Business 12 www.aftermarketonline.net APRIL 2025 Helping garages do it all — virtually Adam Molloy, operations director at A1 Remote Diagnostics, says technicians should not hold back in fully utilising game-changing technology Ten years ago, if you’d told a technician that someone 300 miles away would be able to connect to, and remotely code and programme the vehicle on their ramp, they would have laughed at you. At that point, following repair, vehicles were routinely taken to main dealers for coding and programming, leaving independent garages with protracted key-tokey times and unhappy customers. They had no choice but to be at the mercy of the dealer’s workload — which often meant being at the back of the queue. But thanks to remote diagnostic interfaces, independents can keep the vehicle in-house, dial-in a qualified remote technician, and turn the job around quickly. Technicians can remain in full control of the job in hand from start to finish. So why are garages still sending so many vehicles out to main dealers? Maybe it’s because the remote solution seems too good to be true. Completing a job in an hour, versus taking 30 days with the main dealer, is a huge leap forward in reducing keyto-key times, speeding up vehicle turnover, and raising invoices quickly. As humans, we’re geared to look for the catch. There really isn’t one. There’s hardly anything now that the right equipment, connected to the right remote technician, can’t do. It gives independent workshops the opportunity to massively expand their diagnostic capabilities. Investment in a remote diagnostic interface shouldn’t be a barrier either. For less than £1k, garages can buy everything they need to effectively have every OEM at their beck and call. Unsurprisingly, we see this investment pay for itself in around seven jobs. For the average garage, that could mean ROI in just a week. The other reason could be that garages aren’t aware they don’t need to buy a remote interface at all. If they’ve already invested in one of the latest Gen 3 tools from Autel, such as the MaxiSYS MS909 or MaxiSYS Ultra tablets, they automatically have the Autel Remote Expert function. The remote expert icon is on the home screen, right next to the diagnostics icon! It’s a classic example of being blind to something we see every day. Do you recall and use every app on your phone? Probably not. The difference here is, that oversight is relinquishing control of repair times and ultimately, surrendering a lot of revenue which should be going straight on the bottom line. We estimate there’s around 20,000 of these Autel interfaces in UK workshops and only a minority are utilising the remote expert function. This means thousands of garages must be sending vehicles to main dealers for work they already have the equipment to complete in-house via a remote technician — at a fraction of the cost, and in a fraction of the time. With A1 Remote Diagnostics being the sole provider of techs for the Autel Remote Expert Interface, we see exactly how many remote jobs are requested each day via the MaxiSYS MS909 and MaxiSYS Ultra tablets. It’s a massively underused function and I urge all technicians to put it to work. Whilst we’ve seen a 100% increase in Autel remote jobs in the last six months, the potential for growth as more garages tap into the function is huge. A1 has invested in hardware, training and techs as part of its support for Autel customers. It’s a model ready and waiting to scale, giving A1 the capacity to help the motor trade stay a step ahead and quickly resolve issues that generally delay jobs. Some of the most common issues we routinely deal with are remotely programming Ford Body Control modules and coding VW mechatronic units. The failure of these units is increasing, so I expect to see more of them in 2025. Key programming, however, remains one of the most requested remote jobs. And with SERMI on the horizon, this should serve as a warning that it’s something garages need to start gearing up for. It’s going to impact every job related to a vehicle’s security system. For advice on remote diagnostics and SERMI, contact one of our team on 0333 772 9211. Adam Molloy
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