No room for shortcuts

After spending a few days at ETI's ToolTech in Palm Harbor last month talking with shop owners, technicians, and tool and equipment manufacturers gave me a clearer picture of where the industry really stands right now.

A lot of the topics weren’t new. We have been talking about vehicle complexity, tool access, and training for years, but hearing it directly from the people doing the work every day, and seeing how those challenges are playing out in real time, made it feel different.

What stood out most is how connected everything has become. Diagnostics, repair procedures, tooling, calibration, none of it lives in its own lane anymore. Shops are not just fixing a problem, they are managing an entire process, and every step matters more than it used to.

ADAS came up often, but not as a standalone topic. It was part of a bigger conversation around workflow and responsibility. Calibration is not just the last step. It depends on everything that happened before it, from how the vehicle was measured to how it was repaired. That level of precision is now expected, not optional.

I also heard a lot about the realities shops are dealing with day to day. Tools are harder to access. Some are expensive, some are backordered, and sometimes they just don’t exist yet. In those cases, shops are getting creative, finding workarounds, leaning on relationships, or turning to the aftermarket to fill the gap.

On the technician side, the challenge is just as real. Recruiting is tough, but keeping good people comes down to training and investment. The shops that are putting time and resources into their technicians are seeing the difference.

There is also a noticeable shift in how shops are operating. Larger groups are using their size to share tools and resources across locations. Smaller shops are feeling that pressure and trying to figure out how to keep up without overextending themselves.

At the same time, there is no shortage of problem solving happening. Whether it is tool innovation, new repair approaches, or simply technicians figuring things out in the bay, the industry continues to adapt.

Walking away from ToolTech, the biggest takeaway for me was not about any single trend. It was about the pace. Everything is moving faster, and the expectations are higher across the board.