Shop Rate $149/hr. ???

[lynnmor]

Originally Posted by Itasca66

Those are 2002 toolmaker rates

Itasca66

Not on this planet.

[manderson2228]

Originally Posted by Waiter21

As a business owner, I can see how easy it is to come up with $150 an hour. I fix your high end privately owned military jet. My rate is $100 an hour plus travel expenses. That covers my education and training, tools and special equipment, overhead, payroll, insurance, workmans comp, taxes, benefits, etc... I do my work at your facility so I don't have the fixed costs of a big building and the utilities, insurance, taxes, etc that need to be included in my rate. etc.

The funny part to me.. I read this, and understand what you do.. I don't think 100 is reasonable for what you are doing, plus factoring in supply and demand side economics. I think you should charge double for this kind of work. I work in IT, and most folks charge 150-250$ an hour. I'd put this in the same category of technical skill.

[Frank Tamez]

Originally Posted by stuhly

And my question would be "what would you charge to work on one of these pieces of crap and put up with most owners BS."

[Nasdaqsam]

$149/HR could be justified if there was a book rate available just like the automotive industry. You have an issue it is looked up in the book. X job takes 5 hours shop rate for prep, work, clean up and warrantee.

Book rate allows a customer to know going in what the labor cost is going to be. If a tech is good at what they do they there really is no limit on how much they money they can make. If they can do that 5 hour job in 2. But it also allows a new tech to spend 8 hours "learning" but you still get charged 5. They gain the knowledge for the next job that 3 hours for free is an education and incentive to learn the products and not just earn their $10/hr and go home.

Paying $149/HR to learn is a ridiculous rate.

If you have an issue that requires trace or investigative type work then only senior tech's get these jobs at the $149 rate.

[JohnBoyToo]

A perfect example of supply and demand, isn't it ?!?

I don't mind paying for a good steak or a good rv mechanic....

Rate adjustment is one way businesses can control the amount of work they get...
Too much work, raise rates to slow it coming in,
too little work, lower rates to bring in more !

OR, let the gooberment step in and completely mess up S&D

[MSHappyCampers]

The last time I went by the local dealer's place I noticed their shop labor rate was $120 per hour. That was several months ago so it may be higher now!

I too am blessed and fortunate that I'm able to do a lot of the repairs myself!

[Boomertx]

No shop of any kind gets my business without an estimate on the price to do the job and a requirement to contact me and review any additional costs. No "open ended" commitments after all when the shop was built or when repairs/updates are performed THEY are for sure getting closed loop estimates. In a prior life I just retired from a company that billed $160 an hour full up for my time (40 years of experience) . . . that included benefits, the laptop I used, the extremely high dollar design software that was leased per user. The multiple min-super computers we used for design, lights, power . . . well, you get the picture. Wonder how many $140/hr shops are paying full benefits? Health ins, vacation/PTO, etc. Do they require the mechanics to provide their own hand tools? I get its a balancing act and everyone needs to make a profit but at the rates being bandied about above the tech working on my boat, car, airplane or motorhome better have lots of relevant experience and the tools needed to do the job in a timely fashion. IJS

[nothermark]

Originally Posted by Nasdaqsam

$149/HR could be justified if there was a book rate available just like the automotive industry. You have an issue it is looked up in the book. X job takes 5 hours shop rate for prep, work, clean up and warrantee.

Book rate allows a customer to know going in what the labor cost is going to be. If a tech is good at what they do they there really is no limit on how much they money they can make. If they can do that 5 hour job in 2. But it also allows a new tech to spend 8 hours "learning" but you still get charged 5. They gain the knowledge for the next job that 3 hours for free is an education and incentive to learn the products and not just earn their $10/hr and go home.

Paying $149/HR to learn is a ridiculous rate.

If you have an issue that requires trace or investigative type work then only senior tech's get these jobs at the $149 rate.

What you are missing is that every job is a learning experience to some extent. No software to look up the repair steps or materials, few units build alike and even fewer turning up at your shop. The only difference between the 20 year guy and the 2 year guy is more time learning how to guess right.

Then there are the skill sets involved. Anybody who can master all one needs to know and buy all the tools to do it is going to be able to move to any one of the skill sets and make more than $50,000/yr. In fact just keeping up with the tools and various certifications they are going to need that to cover their own expenses and make enough to live on. The dealer shop has to cover that plus the building, a cheap helper or two, and the overhead.

