Robert Morrison’s career in automotive service started with a passion for cars and a willingness to try something new. Today, Morrison is a Fixed Operations Manager at Lithia Motors, where he guides, advises and manages 28 automotive dealerships in Canada and The United States. He also continues to support Centennial College as a member of two Program Advisory Committees for the college's automotive programs.
Morrison's career journey shows how hands-on training through Centennial College's Automotive Service Technician Program can prepare students for careers in the automotive industry. His story began with a love of cars and a career change. That decision put him on the path to becoming a licensed automotive service technician.
Discovering a Passion for Automotive Careers
"I fell into it by happenstance," Morrison says about his career. "I always liked cars. I was an enthusiast when I was younger, and had my own modified car."
Morrison's interest in automotive technology started with his own vehicles. His first truck was a Chevy S10 pickup, but his biggest project was a 1993 Honda Del Sol. His passion for vehicle modification also led him to compete in international car audio competitions. Morrison enjoyed working with cars, but he had not planned to make automotive technology his career, until job posting at a local dealership changed his path.
"I saw an ad in the paper for a detailer wanted at a local dealership," he says. "I was working on a landscaping job, but didn't like it, and I knew I wanted a career change. So, I applied for the job and got it. I quickly discovered two things: There's a big difference between being able to wash cars in the driveway, and detailing a car, and that automotive was for me."
That experience encouraged Morrison to pursue a career in the skilled trades. He began an apprenticeship and enrolled at Centennial College for hands-on automotive training.
Automotive Training at Centennial College
For Morrison, attending Centennial College was once a distant goal.
"I was part of the apprenticeship program," he explains. "I went to Centennial, and I was in awe. I was, to put it politely, from a poor background, so college and university weren't in my cards. And so there I was, this mid-20s young man, walking into a place that I always had always dreamed of going to, post-secondary education, and doing exactly what I wanted to do, which was automotive."
Morrison quickly embraced the opportunity to learn. Classroom instruction and hands-on experience gave him a strong foundation for his automotive service technician career.
"Every single day, I stayed late in that at the school," he says. "I was there early, too, and hung out in the library. Any piece of knowledge that they could give me, I was hungry to learn it. That ignited my passion to be involved with Centennial for all these years after I've graduated from there."
Unlike many of his classmates, Morrison had little experience working on vehicles when he started automotive training.
"Most people worked on cars before they got into automotive," he says. "I didn’t, so I didn't know anything about cars. I started my apprenticeship, they started teaching me, and eight months later, I was suddenly in a lab class with a whole bunch of people who had a lot more practical hands-on experience than I did. But I loved it. I picked it up quite quickly. That’s a credit to the teachers."
"Everything was a challenge, but I excelled at just about everything that they threw at me," he says.
"If it was a difficult class for me, it just made me work harder to understand it and get it."
Building an Automotive Technician Career
After graduating from Centennial College, Morrison began his career as a licensed automotive service technician. His career would later take him into competition, teaching and automotive management.
"I split into three career paths," he says about his life post-graduation. "The first was an automotive technician during the day. I finished school, and then from there, became a licensed technician. In 2006, I did a skills competition for Volvo, which was the brand I was working for. I made it to the North American finals. In 2010, did it again, and won for North America. I got to go to Sweden and have an award ceremony in a castle, a giant gold medal, and all sorts of fun stuff, which was amazing!"
Morrison's second career path was teaching. That interest began while he was still a Centennial College student.
"I was a kid living in Newmarket, and the school was down in Scarborough," he explains. "Our class ended at around 5:00 at night, and traffic was miserable to get back up to Newmarket, so I would stay late and do my homework. Eventually, some of the guys that I was in school with found out I was doing homework, and so they'd stay. I would start getting on the chalkboard, and writing out what we were reviewing. Eventually, I'd have a group of 30 people in that room from all across the school, from automotive. I call it free tutoring, but it was teaching people at night." His informal tutoring eventually led to an opportunity to teach at the college.
"I graduated," he says, "I got my license, and I got a phone call from Centennial saying, hey, do you remember that thing you were doing after class in front of all the students? Do you want to try doing that in night school for real? And I said, sure. I started teaching the level 3 night release program at Centennial College."
Morrison's third career path combined his technical knowledge with his lifelong passion for the automotive industry.
"My third career in that same time period was my passion for cars," he says. "Two friends and I started up a magazine called Rear View Magazine, for lowered mini trucks, where we started writing technical articles. From there, we joined into a magazine called Performance Auto and Sound, so I wrote a bunch for them. Then I wrote for a magazine called Modified Magazine. And then I wrote for a magazine out of California called Hot Compacts and Imports. So, I had all three things going on from the time I was in Centennial College all the way to about 2010."
As his career progressed, Morrison moved into automotive management. He eventually became a service manager for Pfaff Automotive Partners. The company later became part of Lithia Motors.
