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OK, I am moved from Europe not so long ago. They do not have flat rate system over there but I did not find it being exactly good for me. Most important it is hard to proof that you worth to pay you more if you a good, doing a quality work and doing it fast. If you work in small shops were your presence is important (say I was the most productive, I was the only guy who able to solve ANY problem) you can negotiate yourself slightly better pay rate. But that’s it, you are still paid less then almost any other industrial/technical job. And that’is in good times, when economy turned belly up shop owners considered I gotta be happy just having a job, because others got laid off altogether.
What kept me going and doing rather well its becoming a self-employed subcontractor (still on hourly pay but I did not have to stay at work when there is nothing to do like an employees, got some little increase in hourly pay in exchange for not having paid holidays and most importantly – quite a good tax reliefs). So when I have done all the work for today at dealership I could load my toolboxes in a van and bring them home to do side work at much better rate then at the dealer. Unfortunately I did not have enough of it to stay home full time at the moment.
At the moment when I got a job offer from overseas and here I am working on flat rate now. Not too much different from doing side jobs in terms that you paid what you worth. Say I am making three times more than guy who has less experience and can’t work fast, not just 20% more like in Europe. BUT, and this is a big “but” here. I do not feel like I have to do diagnostics for free, I never did that for my own customers. Heck, if you figure how to sell it (that’s a separate topic) diagnostics is your gold mine! I do not agree that I have to do MPi for free. My knowledge, experience, expertise and professional advice about customer’s vehicle worth money. If dealer wants to play competition game and attract customers by giving that away for free – they can. BUT THEY STILL HAVE TO PAY ME FOR MY TIME! If there is no time set for operation (diagnostics is an obvious example) pay me straight time. If manufacturer says they only pay .5 hour for any diag or don’t pay at all or insists on free inspections or pay reduced hours for jobs – it is not my problem. I did not sign that dealer agreement with manufacturer or distributor, I got a job from dealership owner and he is the one who should pay me and cover the difference from his own pocket, not mine. I am not the one who gets like 25 – 60% discount on parts and new vehicles, who benefits from financing deals and from selling oils in big volume. Dealership owner makes good money on all that, he gets biggest chunk of what customer pays for MY LABOUR, so if after all that he want’s to rob me – he must be shut down (and I don’t care to lose the job, customers and broken cars are still out there!)Fairly new mechanic.. mainly done brakes and lube changes.. small repairs.. Supposed to start at a shop tomorrow… they want me to work for 10 a hour flat rate…. which seems WAY!!! to low.. expecially for somebody just starting off.. i dont see where i would even make any money… oil changes .2h brakes 1.0h
Is it just me or is 10 a hour flat rate very low… Should i pass up on this and continue my search for something paying salary or by the hour??? they are pretty hell bent on 10 flat rate.. please respond asap so i will know my options by the AM.. Thank you guys
Also i would learn alot here. but money has to be made at the same time as well..
When there is no work, dealers don’t want to pay techs. With flat rate, the techs have to wait with no pay. Doesn’t cost the dealer anything to have you waiting around. Perfect for them but bad for a tech. Win Win for the dealer. I think hourly pay plus commission would be great. The dealer charges $100 per hour but pays techs only 15-20% of that in most cases. They could afford it surely. This way, a tech could count on a minimum paycheck instead of riding a financial rollercoaster. VERY STRESSFUL .When its busy, he has an incentive to make more money. Everybody wins. This just makes sense. The base pay should be based on your skill level because some techs only do easy jobs that pay well and other techs do all of the poor paying and difficult jobs. Work is not equally distributed and this is where flat rate rewards low skill techs and punishes highly skilled professional techs. This would also improve customer satisfaction greatly. I have been in this business for 30+ years and I can tell you that without happy customers, everyone at the dealer looses out. I work at a dealership that understands how important “happy customers” are and we are busy pretty much all the time. Being an automobile technician is a highly skilled job and this field is loosing good technicians due to its pay system. Standards should be higher to be a technician and so should the pay. I have considered writing a book that would be very informative to customers as well as people thinking about being an automobile technician. Customers do not know how this all works. They would find it very interesting, I think. Thanks for reading my comment. It is something that I am very passionate about.
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