Thread: Yallr payin HOW much?

You get what you pay for with mechanics around the place, working on some old Ford or Holden with a carby is fine and cheap enough to satisfy anyone, change the scene with a nifty EFI thingy with a computor and all sorts of other hi tech do dads and thats where the dollars are but by geez they earn it, the equipement and training alone dictates a fee comensurate with the work and vehicle, everytime our AU has to go for work on the EFI or electric the first thing I say is "be gentle" can be scary at times but I couldnt do it in a million years, so you have to look at the big picture, how much did the that new tuning machine cost the company and how many hours to train the mechanic to use it properly, it is big dollars these days, the further technology advance the dearer things become. Bring back the HQ holden.

I like everyone else like to get stuff cheaply but I don't mind paying the going rate to get a reasonable job done when needed. But, when a garage, (autotune) charges nearly twice as much as a dealer there's something wrong.

Like 460cixysaid it's a 10 min job anyway so both garages were charging for one hour.

I suppose it can happen in any field of work I do computer stuff and a friend told me that a shop charged them $700 to refomat a computer and copy over existing data, ( my documents, .pst file, faves, etc) afterwards.

Well after reading the bits and pieces, I sometimes wonder,
how can you justify an hourly rate over $100 for a spanner swirler, i don;t care about the workshops etc, I certainly don;t want to pay for that, just the expertise of the expert. The infrastructure is at their cost not mine.( yes I know its slightly built in)
Is there any comparison for other trades, the only thing i can get that is close, is an invoice from a plumber for an eel job that cost $120, and that included the dubious country rate, ( ie travelling)

Wood butchers, ( my old trade) certainly don;t charge anything like that.

then my old profession, where I have had guns pointed at me, been chased by knife wielding fools, been fired at by middle eastern youths. and **** on by politicians, the hourly rate is not more that 40 dollars.

so you mechanicing types have tickets on yourself if you think you can properly justify anything over $100 an hour for labour only. Your not that good.



john

Originally Posted by JohnE

Well after reading the bits and pieces, I sometimes wonder,
how can you justify an hourly rate over $100 for a spanner swirler, i don;t care about the workshops etc, I certainly don;t want to pay for that, just the expertise of the expert. The infrastructure is at their cost not mine.( yes I know its slightly built in)
Is there any comparison for other trades, the only thing i can get that is close, is an invoice from a plumber for an eel job that cost $120, and that included the dubious country rate, ( ie travelling)

Wood butchers, ( my old trade) certainly don;t charge anything like that.

then my old profession, where I have had guns pointed at me, been chased by knife wielding fools, been fired at by middle eastern youths. and **** on by politicians, the hourly rate is not more that 40 dollars.

so you mechanicing types have tickets on yourself if you think you can properly justify anything over $100 an hour for labour only. Your not that good.



john

Mechanics don't get paid $100 an hour!! The award rate for a mechanic is somewhere under $20 per hour, I believe. I know I don't get much more than that, and I do a hell of a lot more than just swinging spanners!
Workshops have to charge it to cover costs.

I am sure you don't want to pay infrastructure costs, but someone has to, clearly it is the customer. That is how any business operates.

All costs involved have to be covered. These will include labour costs, insurance, rent on premises, government charges, non productive staff costs, etc, etc. Profit is also an important consideration.

Parts pricing will help cover these costs, but the only other avenue is labour costs. Hence why labour rates seem high to the uninitiated.

yeah but at the end of the day, the hourly rate deosn't drop as the business gets busier or more efficient does it?

basic back of the envelope calculation goes like this:

hours of manpower available to sell (365 days - 104 weekend days - 20 (or more) annual leave days - 15 sick leave days - 10? days for training) = 216 days x 9 hours = 1944 sellable hours per mechanic annually (2000 for the sake of arguement).

costs= rent + utilities + equipment overheads depreciated over 5 years (typically) + cost of credit (minimal if you are lucky!) + marketing (if any) + back office staff + parts inventory = approx $20k/month for a small, well equipt operation if you employ and pay a wage to someone in the back office and have your own engine diagnostic equipment.

so we know costs drop once things are depreciated to nothing and if you own your premises even better... but I'm assuming a small workshop with good diagnostics capability etc..

anyway, 20k x 12 / 2000 hours = $120... add a second mechanic and the formula should change to something like 28k x 12 / 4000 = $80, add an apprentice for pitiful wages and you can get it down to $65, but then you have added costs for space, equipment etc etc BUT we know the prices will never drop with added efficiency right as this is where the profit lies - that and working longer hours on a similar cost base!

so It's very much horses for courses... if your costs are low, you should pass it on to your customers and get in more business - more business will make you more efficient (same cost, more money in the door) - and all this assumes no double charging, accurate times, guesstimated pricing of equipment and rent - I tells ya they are making very nice margins on $100 an hour if the shop has more than 2 employees

Originally Posted by EchiDna

- I tells ya they are making very nice margins on $100 an hour if the shop has more than 2 employees

Lots of nice calculations and assumptions that don't actually mean anything at all...

Who is this "they" of which you speak?

Originally Posted by BigJon

Lots of nice calculations and assumptions that don't actually mean anything at all...

Who is this "they" of which you speak?

the owner...

I did say it was back of an envelope stuff but it is ok for a first look - in no way am I denegrating the wages a mechanic earns - they deserve what they earn...

The above calcs are IMHO pretty accurate for a small workshop, the bigger you get the more efficiencies can be found and hence in effect the lower your prices should be on an hourly rate (or the higher your margins will be - this being the more common practice).

oh and this is also a large part of my job so I'm paid well for creating nice calculations and making assumptions based on rough estimates...

Originally Posted by JohnE

Well after reading the bits and pieces, I sometimes wonder,
how can you justify an hourly rate over $100 for a spanner swirler, i don;t care about the workshops etc, I certainly don;t want to pay for that, just the expertise of the expert. The infrastructure is at their cost not mine.( yes I know its slightly built in)
Is there any comparison for other trades, the only thing i can get that is close, is an invoice from a plumber for an eel job that cost $120, and that included the dubious country rate, ( ie travelling)

Wood butchers, ( my old trade) certainly don;t charge anything like that.

then my old profession, where I have had guns pointed at me, been chased by knife wielding fools, been fired at by middle eastern youths. and **** on by politicians, the hourly rate is not more that 40 dollars.

so you mechanicing types have tickets on yourself if you think you can properly justify anything over $100 an hour for labour only. Your not that good.



john

mate how about you stick it fair up your clacker. i only see 17 bucks out of that 100 bucks an hour come and spend 38 hours in my boots and tell me we are not worth our poxy 17 bucks an hour