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Episode #4: Building Rolling Wrench Mobile | Bruce Oliver
83 Plays19 days ago
Episode 4 is live with Bruce Oliver from Rolling Wrench — a true mobile mechanic who’s built his business through hard work, real-world experience, and the drive to do things his own way.
In this episode, Bruce shares his journey into the automotive industry, what pushed him toward the mobile mechanic path, the lessons he’s learned running Rolling Wrench, and the realities of building a business on your own terms. From shop life to going mobile, we dive into the wins, training, and business mindset it takes to succeed in this industry.
If you’re a mechanic, business owner, or someone looking to break into the mobile auto repair world, this episode is packed with insight, experience, and motivation.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy the episode.
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Transcript
Introduction and Small Talk
00:00:21
BEN DELLARIA
All right, everybody, what's going on? Today, episode four is with Bruce Oliver from Rolling Wrench Mobile. What's going on, Bruce? How's your day?
00:00:29
Bruce
Yeah, doing all right so far. How are you?
00:00:31
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah, it's your day. I don't know, man. Just like I was telling you before, just dealing with that ah roaming dog in the neighborhood. feel bad for She's old, very old, and she definitely deserves a little more care.
00:00:39
Bruce
What?
00:00:44
BEN DELLARIA
So we're hoping that... ah He'll take the opportunity to let us take her in and he'll relinquish her to us, but we'll see. What about you? Today's your day off, huh?
00:00:54
Bruce
Yep, taking the day off.
00:00:56
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah. Must be nice to finally get to that point to be able to take a day off anytime you need.
00:01:02
Bruce
Yeah, i've I've done it a few times, but it work's been sporadic most of the time, so I just kind of work on Fridays most of the time. but
00:01:12
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah. But you haven't ah you haven't been in business very long, right? About a year? little Less than a year?
00:01:18
Bruce
July, so this day I think strep ten months.
00:01:20
BEN DELLARIA
Almost a year. Cool. Awesome. Well, ah Bruce, tell us, give us a little bit of backstory.
Bruce's Automotive Background
00:01:27
BEN DELLARIA
Where did you come from? You know, I got a little bit of a story from you, but let the listeners know where you came from and what's your background in automotive.
00:01:35
Bruce
I never went to school for it. Out of high school, I kind of jumped around different jobs from restaurants and factories and different stuff. And then I got the opportunity to work with my dad.
00:01:47
Bruce
My dad's been a mechanic his whole life. And so I kind of learned under him for a few years. And
00:01:57
Bruce
then he ended up leaving that job and I stayed there a while. And then In 2008, I got the opportunity to work with him again. so I took went to work there.
00:02:09
Bruce
um Stayed there too long. Got stuck doing motors and transmissions. Probably had, in the seven or eight years I was there, I probably did two or three check engine lights.
00:02:24
Bruce
And so I fell way behind. Fell way behind.
00:02:26
BEN DELLARIA
Oh, wow. Yeah.
00:02:30
Bruce
And then met my wife in 15. We got married and decided I needed to do better. So from September of 15 to September of 16, I moved my toolbox five times
Training and Skill Enhancement
00:02:46
Bruce
in a year before finally found a a good shop.
00:02:46
BEN DELLARIA
Jeez.
00:02:50
Bruce
And yeah, about that time when I found Scanner Danner, and that really helped a lot.
00:02:59
BEN DELLARIA
Oh, yeah. Yeah, his Scanner to Inner Premium is something really that most people need to really look into. It's great.
00:03:06
Bruce
So for from 16 19. I did the scanner downer thing and then I went to vision twice.
00:03:16
BEN DELLARIA
Oh.
00:03:17
Bruce
Went to Pennsylvania for that Super Saturday twice.
00:03:17
BEN DELLARIA
Oh.
00:03:22
Bruce
And went to Seattle for a they had a AST I think is what it's called up there went up there twice. And so just did a lot of training for three or four years to get to where I what i was doing.
00:03:38
BEN DELLARIA
Where you are now.
00:03:40
Bruce
Yeah.
00:03:41
BEN DELLARIA
That's pretty cool. like I mean, i you know I knew a little bit of your history just from what we've spoken about, but like all those events, there's so many people that haven't gone to any events. Now, I've never been to any big event.
00:03:53
BEN DELLARIA
I didn't learn those until um I got on jeff Jeff's podcast, the Jada Mechanic podcast. And I was supposed to go to ASTA last year, um but we canceled. My daughter's, oh, I'm getting married. Oh, crap.
00:04:09
BEN DELLARIA
So we've been saving ever since she told us that, which was last year. ah i don't know, September or not September. It's in September.
00:04:19
BEN DELLARIA
So before that, so I'd say June or July or something like that, she told us. And I started saving and realized like, I got to save a lot. So we're really hoping to be able to go to ASTA this year, ASTA.
00:04:25
Bruce
yeah
00:04:31
BEN DELLARIA
We want to get to these training events because we need, it's, they're so good and everyone loves the ASCA one. Um, I know tools is going on this weekend in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Um, cause Jeff's there, um, and a bunch of other guys that are, uh, in the industry. And usually, ah Paul Danner is usually there at that one. He was last year. Um,
00:04:55
BEN DELLARIA
because they were doing like tool giveaways and things like that. um But yeah, I really want to go. So that's kind of cool that you've gone gone to those types of events. um
Work Experience and Job Dynamics
00:05:05
BEN DELLARIA
So your dad didn't own his own shop. He was just ah working for people and you got jobs with him.
00:05:11
Bruce
Yep. Yep.
00:05:13
BEN DELLARIA
And...
00:05:13
Bruce
Yeah.
00:05:13
BEN DELLARIA
ah
00:05:15
Bruce
he's He's not a... He's not a dyad guy. He's a front-end guy, and so I kind of fell into that. And my oh idea is i had no idea that even park stores put on any kind of training things.
00:05:24
BEN DELLARIA
Okay.
00:05:30
Bruce
and and so i And there's still a lot of guys. I would say that I was... one of those that thought I knew how to do stuff, but I mean, you just, you just don't know. That's like Keith Perkins says, you don't know what you don't know.
00:05:46
Bruce
And.
00:05:46
BEN DELLARIA
Man, another name drop here. Good job. Keith Perkins. I'm loving it.
00:05:50
Bruce
a Because I've. And then once you learn that stuff and you learn what how electricity works and you learn how sensors work, it it just, it changes everything.
00:06:02
BEN DELLARIA
It does.
00:06:02
Bruce
And.
00:06:03
BEN DELLARIA
It does.
00:06:04
Bruce
you If you haven't had the training, then you you just don't know.
00:06:08
BEN DELLARIA
It's funny you say that because that's that's one of the main topics is that, and then that's actually one of the topics I get the most hate for is telling people that I don't recommend you get into business as a mobile mechanic without having some sort of formal training. And it doesn't have to be formal in the fact of going to school and it doesn't have to be formal, you know, as shop. It's, it's, it I would prefer it to be in a shop like you had. You, you went and you were in a shop and you didn't learn any diagnostic stuff, right? You had to go to the training yourself to go figure all that out and, and learn,
00:06:43
BEN DELLARIA
all of it information and you realize like, holy crap, like I'm way behind. So when we got these guys that are, you know, 18, 19 years old, like, oh, I just graduated school and I want to open a, I want to open a mobile service or I want to open a shop. Like, no, you don't realize how difficult the cars really are, how involved they are. Like brakes and oil changes are vastly different in today's world than they were in, you know, 2010, 2000, all those back there.
