automotive technician

store manager

automotive mechanic

service technician

assistant store manager

Monro, Inc.

As a Store Manager, this company was a joke.  I'd rather have worked for Wal-Mart again.  First off, the company pays Store Managers well below the industry standard (generally $10k-15k below the mark).  They do offer a monthly bonus based on monthly Store Profit Contribution, as do most management positions, but this barely makes up the deficit in base pay so you're really no further ahead, unless you're given a no-brainer store. Those stores are usually reserved for the more seasoned veterans who are too tired to care enough to push their stores to the next level and need the company to throw them a bone to be even moderatly successful.  

Furthermore, mechanic pay is well below the industry standard.  They start a mechanic out at a $9.00 per hour guarantee rate, with an 11% incentive with no ASE Certifications.  It sounds good initially, but you don't get paid both, it's either/or.  You're guaranteed to walk away with $360/week for 40 hours worth of work, but if you do $3363 in sales for that week, you walk away with a $369.93 check ($3363 + 11%), not $369+360.  Only a few dollars better than what a mechanic is worth.  Most others start out at the 16% mark incentive.  They attempt to make up for this deficit by hiking up the pricing of services to around 2 times their competitors.  For example, Firestone typically charges $300 per axle for brake pads with a lifetime warranty and rotors.  Monro's price is generally around the $550-600 mark, but wait!  You can't do a brake job without a brake fluid flush!  That is an additional $100.  By the time you've quoted anything over $400, the customer has dismissed you, and the mechanic is only getting paid for the $21.99 lube, oil and filter, and the customer won't think about listening to you about suspension, tires or other maintenance issues.

Mechanics can eventually have their guarantee rate raised to an acceptable level, but that also works in reverse.  If they're fortunate to get hired into a no brainer, their rate will go up as long as they're finding legitimate, sellable issues, and the customer says yes.  But they'll be waiting forever to get to a liveable wage for that bad week (i.e. the $11+ mark - the raises will usually be around $0.50/year).  If they get a slow store, be prepared to drop from $9.00/hour to $8.00 (or less) far quickly than someone in a productive store gets raised.

When the store is short staffed, whether Store Manager or mechanic, you're expected to work open to close with no breaks or days off.  It doesn't matter what's going on in your life or what emergencies there are, you have to be there.  Staffing is so short through all stores that there's no one to move around to serve the customer more efficiently.

For whatever reason, $1,000-2,000 in sales per day is considered acceptable.  You rarely find a store that will crack over $2,500 per day consistently.  Tires are not pushed as they should, and even still, the stores are stocked with very few of the heavy sellers.  For example, a P195/60R15 and similar are common for most small passenger cars which frequented this store.  There are very few available in the company, and when you go out of your way to get them in your store, you're berated by your superiors and warehouse managers for ordering 'more than they can fulfill.'  Why not get me more in the warehouse so I can get more of them and other sizes that DO sell in my store and make closer to $6,000-$7,000 per day?

There are small aquisitions here and there, which is really the only thing - according to industry analysts - that are making the financial statements look good.  Comp store sales are generally flat company wide, and there are very few opportunities to get recognized or much less to advance to the next level.

Management from Market level above is a trip and a half.  Heaven forbid you discount pricing to an acceptable level or buy in parts and flip them for an acceptable price to get the customer to buy.  You have to go full bore!  Their logic behind it is that you wouldn't go into Stop and Shop or Shaw's and get them to drop their price.  Yes, actually I would by taking their ad and comping the price at the register.  To be honest though, I would probably walk out if I found out I had to pay $7.00 for a 2 liter Pepsi or Coke or $35 for a value pack (6+ lbs. of meat.  The assumption is that customers are stupid when it comes to pricing, but when you throw out an outlandish price (let's bring up the $550 brake job again), the customer has a good idea that if they're dropping half a grand on car repair, they should probably be educated as to how that pricing stacks up against the competition. "Get the sale!  Nobody walks!  Don't let them go to the competition - our competitors won't let them leave!  They'll stay when you quote the 30 day price guarantee after the sale!"  Once you've quoted $550, the customer has decided to price shop and has cut you off, wondering what else you may try to hit them for in the future.  They go to the competitor, get the price, and it's not that the competitor won't let them leave, the customer has found someone that's more reasonable and that won't hassle them for price up front and make them do the work that Monro won't do (comparison shop).

