tyrguy

It happens. I'm fanatic about records so yes I have file on this. In the last 11 years we have had 20 instances of loose wheels. Sounds like a lot but we are talking 15 to 20k wheels off and on a year so the % is really low. Anyway, of those 20, 5 actually resulted in a wheel coming off. The rest were all just loose. The miles from service to problem was 20 to 7002 miles with the average being 1616 miles. Only 8 were under 500 miles and only 3 were under 100 miles. 4 were over 3000k miles. We hand torque every wheel and the guys are pretty good about cleaning the corrosion on the mating surfaces. There is no doubt that the 8 under 500 miles were probably our fault. From 500 to 1000 miles it starts to get questionable and I really don't consider those 4 over 3000 miles our fault. However, if the customer believes it was our fault it's best to just handle it and apologize. Non of the wheel off instances resulted in an accident, just some body damage. Over half the time no repairs are necessary. The other half we might have to change some studs or buy a used wheel. Again, it happens. Don't beat yourself up about it.

Very possible [i assume you're talking about the pistol, not the drugs]. I'd bet a million bucks it was found in the rear tire. The front tire kicks it up and the rear tires hits it as it's tumbling. We've found all kinds of things in rear tires. Vice grips, tie rod ends, sections of coils springs or brake rotors, you name it. Once found a pair of scissors in a tire. It was in three parts, both halves and the screw. Took the pieces out and reassembled them. We have actually kept everything taken out of tires for the last 37 years. Keep saying I'm going to put them all in a glass case for viewing. Maybe tomorrow......

I pay my guys per hour billed or a minimum whichever is greater. Their hourly flat rate per hour billed is $34/ hour. Their minimum is 60% of that which is $20.40 per hour. They work 44 hours a week. The flip from hourly to the flat rate works out to be 27.6 hours billed. If they bill over that, they get the flat rate amount. If they bill under that they get the hourly rate. So their minimum is $938.40 no matter what.

We do tablet inspections. Nearly all oil changes are sold with a courtesy rotation. I always schedule a full hour for the service. Could it be done quicker? Sure, but scheduling an hour gives a us a bit extra time in case some small extra service is performed.

What do you contribute the 65% increase in RO dollars? Using estimates, if your labor was $115/hour and just to make the calculation easy, lets say your parts were $75/ hour, that would be an $190/hour parts and labor x 2.0 hour = $380 ARO [your stated previous ARO]. So if you raised your labor to $150, the calculation would be $150 + 75 = $225 x 2 = $450 ARO. That's a long way from $628. Did getting rid of the bottom feeders mean you upped the average job from 2.0 hours to 2.80 hours? I could see that because the better customers are more willing to approve more work. Plus, with 33% less vehicles you can spend more time with each customer. Lastly, you might be able to sell more premium parts. Did I answer my own question?

Well not really. If the yearly maintenance number per vehicle is $766.50 and you're seeing the vehicle twice a year, the average ticket should be $383.25. That's a more realistic number.

Of course prices change. The point I'm trying to make is create a process and stick to it. The bigger the shop, the more people involved, the more this is necessary. Not just in pricing but in all areas of operation.

You say it won't be a problem but if you're making it up as you go, there are bound to be inconsistencies. It reminds me of the old saying, "always tell the truth and you won't have to remember what you said". Develop a matrix. Use one labor guide. Use these to build your quotes and you'll never have to remember what you quoted.

The problem with randomly varying your price from the matrix is you possibly end up with inconsistent pricing. This is especially true when you have more than one person pricing jobs. You might have one of your people quote a job over the phone at one price, then a week later when the guy makes his appointment and comes in he's told a different price by a different guy. Actually, this could even happen with only one guy quoting prices if he doesn't remember what price he came up with last week. Consistent pricing is VERY important to to the public perception of your shop. Set up your matrix that will yield a fair profit and stick to it.

I close out the job when completed. If the customer doesn't pick up on that day, I just put in on account. Then when they come in and pay, you do a paid on account. This gives you a more accurate idea of where you are at any point in time. Also, if we have an uncompleted in process job at the end of the week, I make an invoice out to an account called "work in progress " for the hours actually completed on the job. That way I have an accurate record of actual hours completed that week, even if not all are billed. It also makes sure my guys are paid for their hours. Example:10 hour job not finished on Friday to be completed the following Monday. I ask the tech how far along on the job he is. He answers that he has 2 more hours to completion. I invoice 8 hours to the "work in progress" account. Monday when he completes the job, I write a credit to the "work in progress" account. So he gets paid for 8 hours for the Friday and 2 hours for the Monday.

