We are based in north Notts, are a family business on a main road, established for 60 years, 5 mechanics, 2 mot lanes.

We don't do the wash and vac service, as we tend to be too busy, but customers have the option of a free courtesy car while theirs is in for repair.

I would appreciate any feedback to put my mind at rest.

I am a one-man band and I have put my rate up to £38 from £35 for new customers and it will soon have to apply to everyone.

I have had to do this because insurance has increased and I will have to continue investing in diagnostic kit.

I charge for a "unit" of labour, based roughly on an hour of course, but I charge a unit for plugging in the scanner etc. This gets round the "you didn't spend an hour on my car!" response.

We are still a LOT cheaper than dealers locally and collect and deliver vehicles as a matter of course, because we are not in town.

If the odd customer complains about prices they are referred to the dealer. They are awfully quiet about the bills when they come back.

I run one smart old banger as a courtesy car and generally customers are pleased to be offered a set of wheels so that they can carry on as normal.

Regards,

Steve

Would`ve thought this post would be better suited to Technical discussion.

Some of us forget that this is the public part of the forum - me included just now!

Regards,

Steve

Perhaps potential customers reading this will begin to realise that £40/hr does *not* mean £40/hr into the technicions pocket!

The insurance, advertising, data subscriptions, increacing "enviromental" costs, Training, equipment and so on and so forth.

I tell customers that they stopped paying me by the "Hour" years ago!

Paul

Tom

I am obviously not the only person that has to constantly justify my 30 hrs labour charge. I recently see in the news that garages are making more money per hr than professional people like solicitors etc. What a joke !!! Are we not professional technicians ? The trouble is people still regard fixing cars as a dirty grease monkey job that everybody can do theirselves on a saturday What I find works is when dealing with a engine managment fault sit the customer down and begin to explain how modern technology has evolved.After 30 secounds you will recieve the respect you deserve.

1. Went to the dentist for a check up 5 minutes £20.
2. Call out and labour to fix washing machine less than 20 minutes on site (parts under warranty) £85.
3. House valuation (bloke gets out of car ticks a few boxes, looks in garden less than 5 minutes £175.
4. Plumber, (with all due respect carries in a bag 90% of required tools, the rest in an escort van) 6 hours work £300. (and he even said there must be an easier way to earn a living!)

Question - why do we have to justify £40-50 per hour with all the knowledge, experience, tools, equipment, ongoing training, premises, insurance, courtesey cars, rates, legislation, staff costs etc etc.

Thinking about it this way you shouldn't have to justify 30, 40 or £50 per hour.

Whilst on this rant can you think of any other trade where somebody can collect the goods and say 'will you send me the bill?' or 'can I drop the money in Saturday?' and expect to take the car away.

Paul

Another problems with all this aging technology as highlighted by Frank Massey in the PMM Mag this month, a customer may have a 12 year old Mondeo (L or M reg) as an example and worth about £300-£400 on a good day

It develops a running problem with the MIL flashing. Is he going to pay a £35:00 scanner connection fee, maybe fitting a new lambda sensor and cat plus your 1.5 hours labour rate at £45:00. This could potentially be the same value as the car, so they think why should they pay expensive labour rates for working on these older motors, not realising that they are sitting on a technology time bomb that is just going to be to expensive to fix

But the upshot is that we still have buy expensive diagnostic equipment to test these old bangers

Perhaps cars should be sold with a Government warning ie "Owning this car can seriously damage your wealth"

Peter

The problem we independents face is that many of the vehicles we work on are worth very little once they get to 5-6yrs old. Combine this with the fact that many are technically sophisticated and I feel that they will go the way of televisions, watches, shoes and many other things that were traditionally repaired rather than replaced. It doesn't take a genius to see that base model cars will be throwaway recyclable items in about 10 years.
Hopefully we may still have some oil to fuel them by then.
Plumbers and similar trades are in a different position, in that buildings and infrastructure tend to have a much longer life.You aren't going to scrap your house because it needs a new boiler or re-wiring.

Tom W

I am a mobile auto electrician, and I also keep an eye on what the local agents are charging
even if thay can't fix it.

I soon caught on to getting call outs to simple things like fuses blown, bulbs needing replacing etc. to cover this I make a min charge of £45
customer gets aprox 30 mins labour, after that it is £45 hr.

If the public wants my experience of 30 yrs and all my diagnostic equipment, insurance etc, the job carried out at their convenience at their home/work place (no leaving their car ) I expect they need to pay for it, I am in business
not a charity, I need to earn a living too.

And when I do get a query as to why it was so expensive, I tell my customer, its £10 to do the job, £35 for knowing how too.