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How wrecked are your local dealers service departments?

raoul_duke said:
I guess what you refer to as “flat rate”.

Job A says it takes 1.0 hour so you get paid 1.0 hour at your flat rate, just like cutting and bailing hay by the ton.

Is there some sort of act of god clause where you dig into a eight year old car and bolts start breaking or something like that?
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Anything unforseen like broken bolts, or having to use a torch is technically facotred into how many hours a job charges.
 
I had a good conversation with my service writer when I picked up my truck, the tech also just happened to be at his desk too.

One of the issues techs have is that some of the hours for certain jobs are not enough. The example he gave was motor mounts for the Diesels. The "book" listed that both sides be done in like 2 hours(don't remember what the exact time was) - which maybe only covers one side - The book should list the time for each side as one side takes more work than the other.
 
Might be a convergence of issues;

1. Lack of Work Force Participation
2. Unicorn hunters working as service writers that really dont want to work or answer phones
3. Complexity of modern cars and increasing demand for good mechanics that can perform diag
4. These flat rates are even less practical with modern cars.
 
SolidAxleorBust said:
Might be a convergence of issues;

1. Lack of Work Force Participation
2. Unicorn hunters working as service writers that really dont want to work or answer phones
3. Complexity of modern cars and increasing demand for good mechanics that can perform diag
4. These flat rates are even less practical with modern cars.
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Even back in the late 90s and 00s when I was wrenching they should have gone salary. Would have retained so many techs. Only so many of us made more than we should have others barely scraped by...and EVERYONE struggled in the late fall to early spring.
 
mdsonofthesouth said:
Dealers do some shady messed up stuff. My trust in them is as low as it gets...



What Im saying is a tech works flat rate, meaning if a job PAYS 8 hours if its done in 4 or 12 you get paid 8 hours. Why I left the dealership is I had several months where every pay check I had a couple of these PO5 PO7 jobs where Id work 18-23 hours and only get paid for 8 of them. Figure a hard worker works 60 or so hours a week I only got paid for 16 to 24 hours for actually working 60+. To me thats messed up and one of the big reasons why I left Ford.
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Just curious, what do/did your state labor laws say about being "paid" for work performed in that manner?i.e less than actual hours worked?
 
raoul_duke said:
I don’t fully understand this.

Are you saying that if a tech works 40 hours Monday to Friday and completes 25.0 hours of “book repair time” for whatever reasons , his paystub will reflect 25.0 hours of pay at his journeyman rate?
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Yes, that is exactly how flat rate mechanics work. A job pays X amount of dollars for X hours to perform the work.
If the mechanic can perform the work for less time than the “book” time, he/she makes money. More often than not, the “book” time is less than the actual time required to perform the repair. In that case the mechanic loses money.
So, to answer your question, yes, a flat rate mechanic can work 40hrs a week physically, but only be paid for 25hrs flat rate.
Unless you’ve done that you won’t understand. I did it for 25yrs. Hard way to make a living for your family. Glad I was able to move on and retire.
 
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