00:07:09
BEN DELLARIA
two thousand all those eras back there You can do some really dam some heavy damage to cars. So the fact that you know you are saying you're going out and getting this training and everything else, that's really it's good. It helps people understand that just because you're in the shop doesn't mean you're going to get it. You need to go get that source yourself and go find it, and you did. You went to all these training events, and that's really cool because there's not many guys that are willing to go and do it.
00:07:38
BEN DELLARIA
They don't believe in it. They don't believe that they need it.
00:07:41
Bruce
Yeah, it's they if you've never had any of it, you just, it's you think you know. I've worked with so many people that think they know things and and they they have no clue. and it's It's kind of hard to explain. that um I worked with the shop I got to that I found when I finally stopped moving my toolbox.
00:08:07
Bruce
I ended up They named me lead technician, whatever. It was just a, and they had me help interview people. And, and I would ask questions and it's like, clearly you, you think you know what you're doing. And we hired this one guy and it just blew his mind.
00:08:27
Bruce
What he, and it is learning. And this is learning from me. You know, I'm not a, I'm not a super, di techc like you see on some of these different panels and it just blew his mind. He had no idea that then you
Entrepreneurial Journey
00:08:43
Bruce
can that information was out there to know.
00:08:46
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah, that's the thing. is If you're not reading the service information or you're not actively in the automotive world and you're just running around rampant, just you know fixing cars here and there for family and friends and stuff like that, that's cool.
00:09:02
BEN DELLARIA
you know you're You're doing all right, but there's there's so much more to it and it's hard to get people understand that. It's the same thing with charging for diagnosis. it's hard to get It's hard to make the customer realize the value.
00:09:13
BEN DELLARIA
It's hard to make technicians or people that want to be in business that have never worked in a ah building understand the value of training, the value of service information and shop management software. They just, they don't see it. And it's some of them you can bring out. And that's kind of why we built the group, you know, so we could make people understand how to do those things the right way. And that's why I was choosing to, you know, put you on the podcast because i watch in the group, everything that I say for the classroom videos and the teachings that I do, you tell people like, no, that's not what Ben says to do. And he's proven it. Like you need to do this or you need to do that. And then you give your two cents and everything else. And it's, it's good because you're being that other soundboard of the proven systems of being able to be in business for yourself by not just running around like crazy and,
00:10:08
BEN DELLARIA
getting the proper tools and the proper training.
00:10:11
Bruce
Yeah, the property, like these kids that are, I say kids, but they're with no experience, like in your group, and they're going to do it. I couldn't imagine.
00:10:24
Bruce
i guess it guess they just know, you but what I know, i couldn't imagine at 20 22 doing my own business in auto care because you just, you don't know enough.
00:10:24
BEN DELLARIA
No, not in today's world.
00:10:38
BEN DELLARIA
No, you don't. And I didn't know that at that age. In the early 2000s, when I got started in this industry, i was like, yeah, I'm going to a shop. I'm going to do this, you know, blah, blah, blah. And it you're sorely mistaken. My first job was for ah Bell South with, you AT&T.
00:10:54
BEN DELLARIA
And I worked fleet. I had no, we didn't have service information. Only we had access to s SI at the time. That was Chevrolet service information. um That was it. We had mostly Chevrolets and some Fords, but it was only for TSVs. It wasn't for wiring diagrams. They didn't pay the extra for it.
00:11:11
BEN DELLARIA
and our fleet was all GM. So they have books. So I'm sitting here trying to go through books, understand all that stuff. You know, the internet wasn't huge in 2002, 2003. So and in a way that like you could just go watch a scanner danner video or watch a check engine chuck video or something like that, or watch keep, you know, Perkins and all these, write you know, Steckler and all that.
00:11:35
BEN DELLARIA
You couldn't do that. So I remember a Cavalier. o i had done, I think I did a cylinder head on it and got the cylinder head and everything put back together. i'm like, why are all these lights on? Like, what the hell is going on? Everything's connected. I don't understand.
00:11:52
BEN DELLARIA
Well, I didn't know that a ground like that's what I ended up figuring out. I'm like, what is all this have in common? And I finally figured out it's a ground problem. And on the battery cable, negative battery cable, as it goes down, there's a clamp.
00:12:08
BEN DELLARIA
Well, the clamp isn't just a clamp. It's a clamp inside the insulation that was touching the cable and it was supposed to be bolted to the battery tray. I'm like, I had taken it off because I was looking for stuff and I never so put that one bolt back in. i was like, let me just start it, make sure i didn't do any damage.
00:12:24
BEN DELLARIA
And that was the problem all along. Training and understanding, that was my first time when I was like, oh, I really have no clue what the hell I'm doing here at all.
00:12:35
Bruce
yeah
00:12:35
BEN DELLARIA
And after that, I went to work for the dealer. And still, I did all their training and everything else, but I was still too young and hot-headed and stupid to think that I needed that.
00:12:47
BEN DELLARIA
Not until I started working for the independent shops and they started sending us to some of those training events like from CarQuest or Napa or AutoZone and things like that, that I realized like, oh, okay, now I understand what they're talking about.
00:13:00
BEN DELLARIA
Like, I'm really not good at this. I'm a good parts changer. I'm not a good technician. And that was a lot of humility to finally get to that point as a young kid or you know in my 20s, early, yeah, late 20s.
00:13:13
Bruce
I work. I started in 2000 and I didn't know like even the park stores put anything on until probably 2008 or 2010. The
00:13:23
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah, probably around the same thing here, yeah.
00:13:26
Bruce
park stores reached out to the shops that I work for and they just didn't relay that information or.
00:13:31
BEN DELLARIA
Usually, yeah, because i think they had to pay for it.
00:13:32
Bruce
just Yeah, so it was so I didn't even know they did that for years of doing this.
00:13:38
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah.
00:13:41
BEN DELLARIA
Well, let's take a step back. um So you said you worked for your dad, you know, off and on, but you moved your box five times in less than a year or about a year, right?
00:13:50
Bruce
Yep. Yep.
00:13:51
BEN DELLARIA
Why? what What were the places? Were they dealers, independent shops?
00:13:55
Bruce
No, um I interviewed at a dealership one time in 2002 or four, and they offered an hour flat rate.
00:14:09
Bruce
And if I left something off of the parts list for an estimate, I would have to pay for it. Like if I didn't write coolant down or something like that, I would have to pay for it.
00:14:19
Bruce
And I was young and dumb, but I wasn't that dumb. But yeah, it was in 2002 or 2004.
00:14:25
BEN DELLARIA
$7 an hour flat, right?
00:14:26
Bruce
It was a GM dealer.
00:14:26
BEN DELLARIA
Jesus.
00:14:28
Bruce
but yeah it was in two thousand and two or four it was gmd
00:14:35
Bruce
um But when I moved my toolbox, I was working with with my dad the shop that he worked at. And I went to one. stayed there for two weeks.
00:14:35
BEN DELLARIA
jesus
00:14:46
Bruce
It was as bad or worse than where I was at. So I moved my box back to where my dad worked at.
00:14:57
Bruce
And yeah I worked there for probably probably about a month later, I left again. and went to work at a shop for about six months and he was one of those guys that wanted if he had six bays he wanted six technicians and so they weren't they didn't have the business for that so i stayed there for about six months and went back to the shop my dad worked at
00:15:17
BEN DELLARIA
Oh, wow
00:15:28
Bruce
So that was probably April or May of 16 when I went back. And then in September of 16, I found a shop that was a lot better than probably.
