Talking Shop: John Falck

Working at Virginia Tech since February 18, 2008

John Falck gets his hands greasy for a living. For nearly 10 years, Falck has spent his work days maintaining Virginia Tech’s fleet of about 300 state vehicles. The vehicles range from utility vehicles that employees use to travel across campus to standard passenger vehicles and buses. Falck’s garage also services the Virginia Tech Police Department’s fleet of police cars and SUVs.

Over the summer of 2016, Falck, Virginia Tech’s automotive shop supervisor in the Office of Parking and Transportation, played a role in modifying both of Virginia Tech’s new Dining Services food trucks.

Virginia Tech’s Fleet Services program provides high quality, safe, clean, and economical vehicles to students and employees for official university business. Falck plays an integral role in making sure the vehicles run safely.

Q: What do you do on a day-to-day basis?

A: I run the shop here at Fleet Services. I’m in charge of making sure all the vehicles that we have are road-ready. I take care of the maintenance and repairs. We can do the repairs here, or I will contact local vendors for repairs that we’re not able to do here and coordinate with them to get the work done.

In addition to my managerial duties, I also do the majority of the work on the vehicles in the shop. I stay busy pretty much all day long. I answer the phone, I make work orders, and I work on the vehicles. You name it, I do it.

Q: How did you come to work here?

A: I’m originally from Arlington, Virginia. I’ve been a mechanic for a little over 20 years now. I started at Monro Muffler/Brake, and after a while I moved over to Shelor Motor Mile. From there, I came here, and I’ve been slowly working my way up the ladder from an entry level technician position. Now I’m a Master Certified ASE Technician in a supervisory position.

I enjoy the variety of different things that I do during the day, because there’s no monotony to it. Things keep flowing, and the days go by pretty quickly.

Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?

A: I go to a lot of auctions. I like looking around for interesting items and things I think I can re-sell for a little extra money. I do a fair amount of video gaming, and just working around the house and tinkering with things.

Written by Steve Barnett, a 2015 multimedia journalism graduate currently studying public relations.
First published: March 28, 2017