire more mechanics.
When Lew Gordon recently got an oil change, the technician told him his Toyota needed a belt replaced. But because of the pandemic, Gordon didn't feel great about taking it into the shop.
"In this time of COVID, I don’t wanna be hanging around a repair room. I don’t want my car to be out of my sight for days. Even if I wasn’t thinking about myself sitting at the dealership, my wife, our friends, we’ve done a really good job of isolating and mask-wearing and these things. And why toss it aside?" said Gordon.
So instead, he searched online for a repairman who might be willing to come to him. That's when he found out about RepairSmith.
"I didn’t know this was a thing here in Las Vegas," said Gordon.
RepairSmith provides mobile mechanics and the Mercedes van they use as their garage on the go, with most maintenance and repair jobs getting done right in your driveway.
"I always try to make it a point to show the work that's been done because, in a normal shop setting, you can drop your car off and you won’t see it for seven hours. Well, I can do the same job and it goes by so fast because you’re not waiting on anybody else. Nobody’s in front of you," said Andrew Sneed, a repair specialist with RepairSmith.
"When we set out to build the most convenient form of car repair, it turned out to be the safest because we built a very low-contact experience from the beginning," said Joel Milne, C.E.O. of RepairSmith.
Milne says the mobile model allows customers to have as much or as little contact with technicians as they want.
"If a customer just wants to stay in their home, leave the keys on the tire right before our guy rolls up, they can just talk on the phone and explain the situation and our technician will work via phone from inside the house to the driveway. If they want to come out and stand in the yard and talk from a distance, that’s fine too," said Milne.
Milne says RepairSmith has seen significant growth in demand during this pandemic, and as a result, he's hoping to hire 10 more mechanics in the Las Vegas area as soon as possible, and 25 mechanics in the next year.
"They get a brand new Mercedes vehicle with brand new tools. They get to drive around and interact with customers, so they become more customer-facing than you would be in the back of the shop. And, they get to be outdoors and service about four customers a day. So, we think it’s a great work environment and, of course, you have great benefits, great pay and we even have a signing bonus," said Milne.
Since RepairSmith technicians work alone most of the time, you need at least three years of recent car repair experience in order to be considered. But if you're hired, you can expect to be paid between $20-$30 per hour.
If you're interested in applying to be an automotive technician with RepairSmith in Las Vegas, click this link.
If you want to learn more about how RepairSmith's mobile mechanic services work, click this link.