00:15:45
Bruce
but um probably was making almost double what I was making where I worked with my dad. It was really good shop.
00:15:52
BEN DELLARIA
the So the last place that you had found, that was an independent shop?
00:15:55
Bruce
Yes. Yeah, I've never worked in a dealership.
00:15:56
BEN DELLARIA
Okay. Except for just that one interview. say that again.
00:16:00
Bruce
same I never tried to apply it to another one.
00:16:05
BEN DELLARIA
say that again
00:16:06
Bruce
After that interview, I never applied to another dealer.
00:16:08
BEN DELLARIA
No, they really just did it in for you. And that sucks because there's some dealers that are great and some that just suck. You know, I was actually listening to Jeff yesterday or the day before ah talking with, and i I feel bad.
00:16:15
Bruce
Yeah.
00:16:22
BEN DELLARIA
I've never seen this guy's videos, but I think it's called the dealer plate guy or something like that. Yeah.
00:16:27
Bruce
Not that one.
00:16:27
BEN DELLARIA
He he talks everything on that. He was talking about. sound really good. Like it I'm like, yeah, man, that would have been a great dealership to work for. Like feels like they actually want to take care of you and not just make it all political. And, you know, just someone that thinks outside the box and can see things a little different. But so how long were you at that last shop for eight years? You said.
00:16:47
Bruce
I was the shop that I worked at with my dad. I was there for seven or eight years. And then when I got on with the last shop, when I finally stopped moving my toolboxes, I was there for two and a half years.
00:17:03
BEN DELLARIA
Oh, okay. Hmm.
00:17:04
Bruce
And they probably about a year and a half in um the owner was trying to find another technician. And we went through a couple and that he fired. and And the guy that was running the shop was a former technician. I think when he first went to work there, he was a mechanic. And then he moved up to the front office.
00:17:28
Bruce
um So the owner moved him back to the shop. and brought his daughter in to run the place. And it it went downhill from there.
00:17:39
BEN DELLARIA
so that's why the last place you worked for, that's why it failed. That's why you left.
00:17:42
Bruce
so I got fired from that job for putting shocks on a car. So they made me the lead technician and they were basically having me hand out the work.
00:18:00
Bruce
And this guy that had this car on his lift for like two or three days, just sitting there waiting on him to put shocks on. And Finally, I got to the point where I was waiting and he wasn't there yet. He had a doctor's appointment, so I threw the shocks on, backed it out, drove it, parked it, and it was done.
00:18:21
Bruce
And so I got fired for doing that. um And then I went to work. The last shop I worked at, I was there from April of 19 until November 24. until
00:18:37
Bruce
twenty november of twenty four
00:18:40
BEN DELLARIA
So that one there. so Why did you leave? that so that That's what I was meaning. So this last shop that you were with, that wasn't the one where they bring the daughter in, is it?
00:18:49
Bruce
no no
00:18:50
BEN DELLARIA
Oh, okay, okay. I got to get mixed up. So why um what how why so long there and why did you end up leaving there?
00:18:57
Bruce
It was a really good shop. um It wasn't the best, I'm sure. It's not like these shops you see on these Facebook groups, these shop owner groups like Lucas Underwood and all of them.
00:19:10
Bruce
They seem like they have really, really good places to work.
00:19:13
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah.
00:19:14
Bruce
Of course, you never work there, so you don't know for sure. But...
00:19:17
BEN DELLARIA
Mm-hmm.
00:19:18
Bruce
but ah So I got to the point where I was trying to figure out if I was wanting to leave the business altogether. And then we we bought a piece of property and built a house.
00:19:34
Bruce
So um we built the house, had house 23, and then towards end of 23, the beginning of and then in the towards the end of twenty three in the beginning of 24, was taken off a week a month to work on the house because after we had the shell built, me and my wife, we did all the electrical and plumbing and floors and cabinets and um and the boss was getting tired of that.
00:20:01
BEN DELLARIA
Oh, yeah.
00:20:01
Bruce
so and so in mark So in March of 24, told well, I was like, i mean I have to finish this house, so I'm just going leave.
00:20:03
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah.
00:20:12
Bruce
i I'm lucky enough.
00:20:12
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah.
00:20:13
Bruce
wife makes enough money to pay the bills.
00:20:15
BEN DELLARIA
Okay.
00:20:16
Bruce
So I left from March of 24 to went back in July or August of 24.
00:20:16
BEN DELLARIA
All right.
00:20:24
Bruce
And
00:20:27
Bruce
it didn't feel the same. I don't know if it was because I'd been out of it for so long.
00:20:32
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah.
00:20:32
Bruce
And then at a we had a car that came in with a with a brake noise and one of the other guys had worked on it and I thought and I ah when the lapsed mileage is real small I always look and see what it was here for last time and somebody else had done brakes on it and so I go up there you know Don did brakes on this do you want me to look at it you want to give it to him they said no go and look at it so one of the clips for the brake pads was rubbing the rotor no big deal
00:21:05
Bruce
They get clips. I put them on that side, go to the other side to put new ones on. And the caliper boot had gotten around and got pinched between the piston and the brake pad.
00:21:18
Bruce
So it's got a tear in the boot. So you know how sometimes you push a piston in and the boot bubble up?
00:21:25
BEN DELLARIA
Mm-hmm.
00:21:26
Bruce
And so it needs a caliper. We messed up the caliper. So I hear him on the phone selling a caliper to this customer. And so I told them, I said, if y'all are selling this caliper, I'm not putting it on.
00:21:40
Bruce
You you can get somebody else to do it. I'm not going to be part of it. We messed up the caliper. We should pay for the caliper.
00:21:46
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah, 100%. Oh,
00:21:48
Bruce
So they finally come and said that, you they were going to give her the caliper. So I put it on. It's gone. next day I come in, i get on the computer and look.
00:21:59
Bruce
They charged her for the caliper.
00:22:01
BEN DELLARIA
ah so they lied to you about it. Yeah, great.
00:22:03
Bruce
So I said, I'm done. I said, you want me to finish the day or you want me to take my toolbox home now?
00:22:10
Bruce
So I ended little longer, but I left in November of 24 and had some stuff to do on the house.
00:22:12
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah.
00:22:18
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah.
00:22:20
Bruce
Got the house finished up. Bought the van in May of 25. Got it all set up and opened up shop in July last
00:22:32
BEN DELLARIA
So what made you, why did you decide to go mobile
00:22:37
Bruce
Oh, well, I was looking at doing different things, and I ended up finding some mobile stuff on YouTube, and then I found you to where it actually, yeah you actually show what you're doing and how it works and that you can be successful doing this.
00:22:52
Bruce
And so that that's what led me to to do mobile.
00:22:53
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah.
00:22:58
BEN DELLARIA
Hmm.
00:22:58
Bruce
Now,
Starting a Mobile Mechanic Business
00:22:59
Bruce
I had looked at starting to my own shop in...
00:22:59
BEN DELLARIA
So my...
00:23:03
Bruce
Around 2010 or 2012 me and a friend of mine were we tried to get a building and they sold it to somebody else so we. Didn't get it and there's a small area, so not a lot of availability on building so we kind of.
00:23:20
Bruce
Forgot that idea and then.
00:23:22
BEN DELLARIA
sir But the so you go mobile at this point and or you decide to go because you're looking all that stuff up. But um so you you drive, you have a van, right?
00:23:34
BEN DELLARIA
um
00:23:34
Bruce
Yeah.
