Eric Roberts

Your spot on Joe! I do think that a new business starting out should do some sort of advertising in the local area, but after that its giving it your best in customer care and service. I do now have a couple of blogs on my websites that keep the Google people happy and attract a younger class of customer, but as you say its service with a smile all the way. Just an addon. The British government did not charge the owners of electric cars with road tax. But now they have done a U turn and this advantage to owning one has now being scrapped! well well the dream of zero emissions by 2030 is already falling apart. Here in the UK at least.

Thanks for the great reply! However I dont think we have had a threat as great as the EV in the past. We are resilient but more an more fall by the wayside. Time alone will tell and that's something I dont have a great deal of, so perhaps I worry too much ?

Hi firstly could I apologise for my delay in answering! Unfortunately my wife has been taken ill and is in hospital at the moment! In answer to jamcneely then he has given almost a perfect reply. 1st point: He is using one to get about town in where their will be plenty of charging stations. More importantly he is using his own electric supplied by his solar battery bank. There will be people and places where an electric car makes sense to own and yours looks perfect for the purpose. Like you I also think that the EV will be part of the big mix of fuels at the end of the day. However, I believe that the electric car service and repairs side will be steered towards the main dealers and the small/medium garages will slowly be depleted of work. The world order is for !bigger is better" now matter where you live in this crazy world. The second half of my reply also relates to the reply by Joe Marconi. Many thanks Eric Roberts

Diesel + Hydrogen mix from out of Australia Great News Of course we all now know about the ridiculous race set out by our government to rid the world of carbon burning materials including our beloved fossil fuelled cars. In recent times we have had the world of electric and hybrid cars rammed down our throats. I know that I am a small garage owner and so have self-interests in this drive to disaster. Of course to rid the planet of petrol and diesel vehicles. However people are realizing the foolishness and impossible targets set out by our politicians. Living without our cars will be an impossible disaster to most drivers in the UK. Millions of drivers will be forced off the road so that our politicians can brag about their achievements. Well thank God that there are people out there looking for alternatives to the dreaded electric cars. I do understand the need for cleaner air to protect the planet from greenhouse gasses but scientists are working all the time to prevent this. Giving us cleaner cars from engine designs that use other materials along with the "status quo" of our regular petrol and diesel engine cars. Electric and hydrogen cars already with us Of course, electric battery operated cars are now with us thanks to people the likes of "Tesla". However these are far from perfect. Speaking from the UK, s prospective, we are a country of old "Victorian" architecture. We have very narrow streets and roads which will be unable to support the millions of electric charging points required. At the moment the winner for me will be in the form of "hybrid" cars. These are now becoming very popular. With an engine supported by a standard battery and run on petrol. Combined with a lithium type battery. Hence the word "Hybrid". Car manufacturers certainly like this type of idea for their customers and engineers have been studying and working on different ideas with mixed types of fuels. Including "Hydrogen fuel cells". Thanks to a great article by journalist "Will Locket". Then we are looking at very strong and affordable competition to the EV revolution. Australian Engineers come up with a great new revolution I must confess that reading article has made my day. Researches in Australia have come up with a technology that can convert a diesel engine into a "carbon neutral" engine. The idea is to combine the burning of twin fuels, diesel and clean burning hydrogen. This is fantastic news and will include other diesel vehicle, including, and trucks farm vehicles. So confident are the Australians that they are looking to convert certain types of diesel engines in the next couple of years. This is fantastic news for the public in the UK who love their small run around cars and the small garages that service and repair these vehicles. The full technical merits can be read in this great article by Will Locket. I will certainly having a beer tonight to celebrate this great news and keep my fingers crossed that everything goes well for the Australian car designer and developers, without retributions from the EV and green lobby. This development may also make the UK government change its mind about banning the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030. So allowing millions of families in the UK to keep their diesel cars which will be by then "carbon neutral" and fit for purpose. Original article by "Will Locket"

Hi we are becoming more stricter with our charges going forward. Our competition which is a multi nationals charge their customers a lobor charge for fitting battery or a light bulb plus the part. Customer do pay for these things ! Most of it is in our own heads. We should be stronger and tell the customer how it is up front. Thanks

Hi many of us in the \UK think it will be the death of the independent small garages that we all know today. We are now starting to fight the transition as it will cost millions of jobs as the work is passed around the large franchises. The rest will be fighting for the scraps. They did this to our "corner shops" . All were owned and run as a small family business. The supermarkets opened up down the same road and closed them down. Then a year or so later the big supermarkets opened up on the exact same site as the old closed down corner shops. A well executed and coordinated plan. Now they have a new enemy called Amazon. I am sure you are aware of them! Something similar will happen to the small family run garages if we dont start to fight this. Thats my opinion for what its worth Eric Roberts

Hi Thanks for that ! There is a report about the whole false agenda coming out shortly about how we have been sold false facts. It is in PDF form and based on the whole UK governments own facts and figures. I will pass this on when I get the online copy. There is an uprising against this in the UK !Thank goodness. Eric Roberts

Please take a look at the UK Talk radio link its very interesting

Hi Craig sounds like you have the right approach! genuine little things are not too bad its just that some people do expect jobs done for nothing.

