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I think hat Eric has a lot of valid points in this video. I would have to agree that when it comes to making good money on flat rate that isn’t as lucrative as it once was. The amount of time you get credit for has really been diminished because of all of the warranty work. It seems that just about everything on a vehicle is covered under some kind warranty. I also would have to agree about technicians getting “lazy” or milking time if the flat rate time if the system wasn’t in place. I just believe that with not being compensated for doing a job as it once was you aren’t going to have replacement technicians. The bottom line is you aren’t going to be a technician to get rich you do it because you love the job.
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I’ve already gone there in stating in the previous thread, I’d tell anyone thinking about it as a career (without going as many have suggested such as specializing in diesel or the like) to run away screaming.
That said, the recession hasn’t discriminated, there really is no magic career to jump ship into with a few classes. My sole advice is to look before you leap, just as you would in the auto repair industry, taking a hard look at the jobs prevalent in where you want to live, what you need to do to get there, the wage you would make, and future ability to advance in that field.
Flate rate, and [to me] warranty work as another problem topic that’s rather linked, needed to be addressed some time ago.
A. Nobody cares more about your stuff, vehicle included, then you do.
B. Compound that with a cut-rate wage to fix issues, this equates to a recipe for exchanging a single issue for others. Many instances, if it ends there, consider yourself lucky.I avoid bringing any of the few new cars I’ve purchased in for warranty work in no small part due to this. As a major consequence I’ve decided to never buy a truly new car ever again. There really is no compelling reason to spend usually around $10k+ more for something you could get second-hand(or more) where if there were some major issues, the hassle got taken care of by the first owner.
It’s much like electronics to me now, there really is 0 incentive to purchase new unless you have to have the latest and greatest right away.
I will suggest something. It goes along the lines of a car salesmen. Pay the tech “milk and bread money” for the week and for every job they complete give them a percentage of the labor cost..say 5-10% as a standard (based on education) and say for every year your work for that company you get a 1-2% raise on base pay and comission based on your work ethics and quility of work(come backs and such). That would give you incentive to do the best you can each week. Even on slow weeks there is still food on the table.
Another way is to pay the Tech a base weekly salery…lets just say $400 Gross pay..in order to make more then that $400 they have to bill so many hours in that week(we will say 40 hours)…and to make more then the base rate you have to bill those 40 hours and once you do that you get a bonus plus a percentage of the labor over the 40 billed hours…lets say 10-15% of labor.
However I do see an issue in this…if the manager likes or dislikes you then he can give the jobs to someone else…these are just some of the things I have been thinking about. Also I will state before anyone bashes me on it…no I have not worked in a shop I have me degree but with I took a job in an office for now..I am looking at going into CNC and Machining parts also using CAD and Solid Edge to design parts and sell them in a business…whenever that happens.
[quote=”Speeda86″ post=41726]I will suggest something. It goes along the lines of a car salesmen. Pay the tech “milk and bread money” for the week and for every job they complete give them a percentage of the labor cost..say 5-10% as a standard (based on education) and say for every year your work for that company you get a 1-2% raise on base pay and comission based on your work ethics and quility of work(come backs and such). That would give you incentive to do the best you can each week. Even on slow weeks there is still food on the table.
Another way is to pay the Tech a base monthly salery…lets just say $400 Gross pay..in order to make more then that $400 they have to bill so many hours in that week(we will say 40 hours)…and to make more then the base rate you have to bill those 40 hours and once you do that you get a bonus plus a percentage of the labor over the 40 billed hours…lets say 10-15% of labor.
However I do see an issue in this…if the manager likes or dislikes you then he can give the jobs to someone else…these are just some of the things I have been thinking about. Also I will state before anyone bashes me on it…no I have not worked in a shop I have me degree but with I took a job in an office for now..I am looking at going into CNC and Machining parts also using CAD and Solid Edge to design parts and sell them in a business…whenever that happens.[/quote]
Is this a typo? $400.00 monthly base pay? That’s is the completely opposite of livable.
[quote=”SpawnedX” post=41737][quote=”Speeda86″ post=41726]I will suggest something. It goes along the lines of a car salesmen. Pay the tech “milk and bread money” for the week and for every job they complete give them a percentage of the labor cost..say 5-10% as a standard (based on education) and say for every year your work for that company you get a 1-2% raise on base pay and comission based on your work ethics and quility of work(come backs and such). That would give you incentive to do the best you can each week. Even on slow weeks there is still food on the table.
Another way is to pay the Tech a base monthly salery…lets just say $400 Gross pay..in order to make more then that $400 they have to bill so many hours in that week(we will say 40 hours)…and to make more then the base rate you have to bill those 40 hours and once you do that you get a bonus plus a percentage of the labor over the 40 billed hours…lets say 10-15% of labor.
