- Thread starter Farm789
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RR is 126 + vat ,,, round these parts ,,, mechanics spend a lot on tools and are expected to keep up to date with a lot of tech , Ive noticed of late that an actual mechanics wages [ not main dealer prices] are coming more into line , 35k ish , and theres a huge shortage . Im guessing its a knock on from when everyone wanted to go into IT and head off to uni not do an apprenticeship , theres a huge skill shortage starting to show through . Old hands are quitting and no apprentices are following , engineering will suffer for a long time ahead , but with luck it will realign wages and the whole thing will find a level again.
but either way they seldom make a mistake they own up to ,,,, pay again and they will roll the dice to find another fault you will get charged for them not to fix.
when your employed you have a boss , its how it works.
when your self employed everyones your boss , or so it seems .
[ Fully understand the costs thing , try pro AV for an eye opener kit wise . a decent projector was about 100k , and lenses ran up to 10k , bulbs were 8k each with a 200 hours run time max and you didnt turn up with just one lol . ]
Pricing isn’t hard. The hard part is deciding how badly you need the money.
e.g. I have a full time job which pays me. I also have a charity gig that I do for free, probably about a day a month. So when “mates” come asking me to fix their car I price the job in my head and that’s it. No negotiation, take it or leave it, I don’t care. But if I was desperate for the money I might be tempted to negotiate a bit.
The last “mate” was a friend of a friend of a friend etc. Moaned a lot at 300 quid to replace a sill on his VW Golf. So I invited him to go elsewhere. He paid right enough, but that’s cheap in reality. 4 hours work, electricity, gas, consumables taken out I probably made 55 an hour. Not fantastic for the aggro.
e.g. I have a full time job which pays me. I also have a charity gig that I do for free, probably about a day a month. So when “mates” come asking me to fix their car I price the job in my head and that’s it. No negotiation, take it or leave it, I don’t care. But if I was desperate for the money I might be tempted to negotiate a bit.
The last “mate” was a friend of a friend of a friend etc. Moaned a lot at 300 quid to replace a sill on his VW Golf. So I invited him to go elsewhere. He paid right enough, but that’s cheap in reality. 4 hours work, electricity, gas, consumables taken out I probably made 55 an hour. Not fantastic for the aggro.
8ob
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As the years roll on you get to know how long a job will take so pricing should be in the ball park, not saying all will go to plan on every job and the odd bollock will get dropped but in the main you should be pretty close. Day rates are morale breakers.
Bob
Bob
James1979
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It’s an **** working hourly a lot of the time. Removes a lot of ‘meat’ especially if you’re efficient.
Did a job today. Was up early and right the other side of Orkney. Welding up a storm and smashed it because I had to get back and feed sheep.
If I’d priced it I would probably have worked at the same pace and made twice as much.
Up shot is he gave me an m18 3/4 ugga dugga just cos so it’s not all bad.
Its no use knowing the price of everything
and the value of nothing.
James1979
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If i didn’t need to get back I would have worked at normal speed. Still cracking on but I’d have made a few more hours pay at it.
Upshot is I was home at 2 and kinda done for the day. Might bring tomorrow’s stuff forward….
yep ,,, I always just take it that the days that things work out well are balanced by the days that everything goes wrong , Im never sure if Im winning or loosing , but in the big picture its got to balance , its that karma thing ,
Karma is great in theory , but sometimes its just a tad slow in delivering.
Barking Mat
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Bloody political correctness, 3 people 'liked' the above, two people found it 'sad', which I understand too.
Discuss....
premmington
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I am a time served motor mechanic - I been doing it for nearly 40yrs - I know how to price a job and get it done (if I did'nt I would have starved to death).
My only advice is: "Cheap is the enemy"
Cheap parts
Cheap tools
Cheap labour
Cheap customers
The race to the bottom of any trade is easy - aim high...
Do a good job - do it on time - do it for the price you estimated - roll and do it again, then again... Reap the rewards from your efforts.
Know when to walk away from a job - refuse anything you not gonna earn out of...
My only advice is: "Cheap is the enemy"
Cheap parts
Cheap tools
Cheap labour
Cheap customers
The race to the bottom of any trade is easy - aim high...
Do a good job - do it on time - do it for the price you estimated - roll and do it again, then again... Reap the rewards from your efforts.
Know when to walk away from a job - refuse anything you not gonna earn out of...
Barking Mat
Cuddler of hedgehogs.
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- France, Brittany.
Wise words.
brightspark
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people ask me to do stupid worthless jobs or out of town stuff
i just say its uneconomical for me or il charge by the hour from home and for fuel 
Ubique
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It depends upon why it's there - you won't get an apprentice let loose on anything without being supervised in year3, years 1&2 will be working alongside an experienced tech 100%. Some of the 'health check' systems can give the impression that the apprentice is working on your vehicle where in reality, the VHC is done by them, on their login, for the supervising tech. If you car is in for a service with maybe a minor concern, then the filter spinner will get the job, if it's in for a service with a more complex issue, then a systems tech will get the job. If it's pure diag, then systems or diag tech will get it, depending on the concern.
Doing it any other way isn't cost-efficient and leads to workshop backlogs, no good for you, no good for us. I haven't done a service for about two weeks, but today i've had to 'scope sensor output on three cars, measure timing chain stretch, carry out insulation tests on a BEV and assist a filter-spinner struggling with an aircon concern, along with the usual software updates, fluid leaks and raising/answering tech cases. Sometimes people try and ambush us in the car park with 'what is wrong with my car' questions and get all huffy with the 'couldn't really say / reception is over there' answers, it's because we have to be mechanics, IT technicians, tyre fitters, electricians NVH technicians etc. etc. and in some cases, customer facing ego-massagers and pulling an answer out of the air that is likely to be correct based on the biased info they give us is doomed to failure and will be used to grade us by.
Despite being employed, we have to provide our own hand and power tools, we're measured on efficiency for every minute we're at work, and paid accordingly, so when you get a warranty job of (for example) 'auto lights not working as they should' where there isn't an actual fault, just the drivers opinion of how they think they should work, despite the user manual stating to the contrary and we get to look at it in the daytime, i'll spend over an hour having to prove it works as intended but get 0.3h of time credited to me for doing so, it does make me question why I do it, then I think of the alternatives....