00:23:35
BEN DELLARIA
What's in the ah what's in the van? How is it? How's it set up?
00:23:41
Bruce
I've got my big snap-on tool card in there. I've got a snap-on toolbox, but I ended up getting a toolbox craftsman from my dad, so it's lighter, and put it in there.
00:23:52
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah.
00:23:54
Bruce
And I've got all my tools and...
00:23:57
BEN DELLARIA
But it works well for you? like you that Do you you find yourself wanting more space or anything like that?
00:24:03
Bruce
It's a little tight on space because it's to it's only you know five five and a half feet wide.
00:24:04
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah.
00:24:09
Bruce
yeah So it's not as wide as the van. But it's like you're not working in there very often. So so you're going in there to get parts or get tools.
00:24:15
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah.
00:24:18
Bruce
So to me, it's not a big deal to have more space between in the little aisle down the middle.
00:24:24
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah.
00:24:25
Bruce
Now, if I wanted to do AC work with Automotive AC machines, I don't have enough room for that. So I use a residential recovery machine and tanks and.
00:24:36
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah. ah Basically, it exploded machine.
00:24:36
Bruce
Bill.
00:24:40
Bruce
Yeah.
00:24:40
BEN DELLARIA
that people Actually, Jeff, he had recently reached out to me about that. He asked, you know what you know without having to buy a $6,000 machine, what can you do? And that's what i told him. You could do the separate systems.
00:24:52
BEN DELLARIA
yeah you can get a Robin air separate system, tanks scale, the recovery, uh, it's about two grand or so to get that.
00:24:59
Bruce
Yeah, saw that. I ended up finding a residential recovery machine. It's like an $800 or $900 machine.
00:25:09
Bruce
I found it on Marketplace for $100, barely.
00:25:12
BEN DELLARIA
There you go.
00:25:12
Bruce
Yeah.
00:25:14
BEN DELLARIA
And it gets the job done because you can weigh out the refrigerant. You can actually charge it. You could take it out correctly without letting it out in the air and, There's always a way to do it to do it right.
00:25:21
Bruce
yeah
00:25:22
BEN DELLARIA
You don't have to buy the machines like I have. I just like the machines and the trailer is I can have all that stuff in there.
00:25:25
Bruce
yeah
00:25:30
Bruce
Yeah, well, that's in the automotive HVAC technicians page on Facebook.
00:25:30
BEN DELLARIA
Makes the job easy.
00:25:38
Bruce
Have you seen that one, that page?
00:25:39
BEN DELLARIA
Mm hmm.
00:25:41
Bruce
It's got a guy on there, Thomas Lech, L-E-C-H. peace
00:25:45
BEN DELLARIA
Mm hmm.
00:25:46
Bruce
He seems really smart on this stuff, and and so i've I've gotten on there and learned a little bit more about air conditioning from that. He he puts out a lot of good information on it.
00:25:56
BEN DELLARIA
I might have to check the group out. What was the group called?
00:26:00
Bruce
automotive HVAC technicians.
00:26:04
BEN DELLARIA
Cool. I'll go check it out. I love air conditioning. That's why i have all this stuff. I did air conditioning for homes and construction and stuff before I became a mechanic. And that's where I ended up finding that I really liked it.
00:26:17
BEN DELLARIA
And my grandfather, my mother's side, used to be... he ended up becoming a super years later, but he did air conditioning... and refrigeration and stuff like that. And so did my ex-wife's grandfather, and I learned a lot from him too.
00:26:31
BEN DELLARIA
I just like that side of it. i like the electrical. I like the HVAC part of it. I like that problem-solving part more than I like putting brakes on cars. And I like the problem-solving with diagnosis, but sometimes having to just deal with the wiring diagrams and everything else, I want to just burn the car to the ground.
00:26:49
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah.
00:26:50
Bruce
Yeah, so you learn HVAC from like residential and commercial HVAC guys?
00:26:55
BEN DELLARIA
ah Yeah, there was this guy, John. He's actually my oldest kid's ah uncle. um He taught me air conditioning when I went to work for that company when I met my ex-wife. um ah they were a commercial They were a construction company, so we did a lot of malls and buildings and things, um but we did your like storefront buildings, um but we did...
00:27:23
BEN DELLARIA
you know, refrigeration as well. So we would build the coolers, hang the units, have to fill them with whatever it was, 502R or something like that, or whatever that refrigerant was for the refrigeration systems. And learning that cross of like pressures, like realizing like, you know, so in a car, you know, below like 24 is freezing on the low side. A home, when you were dealing with R22, I think it was below like 60 65 PSI was freezing.
00:27:50
BEN DELLARIA
These other refrigeration units, if I remember correctly, it was 0 PS or like 5 PSI or something like that and 10 PSI. You wanted it to freeze. You wanted to see that line ice up to make it work. And I'm like, this is just weird, you know, just odd stuff like that.
00:28:06
BEN DELLARIA
But it was kind of neat, and that's where I kind of liked it. I liked more going to people's homes, diagnosing their air conditioning, and getting them back up and going.
00:28:17
BEN DELLARIA
Um, that was actually, I almost started air conditioning company instead of my mobile service. That was going to be my choice but between the two. um I actually, it was a shop at the time.
00:28:29
BEN DELLARIA
I only had decided to go mobile, um, because it was COVID and I couldn't find a ah building around here to rent.
00:28:31
Bruce
Thank
00:28:37
BEN DELLARIA
Because they're like, no, we don't want shops in here. They're too messy. And it was too much hassle. So i was like, right, I'm going to do mobile. let's Let's give that a try. And that obviously worked. But I was going to do home. I was going to get a contractor's license to be um an HVAC company.
00:28:55
BEN DELLARIA
You got to do the books alone were like $2,000 to study for the tests, which is actually open book for the different subjects. um But I didn't want to, for me, school is a lot. So like continuing education stressed me out. I'm like, I don't want to have to do that. I don't even want to have to take these tests or do this stuff.
00:29:16
BEN DELLARIA
um And then you had to carry bonds and things like that to be a contractor. And i was like, no, I'm good. I don't want to do it. i'm I'm going to just do this. I like cars.
00:29:27
BEN DELLARIA
The money is vastly different, but so is the expense and the routine. But I always look at like my kid's stepdad. He's still in air conditioning up here.
00:29:40
BEN DELLARIA
um He wasn't it down there. He was working for ah the same company I did, which was owned by my ex-wife's sister. um They, uh, he still does it to this day. And, um, but watching him do some of this newer stuff, it's just like, man,
00:29:56
BEN DELLARIA
you know We talk about all the time. should Should you start a company? You want to start one together? you know like What should we do? you know and He's like, no. After seeing what you do with the mobile stuff, he's like, i don't even want to touch it. i don't even want to deal with the business side. and I'm like, well, you know you don't need to be 24-7. I would 8 o'clock, phones on, 5 o'clock, phones off just like this. I would not be like your typical HVAC company that's like after hours and all this stuff. I'm like, hell no.
00:30:22
BEN DELLARIA
wouldn't do that if you paid if you paid me It's crazy. That's the thing that I think deterred me away also back then was all that crap. But um let's talk a little bit about these training events that you went to.
Insights from Automotive Training Events
00:30:35
BEN DELLARIA
You said you went to Vision and some others. How how were those and and how were they different from each other?
00:30:41
BEN DELLARIA
Because most of these guys that are listening, i guarantee you most of them have not gone, especially if they're mobile. um And I want to encourage that more. I want to see more mobile guys that going to tools and vision and SEMA and things like that.
