At this year’s VISION Hi-Tech Training & Expo, Autoflow’s own Craig O’Neill stepped in front of 70 early-career technicians to teach a class on Digital Vehicle Inspections and came away with exactly what he hoped for: meaningful connections, resonant conversations, and a room full of people ready to hear something important.
It was Friday morning at VISION, and the energy in the room was unmistakable. Around 70 students had registered for the General Service Technician Academy, a hands-on training circuit built specifically for early-career technicians, and they arrived ready to soak it all in.
“There was a genuine buzz of excitement,” Craig recalls. “You could sense it.”
What Craig brought them wasn’t just a walkthrough of inspection checklists. It was a philosophy.
Echoing Forward
Craig’s approach to DVI training is rooted in a conviction he traces back to his mentor, the late Canadian business coach Bob Greenwood, who passed away in 2021. Greenwood reframed what it means to work in automotive — not as fixing cars, but as serving people.
“I often quote Bob Greenwood in my training, and I regularly cite the impact he had on my career,” Craig says. “To carry his words forward and see them resonate with a new generation was a real honor.”
A few of those important words Craig carried into the room that morning was a simple but clarifying statement of professional purpose: “It’s not just to fix cars, your job — your professional responsibility — is to make sure the vehicle is safe, reliable, and efficient. That’s the job. And, you can’t do that unless you inspect every vehicle that comes into your bay.”
That resonance wasn’t incidental. The students, who were early in their careers, many of them still forming their professional identity, responded to the emphasis on ethical and professional responsibility in a way that Craig found genuinely encouraging.
A Different Kind of Room
In a thank-you note to the VISION team for the opportunity, Craig reflected on what made the group stand out.
“Much of my experience in speaking to audiences has been around managing change and encouraging new habits. That group on Friday was different. It was refreshingly open-minded, receptive, and engaging. Fresh clay.”
He added something that speaks to why this kind of work matters beyond any single event: “I hope this was fuel for the attendees. It was also fuel for me and a renewed sense of the importance of the work that we get to do.”
That difference matters. Reaching technicians early before habits calcify and shortcuts become routine is one of the most leveraged investments an industry can make. The inspection isn’t a checkbox. It’s the foundation.
The One Thing
If those 70 students carry only one thing out of that room, Craig knows what he wants it to be.
“The inspection is integral to everything else they will do,” he says. “And the integrity with which they perform those inspections will translate into every part of their career.”
That’s not a DVI lesson. That’s a life lesson delivered on a Friday morning in Kansas City to a room full of people who were ready to hear it.
