Dealerships have spent years trying to solve the technician shortage with higher pay, recruiting bonuses and training programs. Maybe the schedule itself is part of the problem.

One Honda dealership recently expanded service hours while moving technicians to four-day work weeks. The idea is interesting: keep the shop available longer for customers while giving technicians a schedule that may be more attractive than the traditional five- or six-day dealership grind.

That creates operational challenges. Longer shifts can produce fatigue, coverage becomes more complicated and dealerships still need enough technicians available during peak periods.

But if a four-day schedule improves recruiting and retention, those problems may be easier to solve than constantly replacing technicians.

Would you trade longer individual workdays for an additional day off every week? More importantly, could dealerships attract an entirely different pool of technicians by rethinking how fixed-ops schedules work?