00:30:58
Bruce
I feel like they were very similar to each other. Vision, of course, had more options of classes because it's the biggest training event for automotive in the country.
00:31:09
Bruce
You know, maybe.
00:31:09
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah.
00:31:10
Bruce
Maybe the biggest one in the world. I don't know. um But there's just more options at that one. the The one in Pennsylvania, the Super Saturday, it was just a single day event.
00:31:24
BEN DELLARIA
okay
00:31:24
Bruce
Let's go classes and classes. And i think they'd spread I think they've made it like a three or four day event now. um But when it first started, it was just a single day event.
00:31:38
BEN DELLARIA
I wonder if that's the one you're talking about. Cause I think ASDA used to be AST. Is that the automotive so ah service and tire Alliance?
00:31:52
Bruce
I'm not sure.
00:31:54
BEN DELLARIA
Well, actually, no, I'm sorry.
00:31:54
Bruce
The
00:31:54
BEN DELLARIA
This is in um it's in North Carolina, I think, ASTA.
00:31:59
Bruce
ASTE.
00:32:00
BEN DELLARIA
It's in September.
00:32:02
Bruce
Yeah, no, I think it's.
00:32:02
BEN DELLARIA
It could have been different years ago. I don't know. i don't know a lot of its history.
00:32:07
Bruce
The one that I did that was ASTE e was in Seattle, Washington.
00:32:11
BEN DELLARIA
Oh, yeah, it's on the other side of the state or country. So, yeah, that'd be vastly different.
00:32:15
Bruce
you know
00:32:17
BEN DELLARIA
so um But these were just obviously training events and things so you can get business stuff or technical stuff and everything else.
00:32:17
Bruce
um
00:32:24
Bruce
Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:25
BEN DELLARIA
I know we were recently talking about um the Tectonic thing before that had came out. um I was speaking with ah some social media people with TechMetric recently um and because I was supposed to go to that as well this year, and I could not.
00:32:45
BEN DELLARIA
um but And a lot of people in the group ended up coming out and saying like, The same thing we were talking about, like we were unsure it was their first event and, you know, seeing where they were going to learn and everything. But man, people were, people were hyping it up big time in the Facebook group that they really, really loved the events and everything else. And so i'm kind of upset that I didn't, not upset I'll go next year, but you know, that I wasn't able to do it, but you know, obviously soon I will.
00:33:14
Bruce
What made me doubt it is that it was mostly all one-hour sessions.
00:33:21
BEN DELLARIA
I kind of would prefer that. So that's what's stressing me about about Asta is that it's 8 a.m. m to 12 p.m. of the same class. Like I could deal with maybe an hour of you talking about something, but after that, I got to go do something else.
00:33:34
BEN DELLARIA
Like I'm going to get bored.
00:33:35
Bruce
Yeah.
00:33:36
BEN DELLARIA
Maybe I could give you two hours, but I'm going to pick up my phone. I'm going scroll. As soon as you talk about something that I'm going to be like off in left field, I got to go. So I'll be one of those guys that ends up wandering around the booths halfway through a training class because they're like, oh, you know, what are you doing? My brain can't do it. I don't want to sit here that long.
00:33:56
BEN DELLARIA
That's why I do a million things. That's why I have podcasts and groups and all this other shit, because if I sit still, I'll just get fat. I can't do that.
00:34:04
Bruce
i just I just felt like an hour is isn't really enough to, I mean, you can get a little bit of information, but I feel like it's
00:34:13
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah, I agree. you You can't get enough information out, especially if you're talking a topic of, you know, circuit design or ADOS or airbags or, you know, and even if it's business, you're talking business stuff, you can't explain everything you need to explain on labor rates and profit margins and how, or how to handle customers in 55 minutes.
00:34:34
BEN DELLARIA
I mean, I, I agree, but I think that's all part of the, the journey is they're going to need to figure it out.
00:34:34
Bruce
Now when I will not
00:34:40
BEN DELLARIA
And I'm sure over the years, they're going to definitely figure it out and make it better.
00:34:44
Bruce
Now when I would go to these events I would take a little recorder and I would record the session so that I could go back to it later. um Age myself?
00:34:53
BEN DELLARIA
Did you just age yourself there?
00:34:57
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah. How old are you?
00:35:00
Bruce
How old am I? I'm 46.
00:35:02
BEN DELLARIA
Oh, fuck. No. Okay. I'm only, you're two years older than me. I i know what you're talking about, you you know, recorder, but most guys like, what you talking about?
00:35:06
Bruce
yeah
00:35:09
BEN DELLARIA
You know, I just felt like you aged us. ah very well there with talking about bringing in a recorder instead of turning on your phone recording or something like that most of the young guys would go yeah i took out my phone and recorded and we're talking about a little cassette you know like a ah voicemail recorder type thing as you know voicemail you know yeah answering machines at home man it wasn't voicemail that's what it was but anyway so you like the training events they were good then i mean like i said i want to see more people go to them
00:35:38
Bruce
Yeah. I mean, i don't feel like you have to do it because there is some stuff. There's some topics that you can't really find good information online.
00:35:49
Bruce
And so you they go get training.
00:35:52
BEN DELLARIA
I think it's you know
00:35:53
Bruce
People like you're out there. You can go so you can get so far with Scanner Dan.
00:35:58
BEN DELLARIA
oh yeah
00:35:58
Bruce
He's.
00:35:59
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah, if you ah if you subscribe to his premium thing, was it $14 a month?
00:36:05
Bruce
Yeah.
00:36:06
BEN DELLARIA
And to have access to those videos and the book that ah you know you can get and everything else. And the thing about it he's so good at just teaching you that basics you understand.
00:36:18
BEN DELLARIA
Simple circuit design, understanding the circuits, understanding how it's supposed to work, what things should look like, is is a goldmine. And...
00:36:29
BEN DELLARIA
um I know there's other people that are trying to come out and do things like that. And they're good people. Like, i I think his name's Ryan Mullen. think that's who that is. um He's, he's just, his brain is, you know like a prodigy with that stuff. And Chuck is very good too. I love talking to Richard, Trek engine Chuck.
00:36:47
BEN DELLARIA
He just, I don't know, man. Some of those guys get it. I get it, but I just don't have, I don't have the brain power to want to dive in that deep.
00:36:57
BEN DELLARIA
I have a business to run. i don't I don't want to occupy all my time. I know enough that I'm very, very good at what I do. I'm very good at diagnosing cars, and I won't give up on it. i will And I'll phone a friend if I need to. I'm not too ashamed to admit that I misdiagnosed, or if I have to call somebody in the group or call check engine shot you know call these people.
00:37:22
BEN DELLARIA
Hell, even Lucas. Lucas is so good. Lucas Underwood, you know, with the business side, too. I don't know him personally, but he's the type that I spoke to him. He's like, hey, here's my phone number. Call me anytime.
00:37:33
BEN DELLARIA
You want to talk about business stuff or anything like that? I'm like, that's the coolest. Like, it's a fanboy thing. You know, it's like, oh, I turned into a little girl at that moment, you know?
00:37:40
Bruce
Thank
00:37:42
BEN DELLARIA
You know, and I thought the same thing of Jeff. And now that, you know, I get to talk to these guys anytime I want is cool. And that's why I think these training events are great because that networking side of it is, is really, it's something that made me realize there's so much more to the industry versus what I thought was in the industry before. When I was,
00:38:07
BEN DELLARIA
Before I opened this business, and even when I just had opened the business, I still was in my own bubble. And I thought that I was on my own. I knew that there was training that you could get from the auto parts stores.
