southendautocare

Been using it 2-3 years, most commonly on jobs we know might be challenge with the owner or insurance company. Many don't come in as a result of the quote. The ones that do, approximately 50% more gross profit dollars on those jobs.

We have about 8 different labor matrix's. We are more and more introducing previously unthinkable labor rates, mixed with little to no parts mark up (that's our "matrix!") . Sometimes we charge a little below our cost on parts, and adjust the labor rate accordingly! We arrive at the same profit dollars per job, and it is more of a challenge. We do this mainly to avoid the parts "mark up" challenge with extended warranties, as well as customers. I think a more important number than "gross profit" for the job, is having a gross dollar profit goal per technician hour spent on job. Hard to achieve on oil changes, and certain jobs, but can make a drastic improvement in bottom line on "no or few parts" jobs, long diagnostic jobs, etc. Hardest challenge is changing the thinking with service advisors to implement this. Change is usually hard, but can help alot.

Great subject and thoughts! *Oil changes= most every shop I know does an included complete digital inspection these days. It's much an expected "complimentary" thing to most customers, including those who go to dealers. Dealers around my area have the greatest prices and convenience with no appointments necessary for the most part. Even though oil change services are finally going up in price noticably, it would be more challenging to charge and justify to customer the reasons why we might charge more for a created "service". They might even agree, but they would rather spend less money. I think most of us would, too (especially if we fairly relate it to some other non automotive professional service we might use). Sometimes we recommend a "6 month inspection" , separate from an oil change, mainly to check the battery, wipers, tires, lights. Many times on vehicles which have low annual mileage accumulated. Battery is the biggest concern usually. *Transmission oil changes= I often wonder how much difference it really makes in longevity of many vehicles' transmissions; it seems like some designs just inherently have issues no matter what, and some last forever if you never change the fluid. Some shops will not risk changing fluid if it is dark, with fear a perfectly good working transmission will develop an issue after service, and the vehicle all of a sudden becomes an undrivable "mechanical total loss". Most of us have seen that happen.

We discuss this regularly in our shop, and the consesus for 1/2 ton and under would be Toyota due to the lack of repair needs and resale value compared to the others. Have to wonder what would happen if Toyota started producing 3/4 ton & diesel pickups in volume.

This has been a good question that has been asked since before I started my business 35 years ago. I as a technician, moonlighted with side jobs for many years, and I believe it was the only way I could make enough additional income to do certain things like go snow skiing, buy toys, and most of all start my business with the additional income and small customer base. We all hope we can pay our techs enough where they don't "have to" for income. I actually enjoyed it (and had the energy when I was younger!). I don't think younger techs today are as interested or have a place or resources as much, and older techs (average tech age in our area 50 plus years old) want to or have energy to. Seems like such a small percentage, I'm not concerned it hurts the industry.

In my region of the country, most all good quality independent shops have gone from the $110 to $160/ hr range over the last 2 years, including tire/mechanical shops. Dealers are $180 & up. Advanced, complex diagnosis is charged by the job to adjust for low parts sales and guarantee diagnostic techs good income. Also a trend to charge by the job, sometimes adjusting parts prices down to near cost(sometimes below cost), and raising the labor cost to achieve the same gross profit goal. This helps some with challenges on parts pricing and customers wanting to buy own parts. I've always advocated for this. The best part is being able to pay good technicians WAY beyond what they have ever seen. This is very necessary to attract & retain good technicians both in your shop and the industry.

We purchased separate components for servicing 1234YF; a recovery machine, tank, evacuator-pump, guages, scale and a cart (welding cart or small-medium size tool cart in our case). All Robinair brand. Except tool cart; Harbor Freight, which is getting surprisingly better products especially tool boxes at very reasonable prices. Not automatic, but for the limited use, everything was $2500 with tax, instead of $6500 for the fully automatic machine. We can read a scale and spend an extra 10 minutes for that at this point. The electronic leak detector for R134 works for 1234YF. My concern is the very high cost of 1234YF freon when dealing with leaks, especially slow ones. We may use nitrogen charging, as costs can quickly get out of hand with expensive freon loss.

This is an old discussion around our shop. Our best answer is: wholesale on parts & whatever labor rate it takes to reach your gross profit goal is what is charged to customer.The challenge is we are too fearful to think about stating that actual dollar amount per hour for mechanical labor & diagnostic labor that it would take to take to a customer. Mostly due to the perception (or fact) that consumers really don't care about why; they just want to compare a number. Many assume a good warranty, customer service, and value is standard. We may age out before we can ever get on the same page together on this as an industry.

Our biggest local Toyota dealer has a brake service on most cars, light trucks that includes new OE rotors, pads, labor for $199. Seems to be a permanent special. I've now lost several customer brake jobs to this. I have a few customers who only come to us for oil changes because we are less cost than the dealer, but go to the dealer do fluid exchanges, etc, because they are less cost. Mainly on Honda-Toyota makes. It appears they use only "C" level techs to get the labor cost way down.