Mod (Ret.)

Those of you that think the dealership charges high labor rates need to take some classes on basic economics. While I will agree that $90.00 is high for labor on changing oil, you need to factor in the high operating costs of a dealership. Building, property, employee saleries, employee benefits, utility bills, and advertisment to name a few of their costs to operate as a business. It's not a cheap business to run and make a profit at.

Yep, they sell cars, but that's a one time deal. Once the car is sold, the dealerships day to day operating costs get paid by the services they also sell/offer.

No one stops you from using a lower "overhead" shop, or to do the work yourself.

tleach17

I am a Tech at a CAT Dealership. Our labor rate is $134.00/HR for customers and $135.50/HR for warranty work. It sounds crazy but there is SO MUCH overhead for a large shop. I find the biggest expence is all the people that dont make any direct revenue for the shop, IE office workers, managers, tech support ans so on. Thats a lot of salaries for all the techs and salesmen to make up for. Not to mention cost of tools, power and upkeep.

JJ1983

Your right, I fix the thing myself, and i can MORE than afford to pay someone to repair my cars. I don't need economics to figure out how to turn a wrench. All of their overhead is none of my concern, only the 130+/hr they charge to do a job that shouldn;t charge what it does.

When I worked for a shop a few years ago (worked on Komatsu Excavators, John Deere Tractors, Kawasaki Loaders, Duetz Diesels, Hitachi to name a few), the going rate was 60 bucks. What happened?

So, economics will better help someone understand why they are getting robbed for 90 bucks to do an oil change? nah man, that is just rediculous. Not my problem though, I own a truck I can work on.

JJ1983

Exactly, paper pushers that are non-productive cost the bigger part of the overhead, the same at the plant here that I work at. Operators make product, managers are there to make sure the product is made, then you have the other "flock" that does nothing because we operators end up doing their jobs anyway when we work nights.

BJV269SS

[quote=seniorFORDtech;351747]the dealer I work for when I started 64.00 hr now $115.00hr and we are far from the highest in the area.. labor rates in all fields construction,plumbing,electrians all are in the 90/100 hr range.
and being a tech you need to be all of the above..

quote]
WOW!!! I was a flat rate guy for 20+ years. I hear ya with how it works . I know times have changed and everything costs more. Our dealer also owns Chevy,Chrysler dealers too. The 3 buildings are all brand new and cost millions so he has to pay for them somehow. Whith guys like us that fix their own stuff I'm sure it cuts into their income. They got to make it somehow

Ruprecht

I'm an electrical contractor and I deal with this everyday. I am constantly evaluating my costs and profits trying to find a price that's fair for everyone. I'm ready to give up and just start charging what everyone else does. When I charge 85/hr I get grief. When I charge 65/hr I get grief. If I charge less than cost I get grief. I've learned that if customers aren't complaining about the price then I am not charging enough.
Auto techs have it worse than me as far as staying current with technology and I can imagine their insurance costs are as bad as mine.
Keep in mind that for every hour someone spends working on your car or your home, they spend several hours buying parts, doing research, taking classes, paying the taxes and insurance, driving to your home, etc. etc.
I found an independant shop that isn't cheap but does very good work and that I trust. I'm just fine paying the bill and I give em no grief about it. I know that if I don't want to pay, then I can just do it myself. It's easy, just take classes for years, apprentice for years, work for a few more years , then buy thousands of dollars of tools, buy or rent a garage.......

tleach17

Bingo! They have all the techs opening work orders and closing them now to but without giving more flat rate time. We were talking about it at our last union meeting, we can do there job but none of them can do our job.

thump

So you guys can handle a SOX accounting audit, or an DOL EEO or FLSA audit? I'm sure the techs are all ready to explain to the IRS the depreciation schedule applied on all those various capital expenses for the buildings and big machines. Sorry folks, but without accounting and payroll, your company ceases to function. The guys "on top" don't want to shell out for the paper pushers any more than you do. You don't think they'd fire them all in a second if it was realistic and put the extra cash towards their bottom line?

JJ1983

I participate ISO audits for some reason? Can a paper pusher handle an Iso 14001 or ISO 9002 audit on their lonesome, or a USDOT audit? Why should operators in a chemical plant participate these audits, where the controlled SOP procedures are located, ensure that there is not more than a specified amount of copies floating around, ensure that the correct documentation is in the control room for sertain Incident Command situations? Why are the operators in my plant somewhat responsible for the "controlled documentation"? I should handle operations only, it's my job scope. I participate in more audits than one might think, and they are the more inportant ones, especially the TCEQ audits on the emmissions and proper reporting of incidents such as our incinerator documentation. I was mainly referring to people that really have no job scope, except to leach. You and I have both seen these in dealerships. Payrol and accounting have a job scope, an example of a person without a job scope would be a secretary that just floats around chit chatting driving up the costs of services and products.

Ruprecht

That secretary does have some value, but what gets to me is that the secretary ends up making as much or even more than the highly skilled tech, yet has zero safety risks, works fewer hours, and still demands extra perks. Of course, I'm not as pretty and I smell much worse at the end of the day.