00:38:19
BEN DELLARIA
I didn't bother utilizing it anymore. I knew barely of ah Scanner Danner at the time. um But now getting being on social media and talking about these things, like I think everyone should really go for that side of it. To be able to talk and or hear Some of the big names like, you know, Steckler and like you said, ah Underwood and um what was the other gentleman's name? You could even meet Paul Danner at at and some of these events and everything else. And what was the other guy's name you said?
00:38:52
BEN DELLARIA
who he's going to mix.
00:38:52
Bruce
Peace, Parker.
00:38:53
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah, Perkins. Perkins. I mean, if people that are listening, and if you don't know who those guys are, you need to go look and who those guys are because it's going to help you.
00:39:04
BEN DELLARIA
do the right thing. And that's the hardest part with being mobile. You don't have, you don't have another set ears to go, Hey man, come over here. Let's talk about this. Let's figure this out because I'm beating my head against the wall. You don't have that. I can't go out. My wife works with me. I can't go ask her. She's like, what?
00:39:22
BEN DELLARIA
I know what a coach purse is. That's what I know what that is. I don't know what the hell, you know, a five volt circuit is, or you know why that network is being crazy. I have no idea. So, you know, i Outside of the training, that networking is key. That's why i like our group because the guys that need it they can come in and ask these questions anytime that they want.
00:39:41
Bruce
Right.
00:39:43
BEN DELLARIA
um So what do you, with the mobile world, because I mean, that's kind of what this is all about is mobile is um you chose a van. Is there any...
00:39:56
BEN DELLARIA
Why did you decide to follow me? Why do you like what I have to say versus... like Because that's what I mean. like In the group, you're constant with... you know That's not what Ben says. like I'm very naive. I don't believe in myself when it comes to those things.
00:40:12
BEN DELLARIA
It's very hard for me to look at my success and be like, oh, I'm actually good at what I do. No, I still think I'm stupid. but like So with you, what do you not do with your mobile service that...
00:40:26
BEN DELLARIA
You're like, no, I'm not taking that job. Or no, I'm not doing it Ben's way. Like, give us ah an example of maybe doing something that you think is better than what I believe in. Because that's the whole point of this is to like broaden everyone's horizon and start to believe in something that maybe we didn't believe in before.
00:40:45
BEN DELLARIA
My rant is over now.
00:40:47
Bruce
Well, the work I don't do is is stuff that a mobile guy shouldn't do. He shouldn't be doing engines and transmissions and pulling heads and stuff like that. He shouldn't be doing stuff like that in somebody's driveway.
00:41:00
Bruce
That's to it's too messy. As far as doing things differently than you, um
00:41:12
Bruce
and um inspecting cars more, I guess, because I don't think you a lot.
00:41:18
BEN DELLARIA
Definitely. I slack on that bad.
00:41:22
Bruce
Coming from where I came from, where I learned from my dad, it was all about, you know, you need to, even if you're not going to do that job, you need to inform the customer, you know, like I don't do tires.
00:41:35
Bruce
I'm still going to tell them they need tires.
00:41:38
BEN DELLARIA
Oh, yeah, 100%.
00:41:39
Bruce
You know, stuff like that. It's, um So like, yeah, I guess that's really the only thing that I do differently other than, course, I do AC work differently.
00:41:52
Bruce
But that's just, that's just cool.
00:41:53
BEN DELLARIA
Well, yeah, it's just a tool, yeah.
00:41:55
Bruce
I mean.
00:41:57
BEN DELLARIA
ba but for the for the same But in overall, you're doing the same thing.
00:41:58
Bruce
Oh.
00:42:01
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah, I'm not going to do an engineer a trainee in their home. i'm If I'm doing even dash jobs, I don't do them at their house. I do it at my house because I want to be able to control the situation.
00:42:10
Bruce
The one thing I do differently than I think just about every mobile guy I've seen on camera is I put a moving blanket down under the brakes when I do brakes.
00:42:22
BEN DELLARIA
Yep. I try to use cardboard or a bucket.
00:42:25
Bruce
I see so many that you're just doing brakes and there you got this white concrete driveway and you're putting...
00:42:36
Bruce
Drive pictures.
00:42:37
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah, you ain't lying there. if i if If I get dust on a dirty old driveway or you know I look at my surrounding, if you know I get that a lot on YouTube. He doesn't use fender covers. I'm like, do you see the car?
00:42:50
BEN DELLARIA
like That car has got more rust on it and more paint chipping on it than you know seven cars put together. like Just chill out, buddy. um But I care about the people's home a little bit more because I don't want them to i don't want it to look like I was ever there.
00:42:59
Bruce
Yeah.
00:43:07
BEN DELLARIA
you know I don't want to have a huge mess on their driveway. So yeah, I get that 100%. am. That's what I tell my wife all the time too. i'm like you know i am I go too fast a lot of times and I'm lazy with certain things. um But I think that's why I like the YouTube videos because...
00:43:25
BEN DELLARIA
it reminds me like, oh, if I don't want to deal with people complaining, I should probably do this a little bit nicer and a little bit slower, a little neater. And that's another reason why went to four days instead of five and six days doing 40 cars a week.
00:43:37
BEN DELLARIA
Now doing 20, 25, I'm more focused on those things and the inspections and the basics and things like that that need to be attended to.
00:43:40
Bruce
Thank
00:43:50
BEN DELLARIA
Because the first couple of years, I didn't do any inspections. I didn't do... and anything like that. Now I still don't do a ton of inspections fully. I do them my short version and depending on what I'm dealing with that day, which is still a problem because, you know, last year was our biggest year at two 42.
00:44:13
BEN DELLARIA
The only way I'll get to 300 is by inspecting these cars and actually doing more on that stuff and broadening my horizon a little bit.
00:44:18
Bruce
Bye.
00:44:22
BEN DELLARIA
Um, You know, I still don't do timing chain jobs. um I'll do timing belt jobs, you know, nowadays, just because I'm more confident in selling the proper stuff.
00:44:35
BEN DELLARIA
as you know I've aged into the the business more. um But yeah, those... And I also haven't really found a good quick way as mobile to be really fast at like you know a full front-end inspection. And only recently did I buy the jack available for that, and I just haven't even put it into practice. Being able to get that jack out, throw that front end up, shake the front end down, get underneath it, and inspect the brakes and all that good stuff is...
00:45:01
BEN DELLARIA
Like, you know, we need a good routine to be able to do these inspections quickly and efficiently and actually advise the customer on the problems that their car has instead of just being like, yep, this is what your check engine light needs. Have a great day.
00:45:15
BEN DELLARIA
They buy it and then the brakes fall off in three weeks because you didn't pay attention.
00:45:20
Bruce
Yeah, I can see it being difficult for you because you do so many cars in a day.
00:45:25
BEN DELLARIA
But that's also my own problem. i am I think my hardest part with being the mobile is that I'm anxious to be done most days. Some days when I'm like, it's a thousand freaking degrees out. Like yesterday, I set up yesterday as one job.
00:45:43
BEN DELLARIA
it's a I don't remember the year, like a 17, 18, or 19 Toyota Highlander um for a water pump. Water pump calls for 6.3 hours. It's not a timing belt. It's nothing like that. I don't even know why it calls for that much time.
00:45:58
BEN DELLARIA
I had it done. Now, granted, did take a while. I had it done in ah just that three, three and a half hours. um Total test drive, filling it, all that stuff.
00:46:04
Bruce
Yeah.