Let's not forget that if anyone is caught stealing or threatening another individual, don't bring it up, or you may be putting your job in jeopardy via write ups or termination.  It doesn't matter how much proof you have.

Management also will provide very little support in the hiring process.  There is no formal application process that many companies in the 21st century have adopted.  It's still a walk in paper application process.  Only now are they just starting work with Careerbuilder to pull in a few names, but because they do not advertise either sales or personnel wise, it's not a widely looked for company.  You're pretty much on an island just waiting for the right wave to roll in to get any applicant, much less experienced or qualified.

I believe it was Henry Ford who said “A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time.”  The company only believes in word of mouth, and has rarely advertised.  I use the term rarely loosely, as the only advertising is done through the coupon junk mailers, no TV, and only 1 radio advertisement in New England during the 2013 Christmas season.  The advertising department doesn't even have a TV/Radio budget - instead, the Zone Manager for New England was given a 1 time windfall to buy some small radio adds, which did work, the company just won't stand behind it even though the experiment worked.

Benefits - If you need health insurance, this is not the employer for you.  For me and my wife to insure, I would have paid a monthly cost of $600/month JUST for health insurance.  Through my wife's employer, we pay $368/month for health, full dental, vision, short/long term disability, hospital indemnity, an $800/year health spending account, prescription with NO COST vaccines, with the spousal surcharge.  You'd probably be better off on Medicaid or claiming that you'd have to go through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

All in all, if you're despirate for a paycheck, I would try because I know the stress of figuring out how you're going to pay the bills is sometimes much worse than dealing with a sub-par employer in the short term.  I highly suggest however, if you do accept a position, keep looking long after you start.  You'll thank me when you receive your first paycheck.

When I worked for Tire Warehouse I started out as a part time employee. This was the managements choice and I believe it helped me adapt to their shop size, and what I should be doing during very busy times. The management made sure I knew how to use their tire removal machines and their tire balancing machines as well as how to utilize the use of their floor jacks, up to 4 at a time, because they did not have lifts like the ones I had been used to working with at Porter and Chester. I became full time within a week, I worked around 40 hours a week.
A typical day involved showing up at 7am to help open the store for 7:30am. First thing I would to when I arrived was to punch in and open the shop up by turning on the tire balancers and rolling the 14 floor jacks outside and line them up against the front of the building, Next, I brought the tool bin outside and placed an air gun with flip socket at each of the stalls. I also placed a the claw hammers in arms reach of every stall. I had to make sure we had a new "Torque sheet", set up for the day, that's where we marked down the license plate number and the job we did to the car and finally the foot pounds of torque that was used to fasten the wheels on with our torque wrenches. I would flip all the switches that turned on our air compressor, and a serious of lights in the back storage area,
When cars started to come in and the problems were diagnosed I moved as fast as I could, and as safely as I could, to jack the car up using the floor jacks, taking the wheels off with the air gun (being careful not to strip anything), and bringing the wheels inside the shop. As an example, say a customer wanted new tires. I would let the air out of the tires already in the shop by taking the tire stem valve out, while the air is draining I liked to take the tire weights off. Bringing the wheel over to the tire machine, pop the bead on each side, and clamp the wheel into place so the old tire could be removed. Once that was done, I applied a good amount of bead sealant to the wheel. I then cut the old valve stem off and installed a new one, if it was a high load wheel then I made sure the tire stem was a high load tire stem. By this time the new tires would be waiting close by, so I would take the new tire and lube the bead with tire lube then install the new tire on the wheel using the tire machine. After that I would air the tire up to 40 psi, making sure the bead has popped in correctly on both sides, and quickly install a valve stem core. From there, It was on to the balance machine, where I installed hammer on weights or sticky weights depending on the type of wheel. The balance machine also set the correct air pressure, once it gave us the all good, I would put it back on the car.