[Frank Tamez]

Its simple supply and demand.... No different than a pair of sneakers made in China for 2.00 selling at Wally world for 18.99... The shop just bought a Snap On scanner for right at 12000.00... Its just one of the items used in the shop.

The stores shop rate is 65.00 for any vehicle sold by us in the last 5 years. That's probably below actual cost. After that its 85.00 and between the 2 the shop ALMOST breaks even as we only service what we sold. The profits are made in sales and not service. Otherwise the rates would need to be higher. If Supply and demand allowed it.

[Nasdaqsam]

Originally Posted by nothermark

What you are missing is that every job is a learning experience to some extent. No software to look up the repair steps or materials, few units build alike and even fewer turning up at your shop. The only difference between the 20 year guy and the 2 year guy is more time learning how to guess right.

Then there are the skill sets involved. Anybody who can master all one needs to know and buy all the tools to do it is going to be able to move to any one of the skill sets and make more than $50,000/yr. In fact just keeping up with the tools and various certifications they are going to need that to cover their own expenses and make enough to live on. The dealer shop has to cover that plus the building, a cheap helper or two, and the overhead.

For all the reasons you just explained is the exact reason book rate works. If a tech is good he can complete most jobs in way under the allowed rate there by making his own salary. The books on auto's are set up for the average mechanic giving time for research etc. They are not set up for an Olympic speed mechanic.

I have a good friend that is a Toyota mechanic that mastered a 21 hour transmission fix on an inherent issue on some older standard shift trucks. He could do the job in 6 hours. At one time he was doing 5 of these a week working 30 hours getting paid for 105 hours. This is why a good tech should do it no other way. The dealership was ecstatic with this guy they were making money hand over fist.

The book rate also serves to make poor mechanics strive to be better. Otherwise what's the incentive? They get paid whatever/hr no matter how fast or how slow they go. It is also a quick way for shops to weed out mechanics that are lazy or just unable to do the job.

[jarata]

Does that include their coffee breaks and there duh I don't know how to fix it puzzlement time

[Steven Groves]

Love this thread.

It's feeding the seed of an idea I'm researching on how to meet industry demand for qualified capable MH service with an organization that keeps customer service at the top of the list. I'm a serial entrepreneur & I work with other businesses / entrepreneurs on marketing from across America & have for years. One elements that often predicts success for a business is finding a niche where an industry is consistently lacking, aka customer-centric RV maintenance. Building a business that addresses those elements will often succeed - this might be an idea whose time has come is what I'm thinking, but I'm also completely unaware of what's actually out there and what's been attempted over the years - maybe someone has actually tried this, but based on what I hear / read online, I think not.

My thought are torn between the causes of the disconnect though. Is it because...

1) ...the service aspect of customer-oriented service for an RV owner is lacking because the market (RV owner side of the equation) would not pay a working wage to a shop owner? Keep in mind that if he's trying to deliver top-line customer service, he has to pay better wages. Better wages often lead to reduced turnover & improved service.

2) ...or is it that RV mechanics are in such short supply that, once trained & seeing opportunity, that they can almost immediately move to open their own shop and hire lesser people & charge what they want. Good for him, but a constant issue in crisis management on doing work, hiring staff & selling enough to keep the doors open.

I've actually seen people make a business by only ever running from one crisis to another, never making ANYone happy, much less themselves and their family. Of course they point at how hard life is, how unreasonable the customer is and how their world is a constant drama - often self manufactured by never doing what they promised.

Thinking that if someone cracks the code on 1) well trained mechanics, 2) fair (but prob top-of-market) shop rates and 3) availability in a large regional / national market that they'll clean up. Mechanics will get better wages and RV owners will get better results from their dollars.

Feel free to poke holes in this tissue of an idea...

[JFN]

Well, not sure where to start, but I'll try, Hazmat disposal fees and licenses, Hazmat storage fees, air compressor permits, Air Resources Board, Water Quality Board, Office of Emergency Services permits and site maps, shop equipment purchases, repair, and replacement. security alarm permits. Then you get inspections from all the Above.

In MY former business, you can add FAA inspection, tool calibration, manuals, on-site training, off-site training and recurrent training, Product liability and Airport fees. I am trying to justify their rate but it is quite expensive to do business in California. BTW our rate was/is $100.00 hr.

[TRebel]

My MH is at Freightliner in Tulsa right now. Their estimate is based on $159/hr.