00:46:06
BEN DELLARIA
Getting there, getting set up. um But like an idiot, I brought in an inspection, a transmission, ah reprogram, and another diagnosis.
00:46:20
BEN DELLARIA
And... I'm like, why did I do that? And then now I start to overwhelm myself and get to the point where I need to get done. like I got to get the hell out of here because I got this big job to do, not realizing like you know you're going to beat the labor time dummy. like you know Slow down a little bit here. like Calm down. But I always add people in.
00:46:40
BEN DELLARIA
And that's what takes away of my inspection time. Not even counting, you know, I have plenty of time to do six-hour job. I just mean I'm stupid that way. Instead of giving myself four cars a day at today. So today's, I got to make the schedule.
00:46:58
BEN DELLARIA
I've got 20 for next week to put to put on the schedule. I should not take another person. I guarantee you somebody is going to call and before the... Tuesday is over.
00:47:09
BEN DELLARIA
I'm going to have 25 or 27 on the schedule because I'm a gullible fat guy and I need, I'm going to want to put more people on. I just, cause someone's going to call and they're like, Oh yeah, I'm over here. And I'm like, fuck, man, they're only three blocks over.
00:47:23
BEN DELLARIA
It's just a diagnosis. It's just a, it's just a pressure test, whatever. Yeah. Right. You know, I get there and then it's a canned communication problem and I'm there for two hours trying to diagnose something that I should have been there for 10 minutes. And there goes my day.
00:47:37
Bruce
yeah I don't have that problem yet. Last month, April, I think I did 37 or tickets is all.
00:47:43
BEN DELLARIA
you will.
00:47:48
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah, you will.
00:47:49
Bruce
so i have time to look cars over and
00:47:55
BEN DELLARIA
And that's good because you don't need to. So it goes, it falls back into the same thing. Like I'm trying to pull it up right now. I want to see how many I did for April versus March. Cause I think March was a much bigger month as car count, but yeah,
00:48:10
BEN DELLARIA
You don't, that's what I realized. That's why I stopped doing, when I was doing 40 cars a week, we barely hit 200,000 a year in total revenue because I was going too fast. I was doing too many cars. I wasn't looking anything over. I wasn't doing ah all the stuff that I needed to do to take care of my customers.
00:48:33
BEN DELLARIA
um When I had cut it down, to four days, Monday through Thursday in the field. And today, Friday, is usually just an office day. Got to go to work later. I sold a job.
00:48:44
BEN DELLARIA
um But I made more money. I made a lot more money because I paid attention more. And that's why I'm even thinking about toning it down just slightly and making it like, you know, my wife to really step in and be like, no, you have, and it depends on the jobs, right? If I've got um 20 on the list, but like three or four of those are you know four and five hour jobs, that's it.
00:49:14
BEN DELLARIA
If I've got 20 on the list and they're all checkouts, I can move it up to 25 because I can add in some more checkouts to fill up the following week with more bigger repairs and things like that. um so Let's see.
00:49:26
BEN DELLARIA
The month of April, i did 63 total ors
00:49:34
BEN DELLARIA
And then I believe, 63. So sixty three so i got to do a custom on this because we're already in May now.
00:49:46
BEN DELLARIA
Let's hit this. Oh, crap.
00:49:53
BEN DELLARIA
How you working? The button. Okay, so let's check. March of this year. Yeah, it did 81. So vastly different.
00:50:04
BEN DELLARIA
It was i eighty that wass almost 20 cars. So what, 18 cars less from one month to the next? I definitely need to tone it down slightly and a little bit more because that's still, well, even at what, 81?
00:50:14
Bruce
Yeah.
00:50:19
BEN DELLARIA
So what's that? It's about 20 a week, right? If you figure about a four-week month or something like that, it's 4.3, but still. But even then, still, my average per RO is still too low. My dollar amount is still too low.
00:50:33
BEN DELLARIA
There's still plenty of room for improvement. um But even going back to what I was saying before, the i um when I rush, when I was in a shop, you can't leave till 5 o'clock.
00:50:45
BEN DELLARIA
So you just keep working. the car Just keep bringing me cars until 5 o'clock hits, and that's it. I'm going home. Now, you know... how quick can I get done with this and go the hell home? Like that's one of the things that I still struggle with some days like yesterday. So like I was saying with yesterday, like so hot under that car. I had to put the umbrella up cause my legs were burning from the sun, just sitting there laying under that Highlander going back and forth on it.
00:51:11
BEN DELLARIA
But you know, some days I'm like, man, I just, I don't want to do that. Let's just go home. I'm beat. I'm tired. You know, It's 2.30. Let's go in the pool. you know Or let's go home so I can edit videos. like Some days you have to remember, you know no dumbass.
00:51:27
BEN DELLARIA
like You need to stay out here and work. you know But i mean I get through all my day my cars. i don't I don't postpone anybody or anything like that.
00:51:32
Bruce
She's done.
00:51:33
BEN DELLARIA
But it's it's different when you have to stay there until 5 o'clock is what I'm getting at. And I'm rambling in circles for no reason. But yeah, I think we're frozen.
00:51:39
Bruce
yeah
00:51:43
BEN DELLARIA
It'll come back. There goes. I think you're back now.
00:51:50
BEN DELLARIA
But yeah, it's a, so a couple more questions here for you. So with the mobile side, you know, those are the jobs you don't really do. um Is there, would you, would you ever, why did you decide to make it a legal thing instead of just doing what some of these other guys are doing, where they're just out here, you know, doing things on the side, making some side bucks instead of, you know, building a business like you did?
Legal Operations in Automotive Business
00:52:18
Bruce
I don't feel like you should do it that way. I mean, if you're going to be working on somebody else's car, you need to you need to do it right and be set up to protect yourself with nothing else.
00:52:30
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah. Protect to you, protect the customer, protect everyone else that's driving around them.
00:52:35
Bruce
Yeah.
00:52:35
BEN DELLARIA
That's the, that's, yep, all day.
00:52:38
Bruce
Yeah. And I was never going to do a lot of side work as a mechanic and for other shops because I never had i never had a full tool set at home.
00:52:39
BEN DELLARIA
I hate that. Mm-hmm.
00:52:48
Bruce
I had some tools, but and it always it when I try to do a side job, it would aggravate me no end if I didn't have the right tool or had to go get another, you know, little small.
00:53:02
Bruce
do nothing clamps or fuses or something like that.
00:53:05
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah.
00:53:06
Bruce
And so when I started this, I knew that I didn't want to be in that position. So I didn't start as as a side gig or a side hustle. I started full time with, you know, filled the van up with tools and parts.
00:53:21
Bruce
And because I knew that I knew that I wouldn't want to do it like a side hustle.
00:53:23
BEN DELLARIA
And get legal right off the bat.
00:53:29
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah. I, I, that's good. I like that because I just, the same thing. I, i I don't know i know. I know what the law is. I know what the rules are. i want insurance. I want a business name.
00:53:42
BEN DELLARIA
I want a bank account.
00:53:42
Bruce
Yeah.
00:53:44
BEN DELLARIA
I've ran too many shops to to not know the right way to do things. I don't feel like doing it half-assed is the right way to do it. So I encourage – I don't know, man.
00:53:56
BEN DELLARIA
It's so hard getting – Making even just clips off of here, getting, you know, when you take a clip and you post it online and then people are like, oh, you're this. I'm like, dude, go listen to the whole thing.