Remember, the retail prices derived from this matrix include everything. We do run monthly sales off these prices ranging from $40 to $60 off per set. We seem to be fairly competitive with this matrix. In fact, even pricing against Tire Rack and such once you add their shipping and our mounting and balancing often times we are withing the sales tax difference. And if congress would ever get the internet sales tax thing figured out that Tire Rack advantage would disappear. cost 0-50 39% [divide by 61] cost 50-75 36% cost 75-100 33% cost 100-125 29% cost 125-150 28% cost 150-175 26% cost 175-200 25% cost 200-225 23% cost 225-250 22% cost 250-275 21% cost 275-300 20%

We stock upwards of 2000 tires as well even though we get twice a day delivery from ATD. I think that's why we sell quite a few more tires than other shops I' m familiar with. There are just a lot of people that come in without an appointment and want tires NOW. Plus, we sell quite a few tires to the local car dealers and they need them NOW. As far as Frostytire's comments about completing a 4 tire installation in 30 minutes by himself, well maybe. If the tires are not low profile, are mounted on steel wheels and the TPMS is auto reset. But install 4 30/35/40/45 series tires on aluminum wheels, cleaning the corrosion from the bead area, cleaning all the old tape weight adhesive off the back of the wheel [because all the other tire stores never did], cleaning the corrosion from the wheel and hub mating surfaces, and possibly having to reset the TPMS and I challenge him to do it by himself in 1 hour. By the way, yes we do mark our tires up using a matrix just like parts. A different matrix but a matrix non the less. And we average about $150 a set. That's using the invoice cost and doesn't take into account program dollars.That includes everything we do at that time plus all future tire services including rotations, re-balancing, flat repairs and pro rated RH. A free alignment check is included as well. About 30% of the checks do not need an alignment.

Update. For whatever the reason, someone turned the switch back on last Tuesday and we've got work coming out our ears now. I just can't explain why everyone was staying away for the last 4-5 weeks. I've had some long time customers come in and say "you mentioned some work I needed done a while back, I'd like to get it done now". So I've actually asked some of them, why this week? Why not last month? I had hoped to shed some light on what this collective consciousness was that was causing everybody to stay away. You know, maybe something like "I just haven't felt comfortable spending money with all the uncertainty with the economy and the political climate right now". Instead just a blank stare and the comment "I don't know, here's the keys". Whatever, hope it continues. I really believe it might just have been the weather.

double post

I realize that the absolute best situation would be for each tech to work on 1 car a day and bill 8 hours. That's 1 customer to write up, 1 car to rack, 1 car to test drive, 1 customer to take care of at checkout. Obviously that can't happen day in and day out but the idea is still sound. Work on less cars but bill the same hours. That's always been my thinking. But getting back to this April thing. Car count this year to last. 2016/2015 January 209/207 February 185/199 March 226/217 So first quarter totals 2016 619cc vs 2015 623cc. Basically flat However April 2016 171cc to 2015 250cc. A 32% decrease. BTW, I only count cars my service techs touch, not tires only cars. Anyway, I just got back from a meeting in Akron with a bunch of tire dealers and everyone was down last month. Many over 20% down. So I feel a little better.

Internet problems today. Sorry for the double posts.

Internet problems today. Sorry for the double posts.

double post

As far as customers going somewhere else, that could very well explain the general decline in car count since the recession. We have a few more bays in town than we previously did. And I work on that everyday. However, this thread was more about the last 5 weeks and this unprecedented dead April and early May. Something strange is going on. It's a general slowdown. It's the Walmart Tire and Lube who's bays are within 150 yards of where I am sitting. It's the NTB a half a mile down the street. The Valvoline quick lube and Midas in town. My buddy's shop I mentioned previously. I'm hearing it from the local NAPA store owner, my other parts sales people and my ATD contacts. The car dealerships that buy tires off me haven't been because they are slow. I was told the other day that the dealerships parts truck normally make 15-17 deliveries a morning made 2 that day. It's other business' like my significant other's carper/ flooring store. EVERYBODY IS DEAD. Is it the cold spring here? Is it uncertainty due to the political climate? I wish I knew.

I've been in business for 37 years this November. Started with myself and 1 tech straight out of voed school. Business grew thru the years to 1.5M in sales with myself, 2 service advisers, 3 full service techs, and 2 tire techs. Had a pretty good run for the first 29 years but the last 8 have been rough. 2008 was the last normal year we had. At that point we had had a run of 15 straight years of 96-97% hours billed. Then the recession hit and things have never recovered. Every year our hours billed continued to drop. Last year we billed about 73% of our hours. It's all due to declining car count. Two weeks ago that first employee came to me and said that he was retiring from this business to concentrate on a non auto business he was running at home. It was a bittersweet moment for me because being together everyday for 37 years he is like family to me, but on the other hand, I truly haven't needed 3 techs for the last few years. So it saved me from laying a tech off, something I promised myself I would never do. Three years ago when we ended 2013 billing about 85% of our hours I thought it was the end of the world. However, at this point, 2013 seems like the good old days. We have a beautiful shop, built in 2007. We have great online reviews. We are doing more marketing than ever before. I still have a great staff that averages 16 plus years of service here. We keep up to date with electronic inspections, etc. I'm here everyday fighting the good fight. Even at last year's numbers, I made money and had a positive cash flow. But....what in the world is going on this spring. Talk about soft. We just had one of the worst months we ever had. Down 30% from last April. And it's not just me. EVERYONE I talk to here in NE Ohio is dead.. The foreign car shop we do alignments for is never slow because he specializes in German cars. He's slow so now he is working on domestics. A small shop across town had one small job yesterday and nothing on his schedule for the rest of the week. A customer that works for a steel company told me April was his worst month in 10 years. I truly believe we will find out that we are already in a new recession. I guess I just want to hear from you guys that it's like this all over, misery loves company. Plus hearing it helps me to sleep at night. Sorry for the long rant.

