There’s no doubt that the coronavirus pandemic has affected us all. And though there are signs that we, as a society, will soon be slowly filtering back into our workplaces and out of quarantine, the effects of this event will be felt for months to come.
We here at Transmission Digest don’t take for granted how lucky we are- we have jobs which we can perform from home. Many in our industry don’t have it so easy, and we tip our hats to you brave men and women making things work when society has ground to a near halt.
Shops that have been featured in this magazine – successful shops run by honorable and intelligent men and women – have been seeing these effects firsthand.
“Our business has definitely slowed down. We are usually a week out, but consumer confidence has dipped so low due to the majority of the country being quarantined, most people just aren’t going out and about. Fewer vehicles on the road simply equals fewer vehicles rolling through the doors,” said Justin Fleming of Transmissions Plus Inc, featured in the January issue.
But, in the spirit of the transmission industry, Justin isn’t sitting on his hands during this outbreak. “I see this less as a ‘recovery’ issue as I do a ‘weathering the storm’ issue. This pandemic has essentially blindsided the world. Nobody was prepared for this level of adjustment. All we can do is adapt to the situation and offer what we can where we can to try and help the community. One of the immediate steps we took was to offer free vehicle pick-up and delivery, as some customers may choose to have a contactless experience. With our pick-up and delivery, our customers can authorize work orders and make payment for services remotely, all from the comforts of their home. We have also been taking on work that we normally wouldn’t take.”
Justin also said that the shop has kept close relations with other shops in the area, sending each other referrals. “At the end of the day, we’re all friends and neighbors. We just want to stay open as long as possible, not only to support us, but our community too.”
Our most recent shop feature story, in the April issue, was on G-Force Transmissions in Alaska. When we first spoke to G-Force, Co-Owner Michael Gallagher said, “Nobody up here has it.” Indeed, the virus took a long while to show up in Alaska, but since that time, and before the feature story was even fully written, we spoke with them again and learned that the virus had arrived and was affecting business. Michael said that they had seen a decline in numbers.
No doubt we are all being affected. But to those shops and business out there struggling, know this: you are not alone. Keep in touch with each other, support each other as best as you can, and take it one day at a time.
The pandemic will end, and we’ll return to normalcy one way or another. Until then just remember: we’re in this together.