If a damaged tire came in that was fixable I would spray the tire with leak detector and look for bubbles. Once the source of the leak was found, I marked it off with chalk and took the tire off the wheel with the tire machine. I would then take the tire to the repair station and remove the nail or screw with a pair of pliers, then using a pneumatic drill I would drill the puncture out just enough so a pull through patch could be used. After drilling the hole bigger, I would attach a rounded sanding head to the drill and smooth out the inside of the tire around where the hole was. Then using a tire scraper and tire cleaner I would scrape all the extra rubber out of the inside of the tire making sure there was a nice smooth spot for our pull through patches to stick to. I would apply tire glue before pulling the patch through the inside of the tire to the outside. Using a roller I smoothed the patch to the inside of the tire and then I removed the plastic seal that our patches had. Once that was done I would apply a nice layer of rubber to inside of the tire (where the patch was), and finally snip off the piece of patch that was sticking out of the tread of the tire. Then the tire would go back onto the wheel, with new bead sealant. The wheel would be rebalanced and checked for leaks again. If everything was OK the wheel went back on the car. The lugs would get torqued to manufacturers specs.
Some days consisted of receiving hundreds new of tires which had to be counted, organized, stocked, and counted again.

The biggest thing I learned working here was that the manager and customer is counting on you to do your work as quickly as you can. To do it right, and not having to do it twice. It's not technical school, it's what technical school trained me to do, and I believe that the training helped me.

This company employees people with no standards for the automotive repair technicians or management people who know little to nothing about automotive and have corporate policies meant to keep the customer safe that do absolutely nothing in true retrospective they are hiring people who don’t even know which drain plug to pull out so when you go in for an oil change your transmission just may get drained and not your engine oil they do not look for experienced individuals at all and have hired people who don’t even know the basics of most vehicles like changing wiper blades the pay is terrible and at the mercy of whoever is running the counter for technicians while management gets a nice fat check and bonuses but good  techs may be left with under $1000 for two weeks. You are nothing but a number to this company and if you go above and beyond for them it is not recognized at all by any level of management and in fact are looked down on every step. Managers always have an excuse or scapegoat for why they can’t do things and the rates they post online for employment are completely false no one get over $30 and hour flat rate and no one gets over $20 an hour hourly they lie to bring you in. The job description is also undersold as there will be additional tasks added daily weekly monthly and yearly anything to push off extra work onto the ones making the least money and with no good compensation or insurance packages and no benefits from the company! The outrageous schedule of working Sundays when shops are left standing empty throughout the day while being yelled at to make numbers when there are no customers to make money off of is ridiculous behavior and most holidays are blacked out to have time off except for the given day as monro only closes three days out of the whole year Easter thanksgiving and Christmas. Taking a vacation is extremely difficult due to understaffing issues and due to low wages can’t really be taken to get away one would say it’s more like stay home and don’t spend money. Also you may be responsible to fix others mistakes with no compensation given and overtime is never available or if you get overtime they list it as some other expense as to not have to pay out the time and a half or double time. I seek to warn others that this company is very deceitful and may look like a good place to work but you will find a ton of corruption within and will also find that none of the policies put in place are there to actually protect you if you choose to work here be prepared to feel the terrible mismanagement  tenured technicians like myself were constantly stressed about how they were being underpaid and overworked 

Monro as a whole is not a bad place to work. 
Management:
From what ive seen going to different stores and at the shop i worked at the management and employees are usually great people. Where the management starts to suck is the people above the stores. District/Regional, they pressure everyone to to more in sales but some how seem to not realize that every store is in a big city or a college city. We were pushed to sell when we maybe have 3-7 customers a day. Alot of them being state inspections or just oil changes. 
Pay:
The pay overall isnt terrible but ive met quite a few guys that are making less than 12$ an hr. Especially when the labor rate is 130-140$/hr compared to most dealerships being 100-115$/hr. The pay just doesn't work in this economy. The commission side of the pay is also interesting. So when i got hired i was told i would get x amount of commission. I never saw a penny of that "commission". They do incentives. Which is if you do so many oil changes or alignments you get some amount of money. Which still didnt make up for not getting commission.
Work:
The work that you do at monro is pretty basic, brakes, oil changes, inspections, tires. Some times you get into bigger jobs such as replacing exhausts or cv axels. And yes those are "big jobs" At monro. The work is not hard, its actually a great place to get entry level experience in the automotive field. How ever you can go to a dealership and get trained the correct way to do things and make more money. 
The worst part: 
Atleast for me, waiting on people to show up and especially if you get a job done well ahead of time you have alot of down time. Some of the oil changes i did were scheduled for an hour and would only take 15-20 minutes. then clean the bays i used another 5 minutes. So your sitting around most of the day and to me thats boring. It ends up killing the good mood im in and makes me despise the job its self. Some may enjoy that part of it, that its not so hectic. 