Three years ago the BWC did an audit of my classifications and I was able to keep my two service advisors classified as office personel. Although they didn't give me reason, looking back on my audit exit notes I believe the following influenced their decision. 1] My service advisors share an enclosed office behind the counter where they both have their own desks. 2] My service advisors wear different unforms than my techs. 3] My techs are all ASE certified where my advisors are not. 4] My techs are not at all involved in selling the customer.

My 3 techs average 27 years tenure with me. I pay them way too much but they're kinda like family. I pay them $36.00 per billed hour or $21.60 per hour whichever is greater. They work 44 hours per week so their minimum is 40x21.60 + 4x32.40 = $993.60. So, if they bill over 27.6 hours, they get paid for the hours they bill, under 27.6 hours they get the minimum. Until the 3rd quarter of 2011 they rarely ever got paid the minimum. Since then, it's been happening a lot as business has slowed down.

When selling tires we don't charge anything extra. When doing free [include with tire purchase] rotations, and repairs we don't charge anything extra. If we are doing any other tire tire work [mounting, repairs, rotations] on vehicles that don't have our tires on, we charge $10.00 extra for a "minor" reset [look up and perform reset without plug in tool], and $20.00 extra for a "major" reset [relearn sensors with plug in tool].

My family actually sold the land my tire store of 28 years was located on to Walmart to build a superstore. We ended up building a new store right behind the Walmart. I can throw a baseball from my bays to their bays. Before the Walmart, my unit sales had stagnated at about 3800-3900 units per year. The first year with Walmart next door [2008] we sold 4500 units, a near 20% increase. Believe me, having the traffic that a superstore generates next door far overshadows any competition they bring. Plus, we've developed a good relationship with them and they send us alignments, brake work, etc, as well as the stuff they break and need repaired. Additionally, when they run into complicated tires issues, they send them our way. Their tire prices initially seem low until you add in lifetime balancing, flat repair and road hazard, all services we include in the cost of the tire.To be frank about it, I don't know how they sell anything anyway. I usually buy stuff in the store and check out at the tire and lube service counter. What I observe just causes me to chuckle. They never answer the phone. People sometimes wait at the counter for 5 or more minutes before anyone even comes back to the counter from the service area. And recently, they quit taking appointments for anything which means they are constantly backed up several hours because they are so slow in the bays. And to be totally honest, even as slow as my business has been for the last year and a half, I probably don't want most of those customers anyway.

Hello from NE Ohio, I just found this site, great stuff. I wonder how everyone is finding their business these days? This is the worst year I've seen in a long time. I have a 12 bay tire store/repair shop doing about 1.5 mill in sales a year, 70% service/30% tires. This is my 33rd year in business. I started in 1979 with myself and 1 employee. I now have 2 service writers, three full service techs, and 2 tire techs. The average tenure of my employees is 20+ years. From the late 90s thru 2008 my three techs averaged billing 6181 hours out of 6285 hours worked for a productivity of 98.3% It didn't matter what the economy was doing, we never were more than 50 hours plus or minus that number. Then the "great recession" started in late 2008 and things took a dive. 2008 6125/6317 96.9% 2009 5919/6325 93.5% 2010 5749/6305 91.1% 2011 5842/6331 92.2% 2012 3600/4211 85.4% projected thru this week Actually, thru Aug of last year, we were on pace to bill about 6000 hours for the year, and I thought we were out of the woods, but things started downhill the last 4 months of 2011 with no end in sight. I can survive at this level indefinitely, but we're not making much money. My logic tells me that this is just the economy because the slide coincided with the start of the banking mess.The thing I'm worried about is "is this the new normal?". My question is, are you other guys seeing similar things? I can sleep a lot better at night knowing we're all in the same boat. I've talked to other shop owners in my area but no one seems to track their productivity. All they seem to know is what their total sales are. Hell, with tire, parts and labor rates up, my sales aren't off that much. In fact, they're up from a few years ago. But the hours always tell the real story. One last comment. For some reason my tire sales have never taken a hit thru all this mess. Just service hours. Comments?