Hi Thanks fir that! Electric cars a well in the minority however they are slowly creeping up in numbers. I think car manufacturers are getting huge back handers to develop these things. The clean air brigade are fuelling the desire of power hungry politicians to achieve a carbon zero climate by 2030. However this has been interrupted by spike in electricity costs and the government are having to rethink. My small town ,Halifax is as old as the hills and will never accommodate charging points to charge all the electric cars that are desired and regular car owning people dont want them anyway, they are a rich mans toy at the moment and lets hope they stay that way! Only time will tell and I am running out of that >

Hi guys just a short one this! As garage owners present or past how do or did you cope with the "can you just" brigade. This is the customer male or female (or otherwise) who just asks if "you could pop a light bulb in for me please". I no it could be a slow day, then this would not be problem, but does it annoy you. We had one in the other Saturday. A guy pulled in and wanted us to check knocking on the rear end. The car was road tested and on the ramp for two hours on a busy Saturday morning. Eventually we found a broken coil spring on the front of the car! I am sure there are much worse stories than this but it really gets me mad sometimes?

Hi I pretty much agree with you all. From a UK prospective then we have all the same problems but on a smaller scale. People live in old Victorian streets or high rise flats and will not get the same service from charging points .Another good point is the fact that the electric cars will still be part of a mix of technologies. it will be up to us to dictate what parts of the car we wish to repair or service. We made a bold decision a few years ago to pass onto a specialist any engine problems. We were spending too much time and never got the real profit margins. Now we get a trade price and have an add on amount to the customer. This frees us up for the more profitable jobs. Well the electric cars will be the same. Also the owner of the Teslas here in the UK are the same guys who bought Mercs and larger BMW,s ! Its a prestige car at the moment. Thanks for a great topic Eric www.pellonautocentre.com

Hi at least it is some kind of check. I think most law abiding citizens are decent people and will have their vehicle fixed for safety reasons. However there are millions who are not in this bracket. Because our testing is mandatory then it sits with all the other motoring laws. When a driver is pulled up or in an accident then the MOT is part of the vehicle checks. Also if the car does not have an MOT then the insurance is void, making it a double whammy ! Whet happens say if a car drives from Oklahoma and has a bad collision due to say faulty brakes or steering ?

How Will Your Garage Cope With Inflationary Pressures I am writing about this because I feel that it is going to be a general business problem, especially new starters. Inflation will not just be a problem for my garage business. Many garage/autocentre owners are from a similar background. We started up in the sixties, seventies and eighties with no capitol and built a thriving business out of nothing. We were either mechanics or worked in the automotive industry from a young age. So, I worked for a few national tyre companies before deciding to go it alone. I am sure such start ups are more difficult to achieve these days. Timing is of the essence. We started when cars were a growing industry. The working class blue collar workers could now afford a car. Because we never went to any kind of business school then we had to take on problems when they manifested themselves. One of our first encounters was the dreaded inflation. From the very beginning we (I say we because I had a business partner at the beginning of my business adventure) were advised to employ a good accountant). This I did and our adventure into the world of business began. I was lucky enough to secure a mortgage on a plot of land on a main highway. The land had an old stable on it. Both of us were pretty handy at DIY so we set too and transferred the barn into a fitting bay for tyres. Soon Expanded into servicing and repairs. Because of our prominent main road position the business took off at great speed. Soon we would be looking to expand. These were the days when you had to meet the Bank manager face to face. I have always been a confident person and boldly asked for a loan to expand the premises on our then spare land. Interest rates were going through a steady period and the money from Mr Stead at the bank was secured. This was then the Yorkshire bank and we had nothing but good experiences with them. A new service bay for four cars was complete and the garage went from strength to strength. This was in the late 60,s and we were about to hit by our first real crisis! The dreaded inflation. When the seventies arrived then inflation had started to rise. Due to a few things but mainly a world oil crisis. It averaged out at around 12% and peaked in 1975 at 23%. Ironically the same problem is hitting us today. High oil prices and energy costs, combined with supply chain bottlenecks were the exact same problem that we had to cope with. Supplier price rises came first Just like todays business environment the first thing we noticed were that prices for our goods were rising almost every two weeks. These came out as makeshift leaflets produced by the tyre manufacturers. In that period of time there were no computers everything was calculated by discount table books. First thing to do was to make storage space. This was to enable us to buy more stock and partly beet some of price rises. Other suppliers would also offer more payment terms. Standard then was 30 days. Most decent suppliers offered 60 days credit line. This enabled us to carry on with our advertising campaigns in our local newspaper. This was our main form of advertising in those days. However it was effective. It was also a lesson learned. Our main competitors in those times were all owned by the tyre manufacturers. So, National Tyres were owned by Dunlop and ATS by Michelin and so on. Although our prices were rising they were kept lower than our competitors. Motorists were shopping about and we soon became a popular destination when wanting to buy a tyre or two. This was my first lesson. Inflation can be used as an advantage. It just means you have to work a bit harder. Smaller items such as puncture repairs were increased by a small amount and kept up with inflation without the public even noticing. Hard work kept down prices Although our prices did go up we could make inflation less destructive by sourcing our products better and by doing better deals for quantity. I was sort of a reborn entrepreneur. As inflation came under better control then I was proud at the fact that because of the extra pressure I had become a better businessman and proud of it. This period brought many new business friends . Especially among the different suppliers that I met an did deals with. These days we are able to cope better because of computer software dedicated to our kind of business. We can set stock levels up so that price increase can be minimised. Especially popular sizes of tyres. Another bonus for the automotive industry is with the parts suppliers. Importantly, they are all competing to supply us to keep their own sales and profits up. This means that we can source the best price for our customer when pricing up a particular job. Once again keeping the price down but retaining your profit margins. Another good idea was to start selling addons. In my case we offer a selection of “Poor boys” car valeting products. There is no doubt that this is a period that can establish your garage business as the best in the area. Inflation in my eyes means chances to gain customers by buying better and keeping in the right products at the right price. Especially fast movers such as tyres. Service parts can be bought from the replacement parts market at the best price. Having a local website is also a good idea. Making it easy for local people to find you. I write the blog on our website giving consumers an idea about your services and location. So in my opinion Inflation should spark up a new energy to create a better business and get some new customers as a bonus. Hope you guys can come up with some other inflation busting ideas that we an use