Overall:
Job is not terrible, the upper management is what ruins the job. The constant pestering of the smaller shops is terrible. And with everything being pushed down from new york just makes it worse. If you're looking to get into the automotive field and work somewhere relaxed monro is fine. If you want to make it a career then go to a dealership from the start. 

A typical day at work is greeting customers, selling (presenting) service and maintenance recommendations, and finally invoicing the customer. 

Other duties include managing inventory, keeping the store clean, filing and paperwork, picking up tires and parts as needed, managing your technicians and work flow, along with various other duties. 

Management can be tough, depending on what store you work out of. Some managers are a little too high strung, while others are not high strung enough. We recently got a new market manager who is fair but tough.  He will correct you when your wrong and can be hard to deal with in the way he speaks to you. He has said he tries to think before he speaks, but from my own experience and the stories from others has a tendency to fly off the handle and has a sharp tongue. 

Most coworkers are friendly, though in this market, with the new market manager I have heard a few stories of others being "thrown under the bus." As in any job I would recommend you try your best to not give your coworkers information that may "be used against you" in the future.  That is not to say that everyone is untrustworthy, simply to say use caution in the things you say. Many of my coworkers are looking to take a step up, and the consensus in the market is many will step on you to get there if an opportunity presents itself. 

The hardest part of this job is being a constant "buzz-kill." You will have to give people information regarding their vehicles that undoubtedly will upset some people. Sometimes a 1500$ car needs 3000$ worth of work.  You can try your best to present the information in a way that is not upsetting to your more sensitive customers, but the fact remains, unfortunately, sometimes a customer will cry.  That to me is the worst part of the job.  I like to make people happy and be helpful, but you have to perform your job duties also. 
THIS JOB REQUIRES A LOT OF HOURS! be warned. It is not uncommon to work 60hrs a week. 

The most enjoyable part of the job is interacting with customers. You will eventually have regular customers who only wish to interact with you, and you will enjoy greatly interacting with them. If you do your job right, customers will actually send you Christmas cards!

If you are looking to get a foot in the door this is for you. Monro offers Inspection and Emission classes to obtain resources to further your career. You will learn about PMAs (Work Order Form), Motor Assurance Program ( what are suggested, reccomended, and required services). Starting Pay is above minium wage depending on your state. How ever you are granted to make a comission based on experience. You mist meet x amount of sales per week in order to get comission else you are paid hourly. You need to be driven with a strong work ethic to do so. This includes properly filled PMAs, good communication skills, knowledge of vehicle systems. If you are not familar with vehicles this will be tough; if you do not strive to learn. Some facilities do have outdated equipmemt if you find yourself in a shop with such. Do yourself a favour and the store by letting your district manager know. Remember though these things you want replaced do impact the stores sales. So do your job well and better the store in its sale it will better your surrounding conditions. Our store had numerous outdated or missing tools we need. Little under a year and we turned are shop into a profitable store with new alignment machine, gas caddy, transmission jack, flush machines. Changing the environment is possible if you contribute to the success. Keep your team motivated and all cylinders will be firing at full strength. One of my biggest issues are stores with 5 or 6 bays. Especially when you have jobs requiring a bay to be dead for a couple days. ( waiting on parts, tedious jobs (engine work), jobs requiring extensive work).

Company will hire new people for same positions and pay them more rather than give a raise to a seasoned veteran who has years of experience, we have spoken to multiple district managers about getting a raise but was denied on multiple occasions, but yet they have no problem giving raises to someone who works at a less busy store corporate doesn’t see the negative impact this has on employees in the management role, never found this fair in any way shape or form, it’s honestly it’s very unpleasant, especially knowing that I’m pretty much 1 of very few managers that takes time to cover other assistant managers stores, not only that but there are also very few people who has the key to the entire district, for what? So we can drive as far as possible to another store without the extra pay or without reimbursements for travel to cover other stores? This is something that has been addressed on multiple occasions only to be looked at as a number instead of a human being….. not to mention what we can’t work a 5 day work week because they don’t want us to have the overtime, we used to have overtime, to where we would work 5 days a week at 56-60 hours per week and now some “assistants” can’t even show up to work because the pay isn’t enough But I digress, the state minimum wage went up to $15 and a lot of assistants are either at minimum wage or $1 more this is completely unfair to specially considering that our customer safety is in our hands every time they come in to get their vehicle serviced. I know that I’m not the only one going through this particular situation, I’m just probably the only one willing speak up on it to let people know before they get involved and get stuck in the same situation 