However I do see an issue in this…if the manager likes or dislikes you then he can give the jobs to someone else…these are just some of the things I have been thinking about. Also I will state before anyone bashes me on it…no I have not worked in a shop I have me degree but with I took a job in an office for now..I am looking at going into CNC and Machining parts also using CAD and Solid Edge to design parts and sell them in a business…whenever that happens.[/quote]
Is this a typo? $400.00 monthly base pay? That’s is the completely opposite of livable.[/quote]
Yes it is suppose to be $400 weekly…sorry for the confusionI have a question for all of you older/more experienced guys. What about those of us who are entry level? We can’t afford tools on top of student loans. Hell, I can barely afford rent at my parents’ house. Add the Gas just to get to work, it’s ridiculous. Those of us in the entry level positions can’t live off of our measly $12/hr. It’s bad enough at 40 hours per week, never mind this slow season get sent home early bullshit.
I have never heard of any other career that regularly has full time employees who are fighting tooth and nail to hit 40 hours in a week. I think there should be a law that says full time employees are full time. There’s your economic stimulus right there.
How about some sort of annual tool expenses payment? I know that we aren’t going to get much, but if a guy has no other choice but to spend $10,000 in a calendar year, it would be nice to get a couple hundred back.
Education/training incentives. My last shop paid an hour for every course completed. Some courses could be done in as little as 45 min, others took several hours. At least they compensated you for something, right? I usually hear that shops will reimburse you for passed ASE tests, but good luck getting a pay raise! What if you meet a certification level for the manufacturer? Can you get a decent bonus for passing the cert level? Something like stepping up from lube to general maintenance (belts, hoses, brakes, shocks, etc) should come with a $100 bonus, and at least $0.50 per hour. Good alignment guys should get $0.75 per hour added on, Tranny guys maybe $1.25? Heavy Duty $1.75, and Driveability guys $2.75?
Don’t stick a guy into a leadership role without giving him a bigger paycheck. More work for the same pay will always de-motivate a rational and sane person.I also think 6 month performance based pay raises should be inserted as well. No reccognition for a job well done is a slap in the face.
There’s my $0.02 opinion…
I think being a fleet mechanic is the way to go. Work for UPS, Fedex, or even your local electric company. They might was diesel certification though (which will be my next endeavor) Make $30 per hour guaranteed. everyday.
[quote=”Wrench Turner” post=42133]I think being a fleet mechanic is the way to go. Work for UPS, Fedex, or even your local electric company. They might was diesel certification though (which will be my next endeavor) Make $30 per hour guaranteed. everyday.[/quote]
Sounds rather high for a fleet mechanic, so i did some looking around at job postings in the states and the average was about 19.00 to the highest of 26.61 an hour.
Why i thought it was high, because i happen to live in a “boom” town. In this boom town their is a buss company that drives well over 40,000 people a day(yes most of these people are on the bus twice a day), a fleet mechanic for them that has 5 years exp makes about 35 an hours, just starting out is 25.00.
This is one of the few towns in canada and the US that you would never know there is a recession going on.
Then if you look at what i do, starting out i make just over 30 and a person with 10 years and a few extra tickets makes about 60 an hour.[quote=”Chevypower” post=42064]I have a question for all of you older/more experienced guys. What about those of us who are entry level? We can’t afford tools on top of student loans. Hell, I can barely afford rent at my parents’ house. Add the Gas just to get to work, it’s ridiculous. Those of us in the entry level positions can’t live off of our measly $12/hr. It’s bad enough at 40 hours per week, never mind this slow season get sent home early bullshit.
I have never heard of any other career that regularly has full time employees who are fighting tooth and nail to hit 40 hours in a week. I think there should be a law that says full time employees are full time. There’s your economic stimulus right there.
How about some sort of annual tool expenses payment? I know that we aren’t going to get much, but if a guy has no other choice but to spend $10,000 in a calendar year, it would be nice to get a couple hundred back.
Education/training incentives. My last shop paid an hour for every course completed. Some courses could be done in as little as 45 min, others took several hours. At least they compensated you for something, right? I usually hear that shops will reimburse you for passed ASE tests, but good luck getting a pay raise! What if you meet a certification level for the manufacturer? Can you get a decent bonus for passing the cert level? Something like stepping up from lube to general maintenance (belts, hoses, brakes, shocks, etc) should come with a $100 bonus, and at least $0.50 per hour. Good alignment guys should get $0.75 per hour added on, Tranny guys maybe $1.25? Heavy Duty $1.75, and Driveability guys $2.75?
Don’t stick a guy into a leadership role without giving him a bigger paycheck. More work for the same pay will always de-motivate a rational and sane person.I also think 6 month performance based pay raises should be inserted as well. No reccognition for a job well done is a slap in the face.
