[nessautosales]

I think most of all we need to change the image. Most people still think of techs as grease monkeys in a dirty job. I’l never forget one day when my high school guidance counselor walked into our shop and was staring at me. I smiled and asked him what he was looking at. He asked how I worked on a car in a white shirt. I was dressed in Khakis, a white shirt, and rubber gloves. I told him that it’s not a greasy dirty job any more. This is peoples opinion of the trade. Keep in mind this was my high school guidance counselor. The person who helps steer students towards a career.  This is their opinion of us.

There’s a old country western song that goes something like “Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys” I’m not going to type the rest out but think about that song.

 

We need to change the image. It has to be prestigious to be a tech. How do you think new car dealers hire techs for $5 a hour less than a independant. They walk into a fancy building every day. We don’t just need to change the image for the potential tech….more inportantly we need to change the image for the parents and teachers. They’re the people steering them away from the trade.

[nessautosales]

Yes, I hear you to find the gearheads. One of the major issues is kids don’t work on cars with their dads anymore. They’re too complicated to work on at home therefore kids don’t get the opportunity as much to experience it.

[nessautosales]

Actually Joe we’re not getting off track. People always like to complain about things when when asked to present a viable solution they either don’t want to or can’t. Your numbers sound good when you look at them. However here’s a few discrepancies.

• You Figure 52 weeks a year at 50 hours a week. I know I take vacations to recharge and so do my employees.  So recalculate to 49 or 50 weeks. ( my techs get up to 3 weeks paid off)
• In a recent ratchet and wrench column 97% of the shops in the united states are less than 80% productive. So take your 50 hours in a 40 hours week and knock it down to 32 hours.
• I’m not sure on the last number. I’m going off the assumption that the $100/ hour is posted labor rate. When actually most shops only average 85% of the door as a ELR. So for a hourly rate use $85.

That being said if you use those numbers your dollars billed becomes $136,000 not he $195,000

My point isn’t to argue…but to work towards a realistic goal. Yes, some places greed takes over….but I think for the majority of shop owners they’re just trying to make a decent living. To come up with a viable solution to this problem it has to work for alot of people. It has to work for the employee, the shop, the shop owner, and all of their familys.  The sad part is most techs have no clue what they even make. They can tell you their hourly rate…but from there they have no clue.

 

[nessautosales]

EXACTLY vdepot.

[nessautosales]

Joe Henry, Respectfully I’d like to ask a few questions and make a few comments in a effort of conversation.  I’m curious as to who you are or your credentials of writing articles and such on the automotive industry? One thing I’m always curious about is when people throw our hard numbers such as $50k or $100k a year….. These numbers will vary dramatically based on your area and cost of living. I can drive a 20 mile stretch in the area I live and a average house could go from $600k to $250k based 100% on it’s location.

I think we all agree that maybe flatrate isn’t a cure all for everything but I think people forget why some things come into place. In my lifetime there was a time when the shop supplied 100% of the tools. I also remember when we were hourly. Contrary to what people think all these changes were made for a reason. Lost tools all the time….low production….somewhere along the line someone thought this was a good solution.

I was responsible in 2005 when we implemented the flatrate system. The system did cure techs that produced $55% and get them to 90% overnight. We used to have a incentive base before that. One thing I found is there isn’t 1 flatrate system. Everyone has their variations of it. While similar there are several variables. Personally we have a 3 part pay system. A tech out of school works straight hourly. During this time he has to establish quality work and to be able to do things in a timely manner. Then he steps up to hourly with incentive. The base is lower….but he receives a sizable incentive based on the flatrate system. We still watch quality and doing things in a timely manner…but there becomes a larger incentive for him to produce. The last step is flatrate. This is production based with a checks and balances put in place for quality.

You’ve thrown some stout numbers out there Mr Henry. I don’t believe they will work because of something called math.  I would be interested in how your numbers work but here’s what I’m looking at. I’ll uses some real numbers to show you. So I have a tech that bills out $60k a year in labor. I increase my price by 20% so he bills out $72,000 a year. Your saying he should be paid $50k a year and get bonuses. Let’s say there’s $1000 in bonuses a month available so it puts his pay at $62,000 a year. Net it out by 25% to cover the cost of taxes, and benefits he costs $77,500. If a shop is going to go $5000 in the hole to hire someone they may as well not be in business.  I’m curious as to how you look at the numbers to get them to work.

I personally still don’t think it’s about the money. I had one of our tool truck guys tell me the same thing last week.  He said originally he did…but not any more. Also 90% of the engineers in our area don’t make $175k a year. We stress too much in hours because that’s our primary measurement of success. I think it’s a bit more stressful because each guy is individually responsible for his success. I’m not sure what the answer is but I’m up for conversation about it.

[nessautosales]

This is a subject that we all should be thinking about but not a select few will be able to accomplish a solution. I had a first had account of this. I hired a high school kid, he worked for us  a couple of summers and eventually just left to become a electrician. We talked a while on this. I really wanted him to follow his heart. People do what they do for different reasons. He’s going to work as a apprentice technican for $4 a hour less than I would have paid him starting out as a tech. He had some specifics he was looking for in a career. He was very focused on what he wanted. While he wanted to make good money that was not the main driving factor. I have a very hard time listening to people cry because of the technician shortage and then do nothing about it.  The reason the profession isn’t viewed that highly is because as owners we don’t talk like it is. Techs these days are highly trained and very smart in alot of different aspects. There’s guys that can go to school forever and will never have what it takes. The ASE system which is suppose to be the industries way of telling whether a tech is good or not is laughed about in the industry. If a tech comes in ASE master certified I put him under a microscope more than any. It only proves he can take a test.  Most of them aren’t very good to say the least. Techs often moonlight for extra money. The techs I’ve found that moonlight are usually the worst techs there is. Not because it offends me ….but they’re making less for a reason. In our area anyway any techs that are good are being taken care of pretty well.

Here’s what I think we need to do to fix the problem:

• Come up with a certification techs need to work in a shop.
• Present our profession as a profession, not a back yard shade tree job.
• People want titles and professional appearance…not just a hole in the wall to work.
• Talk with schools and convince them that people that want to go into trades aren’t second class.

If we want to attract people to the field we need to make it a profession…not a job.

[nessautosales]

Yes he’s definately worth $75k given a few things. You say 50 hrs a week. Is that 50 real hours or 50 fictional hours. I’ve hear of shops paying a hour for a oil change, 2 hours to put front brakes in, 2 hrs for diagnosis and billing $50. I think you get my point. Hours is unit of measurement we use to simplify the process and make it easy to manage regularly as our shop management system kicks those numbers in reports. If everything is in check…yes he’s worth $75k.

[nessautosales]

I dislike the acl….mainly for 2 reasons. Crashes if you happen to scroll with your mouse and needs to be downloaded and set up with each computer in Mitchell. Everyother one we use it’s turn it on and go. World pac is Ok….but could be a bit faster.

[nessautosales]

We looked at they’re report pro and decided against it. I really liked the look of the custom invoices and thought it would be nice to just buy plain paper instead of getting preprinted invoices. We decided against it for 2 main reasons. 1- The invoices get really long if you add coupons on them….some as much as 4 pages….the other is you can’t print directly out of Mitchell. You need to start it in the backround and then when you want to print open the other window. I think they have a demo I would suggest downloading it and looking for yourself.

[nessautosales]

I think it’s fairly decent software. They are full of empty promises. If they tell you that they’ll have something out in the next 6 months figure at least 5 years. We plan to keep using it. Whenever they make changes there’s glitches and problems.