Auto Shop Benchmarks: Biggest Changes, Key KPI's and Trends [E226]

About this episode

Hunt Demarest discusses the findings from the 2026 Auto Shop Benchmark Report, focusing on key performance indicators and industry trends.

Thanks to our partners Promotive, WickedFile, Maverick Shop Owners, and Overdryve Your technicians got more productive in 2025. Your labor rate went up. Your parts margins improved. So why is the average shop owner keeping almost exactly the same percentage of every dollar as they did the year before? The answer is hiding in your effective labor rate — and most shop owners haven't looked at it once. In this episode, Hunt Demarest breaks down the headline findings from Paar Melis & Associates' 2026 Auto Shop Benchmark Report — the largest study of its kind, built from more than 200 real shop locations across the country. From average repair order trends to technician productivity, overhead creep, benefits adoption, pay structure breakdowns, shop management software rankings, and the labor rate shame list nobody wants to be on, this is the financial state-of-the-industry episode you didn't know you needed. And it's only Part One. What You’ll Learn (00:00) Intro — the 2026 Benchmark Report is live and how to get your free copy (03:16) Who made this report possible — methodology, participation, and what Paar Melis clients get that nobody else does (05:30) How to read benchmark…

People in this episode

Host: Hunt Demarest

Topics covered

• auto shop benchmarks
• effective labor rate
• technician productivity
• financial trends
• shop management software
• industry analysis

Keywords

• auto shop
• benchmark report
• labor rate
• productivity
• financial analysis
• repair order trends
• overhead creep

Sponsors

Promotive, WickedFile, Maverick Shop Owners, Overdryve

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Paar Melis & Associates

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