In the summer of 1981 I aquired a job in a local garage doing minor repairs and tire work. But there was nothing minor about the way it made me feel to solve automotive issues and do it in a job that I truly loved. I was fresh out of High School, bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to set the world on fire. There was a sense of honor and nobility about the profession then and although nobody spoke of it there was a palitable sense of acomplishment at the end of the day.
Not so much anymore, the urge to sell sell sell has by far over-ridden any honesty left in the profession long ago. This is the legacy of my experience with Monro Muffler. Long gone was the ideal that customer service drives customer sales, their approach to auto repair is that this a retail sales industry. From the manager to the asst. manager to the technician the overwhelming mantra that drives this shop is optimization of sales. Is it needed? No matter. Do they want it? Who cares. Sell the product and no excuses. At the end of every night the person closing the store must report to head office the quantity of product sold, and that and only that is their measure of customer service. That person used to be me. Do I hate money? No. Do I hate cheats? You bet.
If money is your only driving force, you have found a home. You dont have to be good, just be a body and greedy. For those of you that actually enjoy the process of diagnosis and repair of customer concerns and only customer concerns, you would do well to walk on by. Your services are not needed or tolerated here. I spent 8 1/2 years of comeback free work here, I couldn't have been more hated than if I turned everyone in to the Feds. My crime, I wanted to repair vehicles, not burn every customer that came in the door.

The hours are long. However, depending on your ability and performance, it can be rewarding or tense. Management compensation is very good. Manager benefits include salary + commission. Additionally all employees are offered reasonably priced health insurance, long term disability and incentive awards. Depending on your district manager, support can range from very good to non existing.

Company supplies current and updated diagnostic tools, though during my employment, I found that trouble shooting support seriously lacking and that I had to take out my own subscription to Alldata to get up-to-date trouble shooting advice. This may have improved since leaving the company 3 yrs ago.

Additionally, continual and on going training was seriously lacking. Again, this may have improved. Also, one other point about training,
new manager training should be conducted at time of hire followed by
mentor training, and then shop management. At the time of my hiring and to my termination, I found the reverse to be true ( as far as my district was concerned,) Again this may have been because of the fault at the regional and/or district level(s) or at corporate.

Monro has tie ins with vendor incentive and promotion programs that can be rewarding to both the manager and mechanics.

For the most part, I enjoyed my time with Monro. I, however, encourage Monro to test suggestions from its managers and/or mechanics. Suggestions and ideas that I implemented in my shop were shot down or told to remove only to be adopted by corporate a few months later. I am not sure that they were nixed by the district manager or from corporate.

A Typical Day at Work:
A typical day involved clocking in, reviewing the schedule or daily assignments, and jumping into hands-on tasks right away. Depending on the flow, I’d work with customers, handle tools and parts, or assist with repairs and maintenance. Staying organized and moving efficiently was key, especially when things got busy.

What I Believe I Learned:
I learned how to stay focused under pressure and balance multiple tasks while maintaining quality and safety. I also picked up stronger communication skills from dealing with customers and coworkers, as well as better technical knowledge related to the tools, systems, or services I worked on daily.

Management:
Management had its strengths and challenges. Good managers made expectations clear and had our backs, but at times, there were gaps in communication or delays in getting what we needed. Still, I learned how to adapt, stay professional, and work through issues as part of a team.

Workplace Culture:
The culture really depended on who was on shift, but overall it was a mix of hustle and humor. People looked out for each other when it mattered. When morale was up, the teamwork made even the tough days feel lighter.

The Hardest Part of the Job:
The hardest part was when things got backed up—whether from short staffing, parts delays, or unexpected customer issues. Staying patient and productive in those moments took mental toughness.

The Most Enjoyable Part of the Job:
The best part was the satisfaction of finishing a job right—especially when a customer was happy or when I nailed a task I’d struggled with before. Also, the small wins during the day, like good teamwork or learning something new, made it worthwhile.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Automotive technician 155 salaries reported	$31.50 per hour
Store manager 53 salaries reported	$74,978 per year
Automotive mechanic 22 salaries reported	$31.12 per hour
Service technician 12 salaries reported	$16.12 per hour
Assistant store manager 10 salaries reported	$20.75 per hour

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