Around this time in any normal January, many members of our industry would have decamped to Harrogate for a few days to visit or exhibit at BIGGA's BTME exhibition.

I always feel the week in North Yorkshire is a great way to kick-off the industry's calendar of events for the year. It's a show where plenty of business takes place but it's also a very social show. Having the conference centre slap bang in the middle of a town full of lovely pubs and restaurants (remember those?!) is most conducive to this. I expect I won't be alone in being extra grateful for that element of interaction with peers and colleagues at trade shows whenever we're allowed to get back to moving around more freely once again.

Until then we'll continue with Zooms, phone calls or with the limited encounters that are permitted with customers. On which, how has that been going for everyone? We've heard anecdotally throughout this thing that some customers are absolute sweethearts, complying with all the rules and restrictions which you need to put in place at your dealerships to be in-step with the guidelines - others... not so much!

Speaking to dealers over the past weeks and months, I've heard comments along the lines that some customers simply don't seem to realise (or more to the point, care) that there's a pandemic on!

An issue we've heard of specifically just recently, is that some members of the dealership's staff have faced difficulties making so-called 'contactless' collections of machinery for services. Basically they are still faced with having to root through customers' garages etc to acquire the machine. Not an ideal situation at the best of times, but right now? It's frustrating to say the least.

Winter servicing

I suppose if we're looking for a bright side, it at least implies that winter service work is holding up this year under these extremely unusual circumstances? Is this a fair assumption though? We'd be very interested to hear some feedback on this subject from our dealer readers today please.

We're running a short survey this week, as we do each year around this time, asking you about how your winter servicing is going. It will be interesting to discover with all that's going on, how busy workshops have remained.

When we asked you this time last year we heard from our survey respondents that workshops had held up well compared to the previous year. Many in fact reported increased business. Looking back at the results, we reported in fact that 60% of dealers who answered the survey had said that servicing levels were either up or well up on 2019. Only 11% reported a downturn.

It'll be fascinating to see if there's any great difference this winter.

One issue which we heard loud and clear from the comments received from dealers who completed the survey last year, was just how tough dealerships were finding employing quality staff for their workshops.

One respondent told us, "We find it simply impossible to find reliable, qualified technicians." Whilst another said, "Employing decent technicians will be the single largest issue for agricultural machinery dealers in the years to come."

As well as this we heard concerns about provision of training courses and the unwillingness of older technicians to get on board with robotic or cordless technology.

One would presume that not much has changed on this recruitment front during the past twelve months - but you tell me? Is anyone seeing a greater pool of local jobseekers to pick from perhaps, if other sectors are shedding workers currently? It'll be interesting to hear our readers thoughts on that.

You may have noticed today that LE-TEC are running a competition looking for champion technicians. Whilst personal recognition for the winners is of course important, the bigger picture here is to create some excitement and publicity around a landbased engineering career. Hopefully some quality entrants will throw their hats in the ring and the videos can be used to sell the sector, creating some buzz. The key then of course, will be getting the clips seen by the right, interested people. A great challenge in itself.

So please take our survey today and let us know how the servicing side of your dealership is faring and your recent experiences with finding technician staff.

As ever we'll be publishing the results and a selection of your comments in the next issue of Service Dealer magazine.