Meet Gary, a Technician at the top of his field
The modern Master Technician is a rare breed.
To have the knowledge, skill and desire to pass a qualification that is among the most coveted in the world of aftersales is indeed a task in itself. To do it for a brand like BMW and be at the top of that game for 20 years is almost unheard of. Meet Gary Dickson, Lloyd Carlisle BMW’s Master Technician extraordinaire.
Gary has been with Lloyd Motor Group for 27 years - 25 of those years with BMW.
Tell us a bit about your background.
I joined Lloyd Motor Group in 1996 after completing my apprenticeship with Ford. I was mainly working on light commercial vehicles at that time, but my main interest was cars, so I made the move to the Rosehill branch.
During my apprenticeship I won a National Automotive Technician competition and represented the United Kingdom at the International Youth Skills Olympics held in Lyon, France, in the subject of Light Automotive Mechanics. I didn’t win a medal, but it taught me a lot.
Tell us a bit about your career here at Lloyd.
I started with Lloyd as a Technician working on the Rover and MG brands at Rosehill.
It was a great place to work, and I made some good friends there, but I wanted to work with a premium brand so switched to BMW in 1998 where I’ve been ever since.
I since worked my way through the BMW qualifications of Technician, Senior Technician and then onto Master Technician which I achieved in 2003. This year is 20 years as a BMW Master Technician.
Gary is a member of the succesful Lloyd BMW Carlisle Aftersales Management Team - who recently won the Best Aftersales Team in the UK at the BMW Awards.
What advice would you give to someone looking to start their career in the motor industry?
There are some great career paths in the motor industry, depending on your interests and passion.
It takes years to develop and perfect your skills so finding a company like Lloyd Motor Group who support and develop you during this time is important.
In this industry there’s also plenty of scope for progression as you develop and learn new skills.
Talk us through a typical day in your role.
A typical day will include mechanical and electrical repairs on all BMW and MINI vehicles, diagnostic and investigation work, vehicle software programming and fault reporting to the manufacturer when needed. This can involve demonstration of issues by customers and road-testing cars yourself to understand any issues. I’m on hand to assist other Technicians when needed and also help with general technical enquiries from other departments.
I’m qualified to work on vehicle High Voltage systems, so carry out diagnosis and repairs of these vehicles too. I’m also involved in the preparation of future workshop bookings, where I carry out initial diagnosis into faults remotely by connecting to customers cars using the vehicles in-built Telematic function. This lets us read fault memories and other vehicle information before the car is even with us. It therefore helps make a visit to the workshop more planned, enables us to pre-order parts, and make the customer experience more convenient.
Working on advancing technologies is one of the aspects of his role that Gary enjoys the most.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Spare time is now taken up with family life which I love.
My wife and I have a 10-year-old little girl called Lily who enjoys football and karate. We also have a 3-year-old Cocker Spaniel called Wilson who never gets tired.
As you can imagine, I like all things cars and motorsport and I would quite like a motorbike, but I think I’m getting too old to learn to ride.
What’s your favourite thing about the BMW brand?
The best thing about the BMW brand is the technologies and the premium quality. Everything is well-engineered, and the technology is constantly being improved with each model.
Gary picking up his re-qualification certificate in March this year at BMW UK. Master Technicians need to pass a re-qualification assesment every 3 years.
And now a few quickfire questions:
- Vacation or staycation? Vacation
- Passenger or driver? Driver
- Phone call or text? Text
- Music or Podcasts? Podcast
- Sweet or Savoury? Savoury
- City or Countryside? City
- Smartest person in the world or richest person in the world? Richest
- Films or Series? Films
Do you think you have what it takes to follow in Gary’s footsteps? At Lloyd Motor Group we are always on the lookout for people with commitment, determination, and enthusiasm to join us. Visit www.lloydmotorgroup.com/careers for more information.