There’s my $0.02 opinion…[/quote]
You raise some good points. I’ll say that in large part it depends on where you get a job. Some shops do have a tool reimbursement as part of the base salary. Some places even provide tools but those are usually government or fleet jobs. So much of your career depends on where you get a job. If you get one in a bad place it can ruin you. If you get one in a good place then there’s no limit to how far you can go. When you’re in the job interview, make sure you interview the person that’s interviewing you just as much because your future may depend on it.
Eric,
My name is Tom Williams and I am a driveability technician for RPM Automotive in Jacksonville Florida. I have been in the industry for roughly 12 years. I have had both positive experiences and negative with the flat rate system ultimately resulting in me leaving the manufacturer that I was working for a substantial amount of time. I have also owned my own shop and I had a system of paying my technicians that is similar to the way that we get payed at RPM. We have an hourly rate that each technician gets payed. for the first year you are on flat rate and that is used as a measurement tool. At your one year you have a performance review and your pay type and rate change. Then you get payed against expected productivity. Basically they take how much production you had for the previous year and divide it by 52 weeks. You then get payed that amount each week at the end of the month if you actually produced more you get a bonus check. To make sure that technicians do not “milk” the system the average gets re-calculated each year. This is nice because I recently spent time diagnosing a vehicle which took me longer than I expected approximately 2 hours. Traditionally, I would have had to eaten that loss of time but in this case I am covered and I will make it up. I truly appreciate being valued for my experience and the tool between my ears, and it shows in the way that I am payed.
I watched the video on the Flat Rate System today. Eric has brought up many crucial points concerning the way in which auto mechanics are paid. The way I see it is that the whole world is on a Flat Rate basis even if they are on a salary. Money is rarely ever paid without products and or services rendered.
The Flat Rate system for automotive shops must be applied because there is no guarantee of work coming into any private organization. Only in situations where it is a government controlled garage where they can insure that vehicles are always coming in based on their tax stealing crooked policies could a mechanic be on a set salary.
[quote=”drthrift035″ post=45487]I watched the video on the Flat Rate System today. Eric has brought up many crucial points concerning the way in which auto mechanics are paid. The way I see it is that the whole world is on a Flat Rate basis even if they are on a salary. Money is rarely ever paid without products and or services rendered.
The Flat Rate system for automotive shops must be applied because there is no guarantee of work coming into any private organization. Only in situations where it is a government controlled garage where they can insure that vehicles are always coming in based on their tax stealing crooked policies could a mechanic be on a set salary.[/quote]
There is a post for this in the ETCG1 video section. However, just like other careers, no work coming in the door, let people go, don’t force people to fight for 15 hour paychecks.
[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=42168][quote=”Chevypower” post=42064]I have a question for all of you older/more experienced guys. What about those of us who are entry level? We can’t afford tools on top of student loans. Hell, I can barely afford rent at my parents’ house. Add the Gas just to get to work, it’s ridiculous. Those of us in the entry level positions can’t live off of our measly $12/hr. It’s bad enough at 40 hours per week, never mind this slow season get sent home early bullshit.
I have never heard of any other career that regularly has full time employees who are fighting tooth and nail to hit 40 hours in a week. I think there should be a law that says full time employees are full time. There’s your economic stimulus right there.
How about some sort of annual tool expenses payment? I know that we aren’t going to get much, but if a guy has no other choice but to spend $10,000 in a calendar year, it would be nice to get a couple hundred back.
Education/training incentives. My last shop paid an hour for every course completed. Some courses could be done in as little as 45 min, others took several hours. At least they compensated you for something, right? I usually hear that shops will reimburse you for passed ASE tests, but good luck getting a pay raise! What if you meet a certification level for the manufacturer? Can you get a decent bonus for passing the cert level? Something like stepping up from lube to general maintenance (belts, hoses, brakes, shocks, etc) should come with a $100 bonus, and at least $0.50 per hour. Good alignment guys should get $0.75 per hour added on, Tranny guys maybe $1.25? Heavy Duty $1.75, and Driveability guys $2.75?
Don’t stick a guy into a leadership role without giving him a bigger paycheck. More work for the same pay will always de-motivate a rational and sane person.I also think 6 month performance based pay raises should be inserted as well. No reccognition for a job well done is a slap in the face.
There’s my $0.02 opinion…[/quote]
You raise some good points. I’ll say that in large part it depends on where you get a job. Some shops do have a tool reimbursement as part of the base salary. Some places even provide tools but those are usually government or fleet jobs. So much of your career depends on where you get a job. If you get one in a bad place it can ruin you. If you get one in a good place then there’s no limit to how far you can go. When you’re in the job interview, make sure you interview the person that’s interviewing you just as much because your future may depend on it.[/quote]
Interview the company? I wish I would have thought of that. I do however have a good idea of some of the things I want to ask when I apply to the next place(s).
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