Cox Automotive is bringing dealership service technology into the classroom through a new pilot program that gives automotive technical school students free access to its Xtime software, training, and learning resources.
Announced on October 19, 2026, the initiative begins at Southern Union State Community College in Opelika, Alabama, with support from dealership partner Allen Turner Automotive. The goal is to give students practical exposure to the digital workflows they may encounter after graduating and entering a dealership service department.
The program addresses a gap between learning automotive repair and understanding how modern dealerships organize service work.
Technicians still need strong mechanical knowledge, diagnostic skills, and hands-on experience, but dealership jobs also involve digital inspections, service documentation, workflow coordination, and communication with customers.
By introducing those systems before graduation, Cox Automotive hopes to help students become more familiar with the working environment they will enter.
What the Xtime Pilot Gives Students
The pilot provides participating schools with access to Xtime software and a dedicated training environment based on dealership service processes.
Instructors receive onboarding resources, including playbooks, videos, and ongoing learning materials, while students gain hands-on experience using the platform in a technician role. The training can be adapted to a school’s existing automotive curriculum, with manufacturer-specific content included where appropriate.
Xtime is part of Cox Automotive’s dealership technology business. Its products support activities across the service department, including appointment scheduling, customer check-in, vehicle inspections, service recommendations, and follow-up communications.
These processes help coordinate the work that takes place between a customer’s arrival and the completion of a repair or maintenance visit.
For students, the benefit is exposure to the administrative and digital side of service work before they begin a full-time job. A technician may need to record inspection findings, document recommended repairs, and communicate information that allows service advisers to explain work to customers.
Familiarity with the software used for those tasks can make the transition into a dealership environment less unfamiliar.
The program is instructor-led rather than a replacement for traditional automotive training. Students still need to learn how vehicle systems operate, diagnose faults, use tools safely, and carry out repairs correctly.
The Xtime pilot adds a software component to that foundation, helping connect technical knowledge with the processes that govern a real service department.
Cox Automotive has selected Southern Union State Community College as the initial school, working with its Automotive Technology Department and Allen Turner Automotive.
The partnership gives the program an education provider and a dealership partner, allowing the participants to connect classroom instruction with the expectations of an actual service business.
The company describes the launch as a pilot rather than a nationwide rollout. Cox Automotive plans to collect feedback from schools, students, and dealership partners to understand how the software fits into instruction and what resources would be required to expand the initiative. It has not announced a confirmed national expansion schedule.
Why Dealership Technology Matters for New Technicians
Modern dealership service departments depend on more than mechanical repairs. A service visit may begin with an online appointment, continue through digital check-in and a vehicle inspection, and finish with customer approval, repair documentation, and payment.
Software helps organize these steps, coordinate staff, and keep customers informed while their vehicles are being serviced. Xtime’s platform includes tools for scheduling, customer engagement, inspections, and service marketing.
Digital inspections are one example of how software can affect a technician’s daily responsibilities. Using tools such as Xtime Inspect, technicians can document a vehicle’s condition and share inspection findings, including photographs, videos, and notes, so customers can understand recommended work.
That means a technician’s ability to identify a problem must be supported by accurate documentation and clear communication with the service team.
Learning these workflows in school could help students understand how repair work fits into a dealership’s operating process. It may also help them communicate more effectively with service advisers, who often explain technical findings and discuss repair recommendations with vehicle owners.
The software does not replace mechanical expertise, but familiarity with the tools can reduce the amount of workplace training devoted to basic navigation and routine digital procedures.
The initiative also reflects a broader change in automotive education. New technicians may work on vehicles with increasingly complex electronics, driver-assistance systems, and specialized diagnostic requirements.
Dealerships must manage those technical demands while keeping service operations organized and meeting customer expectations. Training students to use dealership software gives them exposure to one part of that environment before they enter the workforce.
However, the value of the program will depend on how closely the training environment reflects the systems and procedures students encounter after graduation. Dealerships use different software combinations, and an employer may have its own processes for repair orders, diagnostics, parts management, and warranty work.
Experience with Xtime should therefore be viewed as transferable familiarity with service workflows, not proof that a student is fully trained on every dealership system.
The program’s instructor-led format is important for the same reason. Software training will be most useful when educators connect digital tasks to real workshop scenarios.
For example, students could learn how inspection documentation supports a repair recommendation or how timely updates help the service team manage a vehicle’s progress. That approach can make the software part of vocational learning rather than an isolated computer exercise.
Can the Pilot Help Address the Technician Shortage?
Cox Automotive is launching the initiative against a backdrop of persistent demand for skilled automotive technicians. Its announcement cites TechForce Foundation figures indicating that the current supply of automotive technicians meets approximately 59% of annual demand, leaving more than 20,000 positions unfilled each year.
The figures underline the industry’s recruitment challenge, although software training alone cannot resolve a shortage that also involves technical qualifications, training capacity, and employee retention.
For dealerships, working with technical schools can create an earlier connection with potential employees. Students gain exposure to the dealership environment, while participating businesses can introduce them to the processes and expectations of service work.
If the training helps graduates feel more prepared when applying for jobs, it could make the transition from education to employment smoother.
The partnership with Allen Turner Automotive gives the pilot a direct link to a dealership business. The company can provide an employer perspective on the professional practices students may encounter, while the college can incorporate the training into its existing automotive program.
Southern Union State Community College’s automotive technology instructor, Keith Futral, said the partnership would introduce students to service management processes and workplace technology alongside their technical education.
Still, the pilot’s results have yet to be established. Cox Automotive has not published evidence showing how much the training improves graduate hiring rates, reduces onboarding time, or changes technician productivity.
Those are reasonable measures to assess as the program develops, but they should not be treated as demonstrated outcomes at launch.
Its initial reach is also limited. The announcement identifies Southern Union State Community College in Alabama as the first participating school, rather than confirming that students at every automotive technical school can immediately access the software.
Any broader rollout will depend on feedback, resource requirements, and what Cox Automotive learns from the initial implementation.
The program’s longer-term significance will depend on whether it can be integrated into technical education without displacing essential hands-on instruction. A student needs to understand how to diagnose an engine problem, inspect a braking system, or identify an electrical fault before documenting findings in a digital platform.
Software familiarity becomes valuable when it supports those skills and helps technicians work effectively with the rest of the service department.
Cox Automotive’s Xtime pilot is a practical attempt to bring that workplace experience into the classroom. It gives participating students access to dealership software and instructor resources at no cost to their schools, while creating a potential connection between education and employment.
The initiative is not yet a nationwide solution to the technician shortage, and its measurable benefits remain to be seen.
But if the pilot demonstrates that digital service training can complement mechanical instruction and prepare graduates for dealership workflows, it could offer a model for future partnerships between technology providers, colleges, and automotive employers.