00:54:07
BEN DELLARIA
You're only listening to a clip. So it's the same thing, like trying to get people to understand, like, dude, just go get the legal stuff because if you hurt someone, oh, it's just brakes. Yeah. The thing that stops the car from going smashed into the other fucking car, like use your brain here, you know, can't.
00:54:19
Bruce
Well, I
00:54:22
BEN DELLARIA
You use the parts that that customer bought on Amazon and it crashes, you're liable for it. Not the customer, not anybody else. I don't care what kind of little piece of paper you got signed.
00:54:33
BEN DELLARIA
Some good lawyer is going to tear that apart and you're going to be liable for it.
00:54:38
Bruce
i did
00:54:39
BEN DELLARIA
Just open a company and have the insurance and do it the right way.
00:54:42
Bruce
I had a car, it was a little Acura maybe. They had a noise that they thought was the brakes or wheel bearing or something. So I go look at it and the caliper bracket bolt, one of the bolts is missing and the other one's loose and the caliper's rubbing on the wheel.
00:55:02
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah. Nice.
00:55:03
Bruce
And so I asked him, you know, that somebody, somebody put a wheel band in it maybe?
00:55:14
Bruce
Yeah, I think somebody put wheel bearings in the front end. And so every bolt and nut they touched was loose.
00:55:21
BEN DELLARIA
nice
00:55:22
Bruce
and And I asked him, I said, did they work on the other side? Yeah. So I go on that side, every nut and bolt they touched on that side was loose.
00:55:31
BEN DELLARIA
Surprised they put the tire back on.
00:55:33
Bruce
Yeah. And mean, it's...
00:55:36
BEN DELLARIA
That's wild. I just, I don't understand. i mean, we've all left something loose before, but that caliber of leaving something loose, that's one of those places where someone has either A, never done it before, shouldn't be doing it, or they just were high as a kite when they were working on it.
00:55:57
BEN DELLARIA
I don't understand.
00:55:59
Bruce
Yeah, or distracted.
00:56:00
BEN DELLARIA
You know,
00:56:00
Bruce
You can get distracted.
00:56:01
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah, you're answering the phone, doing things like that. There are certain jobs when I used to work alone that i I wouldn't answer the phone on. If I was doing oil changes or breaks before my wife worked with me and those were the call and a call came in, it it waited. i didn't answer the phone. I made sure.
00:56:19
BEN DELLARIA
that everything was done correctly, drain plugs are tight, oils back in it, all that stuff, because I'm a nut for it. o I torque everything, and I always assume that the torque's not enough, and I always freak out. Oh, my God, did I tighten all that stuff? I'll even stop, look at it, and picture it all in my mind,
00:56:40
BEN DELLARIA
if I did it, if I wasn't filming. And even if I am filming, I'm like, we can't leave. I pull the GoPro out. I go through. Yep. I tighten it. Okay. We're good to leave. Otherwise my anxiety gets me. And then, man, I have gone so far some days.
00:56:56
BEN DELLARIA
I, so in my town, I live in Denelon, whatever it's over here. Ocala is over here. 20 minute difference. I was in Ocala and I'm like, I had to go to Ocala in the morning.
00:57:08
BEN DELLARIA
And I was like, shit, I did this oil change, but I can't visually see myself tightening the drain plug. I drove all the way to Dunellin, climbed underneath that truck, made sure it was tight. Customer was like, what's up? I'm like, anxiety, got to go.
00:57:22
BEN DELLARIA
Left and went to work for the day. Wasted an hour of my day to clear my mind just because I'm like, holy crap. you know I'm in business for myself now. I never had that stress or anxiety before And now that I've been business for myself, it's, it's rampant and, and I'm just old and crazy now and I don't smoke cigarettes anymore.
00:57:44
BEN DELLARIA
So now it's all there all the time. But anyway, um if you had, we're getting to the end here.
00:57:47
Bruce
Yeah.
00:57:51
BEN DELLARIA
So if you had, how do i say this? If you had, I wouldn't say one thing you would do different. If you had one thing to tell people,
00:58:04
BEN DELLARIA
that we help get in business and all the people we're helping in the school group. If you had one thing to tell them that would encourage them to do this and to do it the right way, what would it be?
00:58:17
Bruce
um Just get training. mean, you gotta know what you gotta know what you're doing. Even you working in this, you gotta get the experience.
00:58:28
Bruce
One or two years or even schooling isn't enough experience to do this.
00:58:33
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah.
00:58:34
Bruce
You just have to
00:58:38
Bruce
There's so much you learn from working on cars that it's too much of a risk to learn that on your own.
00:58:48
BEN DELLARIA
It is because you don't know if you're learning it right or doing it right.
00:58:51
Bruce
Yeah, you don't have anybody you you don't have anybody to talk to. You don't have the guy in the next bay. Hey, how do do this? Or what am I missing here? You don't have that when you're out there as a mobile guy by yourself.
00:59:05
BEN DELLARIA
Yeah, you don't. So again, that's why we encourage everybody that's listening. If you're gonna go do this, And you don't have real-world experience. And I know I'll get a billion comments saying, oh no I've done it for 20 years and I don't have any experience. I never had experience. Yeah, but your 20 years has now given you some. So we'll give you that. But how many times in the beginning did you not know what the hell you were doing? If you don't have the service information, you don't know the torque specs, you don't you don't know how things come apart. It's just, it's not...
00:59:35
BEN DELLARIA
Cut and dry, it's not just, oh, it's a mechanics, it's easy. It's not. Cars are so sophisticated in today's world. I think we had it easy when we started, in a way, because I look back then and look at you know the basic spider injector systems on Chevrolets. like That's what I learned on, man. It was basic stuff. you know TBI actually learned on that. That was actually the first thing, the auto body injection you know on old Chevrolet.
01:00:02
BEN DELLARIA
You give that to anybody today versus the type of stuff they're dealing with today, it's vastly different. So getting that real world experience, even if it's just oil changes and brakes, you need it.
01:00:15
BEN DELLARIA
How many times are people jumping online saying, oh, I did the brakes on my brand new Chevrolet and now the ABS light's on. Well, you you broke it. The module's dead now because you pushed it back without taking the cap off, supposedly, what GM says.
01:00:22
Bruce
Yep.
01:00:28
BEN DELLARIA
was a big thing with ah Brandon Sloan talking about it and think Chuck was even talking about it too. but So I agree, man. If you're going to get into this, get some type of training. And whether it's going to these events, taking it slow, or working in a shop underneath someone for a couple of years to understand how this stuff really works, that's what you should be doing. I just i don't recommend it.
01:00:55
BEN DELLARIA
And I don't recommend it for people's safety. I don't want to crush your dreams, but someone's got to tell you to do that. Someone needs to tell you that this is the way it should be done so you could be not just successful, because I have no doubt you're going to be successful. I have a doubt that you're not going to accidentally hurt somebody and ruin someone's life or day because you didn't know there was...
01:01:20
BEN DELLARIA
those bolts should be thrown out because they're not supposed to be used again on a brake system. Or if you know you're changing an axle and this is how it's supposed to be done versus this, and you're just tightening shit with an impact and you break something, you just don't know.
01:01:34
BEN DELLARIA
So go out there and get that training and go from there. But anyway, Bruce, I really appreciate you coming on, man. Thanks for coming and talking with us. It's ah definitely, it's only episode four, but we're moving along pretty good here. And I i really appreciate it.
01:01:50
Bruce
Thanks for having me.
01:01:51
BEN DELLARIA
right All right. right, y'all. I appreciate y'all listening and we will see you on the next episode. Thanks.