"Being accepted into a manager position, it became too much to do everything," he admits. "And so, you know, I call it retiring from Centennial temporarily, because I don't ever want to say I quit, because I love the place, and I started concentrating on being a manager."
From Automotive Service Technician to Automotive Industry Leader
Morrison's automotive career has continued to evolve. Today, he draws on his experience as an automotive service technician in his role as Canadian Fixed Operations Manager at Lithia Motors.
"What does a typical day look like for me?" Morrison says. "I guide, advise, and performance manage 28 automotive dealerships. So, it's everything from hundreds of emails a day, to phone calls on how to do some process when it comes to automotive, to budgeting and planning and forecasting, and a lot of analysis on what has happened and how we can improve going forward. I'm never not busy."
Although Morrison now works in automotive management, he still values the hands-on work that first brought him to the trade.
"I certainly loved working with a car, fixing it, doing repairs, diagnosis, all that sort of fun stuff," he says. "As a manager, the fun thing is guiding and helping other people to be successful at what they do. There's tough days for sure, but there's a lot of good days where you really help somebody out."
The skills Morrison developed at Centennial College still shape how he approaches problem-solving and leadership.
"I draw from everything, and Centennial gave a huge foundation to that," he says. "I always told my students, it's not the responsibility of the course to teach you, but more the responsibility for you to learn how to learn. That was instilled in me when I was a student. That foundation on how to learn, how to figure something out, whether it be somebody's dropped a problem in front of me, to how a new piece of equipment or software works, or to how to implement some new process, it’s all part of that foundation."
Giving Back to Centennial College's Automotive Programs
Morrison's connection to Centennial College has continued throughout his career. He was also named an Alumni of Distinction.
"I'm proud to say I was one of the Alumni of Distinction for Centennial," Morrison says. "That was an awesome moment, because people who were my mentors and my colleagues were cheering on from the audience, which was amazing."
Morrison continues to contribute to the college as an industry advisor for two Program Advisory Committees connected to Centennial's automotive programs. The committees bring industry perspectives into the classroom, and help ensure students learn the skills, technologies and practices used in today's automotive industry.
"We're industry advisors, and we're supposed to give input into where the industry is going," he explains. "I also like to think I'm an advocate for the school and the program as well. I help guide the other members from industry on things that they can be doing to support the school."
Supporting the Next Generation of Automotive Service Technicians
Morrison's support for Centennial College's automotive programs extends beyond his work on the Program Advisory Committees. In his role with Lithia Motors, he helped make a $27,500 donation from Pfaff Automotive, part of Lithia Motors, possible.
"Lithia created a fund this year that supports automotive trade technicians," Robert explains. "My company recognized that industry input into supporting and helping young people become technicians was not just a value, but a needed part of the partnership between automotive dealerships and schools. And so, a handful of schools were selected, and I was asked by the person in charge of corporate gifts and donations. This was a chance to give a big dollar amount that I know will be impactful to the students at the school."
The donation reflects the importance of partnerships between the automotive industry and post-secondary institutions. For students pursuing an automotive service technician career, these partnerships can connect their education with the industry they hope to join.
Advice for Students Considering an Automotive Career
Morrison's career has taken him from automotive technician to instructor, writer, service manager and, ultimately, automotive leader in Canada. He credits his willingness to take on new opportunities as one of the factors that helped him progress.
"People ask how did you do it?" he says. "I always say, I never said no. When I went from being a detailer to an apprentice, my boss at the time pulled me into the office and said, hey, can you work in the shop for the next two weeks? I said, yes, absolutely, sure. When it came to becoming a manager, yes, sure. Would you like to teach night school? Yes, sure. Do you want to become the service manager? Yes. Do you want to become the fixed operations manager? Yes. Would you like to go talk to 5000 people in an audience down in Atlanta? I'm telling you, my knees shook before that, but I was up on stage talking to people, completely out of my wheelhouse. That's the best piece of advice I can say: Don't be afraid to try, don't be afraid to learn. That, and hard work does pay off in dividends."
"There’s a mantra somebody told me once," he adds, "called 'humble confidence.' I know that I'm in the position I am because I have a set of skills that apply to it. But you have to be humble about it. I know that I worked hard to get to the position I'm in, but that hard work doesn't stop. You continue being dedicated. I call automotive a craft, right? It’s a unique thing that people do with cars, to be able to diagnose, fix, and give it back to a customer. It was a professor at Centennial that said, you want to see the car coming back the next day, and you hope it's because the customer's got a gift, not because his car's broken again. And that's always sort of lived in my head. That's what I want to bring to this trade, that excitement for it, and the respect for what we do."
For prospective students exploring skilled trades and automotive careers, Morrison's story shows where an education in automotive service can lead. A career can begin with learning how vehicles work and developing the skills to diagnose and repair them. From there, it can lead to opportunities in teaching, automotive management, leadership and industry advocacy.
For Morrison, that journey began at Centennial College.
"It's been a fun journey for sure," he says. "It's not over by any means."
By: Anthony Geremia