Hi if you get caught bending the rules it is a certainty of losing your MOT licence and in some cases prison ! The MOT does keep standards and safety to a high level. Driving in the UK is different from the States because of the narrow roads and country lanes.

Firstly let me say that I an just a regular guy from the UK who is the owner of a seven bay service centre/garage. I am not a financial expert. The dreaded inflation is upon us again. For the guys as old as me then this is nothing new. Back in the 70,s we had 15% inflation, but we all got by and lived for better trading days. Here in the UK we have always looked up to the USA because of your business prowess. So what do you guys look out as your worst enemy! When prices are going up then I find that the gap opens between rich and the poor's disposable income. So this question will effect garage owners in different areas. My garage is in a poor area with many immigrant families who drive cars. So this means we have to be more flexible with pricing. Finding out if your customer can afford that service ! For this reason we devised a three tier service pricing structure. This has also the effect of not loosing your profit margins. The lowest price should include an oil and filter change and a general vehicle check over. This way we find the customer will perhaps be able to afford a service and your profit margins wont drop. This is just one small idea that we carry out! What do you guys do in these times of high inflation ?

Hi great to read your article about "The Beatles" . I am a life long fan here in the UK. Going from the original Beatles to Paul McCartney. The side 2 of Abbey Road is my favourite track. And I do listen to it over and over again. It gives me great karma and ready to take on everything at my garage.

Hi Thanks for that ! We copied your way of working with the so called Autocentres. Mainly doing tyres and mufflers. However many of us have gone full circle in my 50years in the trade. So, repairing/servicing and tyres of course. We also have an MOT test for cars carried out annually. This is regulated by the government but works very well. When a car fails the test then we very often get the job of repairing the car back to standard. The tests are highly regulated, but there are dodgy garages out there who bend the rules. So a question ! How are American cars regulated for safety !If at all ?

Hi I guise we all have some good ideas which is going the right way. I suppose this started when I wa a young mechanic. To be truthful I could not concentrate enough and as time went by I discovered that I was a good talker. This attribute became useful to me in later life as I progressed to owning my own garage business. Some mechanics are good at explaining things to customers. I find that the guys who are say a little shy will soon get used to the idea and conversations will start to flow. What does help is that we have a great reception with a TV and a free coffee machine. This is where the talking starts and very rarely in the workshops.

Hi believe me it is possible to train most enthusiastic people. it also depends on the geography of the premises. We have all open fronts and can see our customers drive in and park up. Meet and greet only takes a minute, but it puts customers ar ease. Especially female customers who now make up a liitle more that 50% of the customer base.

Not only do they do the job of repairing cars but they can also take the customers through the whole procedure of paying for the work done and issueing sales invoices and dealing with credit card payments. I find that this gives the staff and the customers a better shopping experience due to the personel contact. Another thing I ask for is that my staff should have total access to our computer system and also can answer any phones from incoming calls.