Almost every argument between a technician and a shop about tools comes from the same place: nobody wrote down who buys what. The convention in this trade is real but unwritten, and it varies enough shop to shop that both sides end up feeling wronged.
Here is the line as most well-run shops draw it, and what to ask before you take a job.
What the shop provides, essentially everywhere
- Lifts, alignment rack, tire machine and balancer.
- Air compressor and shop air.
- A/C recovery and recharge machine.
- Press, welder, brake lathe, battery tester and charger.
- Fluid exchange equipment and bulk fluids.
- Information systems: service data, wiring diagrams, labour guide.
- Consumables that belong to the job: shop rags, cleaners, gloves, brake clean, gasket materials.
- Vehicle-specific special tools required by the franchise or the work the shop takes in.
What the technician provides, essentially everywhere
- Hand tools: sockets, wrenches, screwdrivers, pliers, hammers, pry bars.
- Air or cordless impacts and ratchets.
- Torque wrenches.
- Basic electrical test equipment: test light, multimeter.
- The tool box itself.
The grey zone, which is where the friction lives
Scan tools, lab scopes, specialty pullers and presses, TPMS tools, diagnostic smoke machines, and increasingly the software subscriptions attached to all of them. Different shops handle these differently and all of the arrangements below are common and defensible:
- The shop owns a shared unit for the whole floor.
- The shop buys it for the technician who needs it and it stays with the shop.
- The technician owns it and the shop pays a tool allowance or a higher rate to compensate.
- The shop reimburses part of the purchase over time.
What is not defensible is expecting a technician to personally fund a several-thousand-dollar diagnostic platform and its annual subscription in order to do work the shop is selling. If a shop takes in diagnostic work, the shop has a stake in the tool that performs it.
Questions to ask in an interview
These are fair questions and a good shop will have ready answers:
- What specialty tools does the shop own and how are they shared?
- Is there a tool allowance, and is it a stipend, a reimbursement or a one-time signing amount?
- Who pays for scan tool software updates?
- If I need a tool for a job the shop sells, what is the process for getting it?
- Who pays for training and certification, and is testing time paid?
A shop that gets uncomfortable at these questions has told you something useful.
Protect your own tools
Whatever the arrangement, your hand tools are your property and often your largest asset. Insure them, because shop insurance generally does not cover a technician’s personal box. Keep a written inventory with serial numbers on the expensive pieces and photographs of the box. Lock it. And when you own a tool the shop uses, be clear out loud that it is yours, before it quietly becomes shop equipment.
The underlying principle
Tools that belong to the job belong to the shop. Tools that belong to the craftsman travel with him. The grey zone is negotiable, and the time to negotiate it is before you are hired, not the first time a job needs a tool nobody owns.
Related reading
- Your First Tool Box: What a New Technician Actually Needs
- Tool Truck Financing: How to Buy Tools Without Digging a Hole
- Scan Tools by Tier: What to Buy at Each Stage of Your Career
- How to Hire and Keep Automotive Technicians
ARNAZ Group runs 10 Midas shops across Wayne, Oakland and Washtenaw counties. We cross-train technicians across service, diagnostics and repair, and we hire at every skill level. See our technician openings.