What are acceptable charges from a diesel mechanic?

[captddis]

I guess I don't charge enough! 75.00 /hr and no local travel time. Outside of area I usually charge time one way.

I have very loyal customers and never advertise. I have 13 jobs on the list right now.
There are local mechanics who charge 100+/hr and tell me that I need to charge more. Guess what they have no work half of the time. I also live much better than they do.
My unproductive time is chasing parts and there is almost no discount anymore.

[Avenger]

........ I owned several service companies over my almost 75 years on this planet and I would have been out of business in short order if I tried to pull that crap. The real answer is competition .... there needs to be more of it. The example given in an above post of charging $1,000 for a $5.00 turn of a screw by claiming that the knowledge is what is being paid for is obscene. If you claim to be a professional, you are expected to know what screw to turn.

I think you need to reread my post. The charge was for time, plain and simple. The comment about the knowledge vs. the work was a joke. Obviously, if just anybody as smart as you could do it I wouldn't have to go out on the job in the first place.

I don't know what kind of service businesses you ran, but you must have had no overhead if you didn't charge for your time.

[Avenger]

I guess I don't charge enough! 75.00 /hr and no local travel time. Outside of area I usually charge time one way.

I have very loyal customers and never advertise. I have 13 jobs on the list right now.
There are local mechanics who charge 100+/hr and tell me that I need to charge more. Guess what they have no work half of the time. I also live much better than they do.
My unproductive time is chasing parts and there is almost no discount anymore.

You also have a lot less overhead than some of us. Besides that, the nature of what you do is mobile and the pricing structure reflects that. If you, for example, were running a shop that repaired trucks and had to travel to fix a boat you'd need to charge more for travel time too.

[krush]

A guy can charge 75/hr or 115/hr but the final number is usually going to be the same. Any competent worker is going to have a number in his head and if the customer is going to bitch about the hourly rate, he'll just up the hours. If the hours are bitched about, the rate changes. Of course being small allows for this flexibility.

I believe in VA that if a written estimate is given by a shop, the job has to come in within a certain %....unless the customer specifically agrees to the additional stuff.

The $800 diagnostic bill on the coil for the car IS robbery. A competent mechanic with knowledge should be able to nail that one down in less than 1 hour. Give a little bit of fluff if the part is hard to get to.

A plant I worked at hired an OEM "expert"...$10,000 min for mob/demob. Of course this was flying across the world to Guam. Then it was $400 an hour, 1000/day expenses and per diem, 1.5x over 8, 2x on Sunday...it took the 3rd guy to show up before he knew how to fix the problem (and knew more than me, the lowly plant worker).

Lots of people won't hire this expensive person because they know they can get just as good service from independents. But clueless customers are still wow'd by the OEM "we know our equipment best".

[Avenger]

It's illegal in NY for an auto repair shop to charge more than the written estimate without approval. It probably is in NJ too, and it's just plain bad business not to make a call and say it's going to cost more than we thought, should we continue? Surprises like that are the kind of thing that leads to court or a visit from the DMV.

[saltshaker]

A few very interesting points here. First, Dave, your rate is low for what you do and the quality of your work. I doubt your rate has anything to do with your loyal following. I for one would rather pay you $100 per hour than pay $50 per hour for some of the so called techs that I've dealt with in the past. I don't think the hourly rate someone charges is directly related to the quality of their work. I also have a lot of respect for those who are top notch but don't charge outrageous fees for their service, but I do expect to pay for their services.

Jay, as you pointed out in you comment about the OEM expert, The hourly rate may have no reflection on the final bill or the quality of the work. I'm sure Dave's final bill would be less than other lesser techs who charge a higher rate for the same work. The big difference often is comparing the scope of work done. Ask around how much it cost to major a pair of 8V92's in a given boat. The numbers will be all over the place. Then ask what that overhaul includes. I expect an overhaul to be complete and every part of the engine gone through. Some think that throwing in new kits is all that's needed. When I see an engine that was "just majored" and the engine needs paint, hoses and clamps are old etc., I walk away from the boat.

Walt and Derek, I agree with both of you but I think Walt misread Derek's post. If you spend time waiting for access to the job at the scheduled time, then you should be compensated. If I show up a day early and have to wait to do the work then that's my fault. If I'm scheduled to do a job and show up at the agreed upon time but can't start because they're not ready for me then the clock starts when I get there. The point about a mobile marine service tech not getting travel pay but a shop that sends techs out doesn't work for me. Those techs are employees of the shop and are paid much less than their billable rate. The travel cost is part of the cost of doing business. When I send a crew out on location, they are paid from the time they pick up the equipment until they return to the shop. The client pays for the time on location only. No extra trucking charges unless something out of the ordinary is required. I bill hourly but there is an 8 hour minimum per man. If someone wants a crew for a couple of hours I sometimes can do a half day but only for my best clients and only early in the day. For this type of work the rate is 5 hours or less including travel. This is why I feel travel charges should not be charged on full day or longer projects that are within a reasonable distance.

[Avenger]

I wasn't suggesting that the mobile tech shouldn't be compensated for travel time. The point was more about some of our posters seeming to think that a business with a commercial facility is overcharging because they're comparing their prices to someone who works out of their house and a van. I can see where my phrasing wasn't clear there.

[Walter P]

Dave, I agree with Jack that in your case you could certainly justify a higher rate. From reading your posts over the last few years, I get the feeling that you are definitely an honest and knowledgeable professional. Your business model obviously should be copied by your competition, as per your statement that you are backed up with work and enjoy a better life. Krush also made a few good points which I agree. ....... If you think you are a professional, please don't tell me about it. As the song in My Fair Lady goes, don't talk of love, show me. Krush I don't think you are just a shop worker. Everyone, perhaps I didn't explain myself adequately last night (it was late), but I don't mind paying a little more for efficient high quality, but I just wish some of the so called professional experts would stop playing games with numbers because they lack the guts to tell a client that they really don't know what the problem is perhaps they should go to someone who does.

By the way, regarding what my business was... After serving 6 years in the USN, I completed my education at Cook College (Rutgers University) in Entomology. Shortly thereafter I started a small pest control service business. Using my undergraduate training (I was a Marketing major) I got real lucky and the business grew very rapidly. At my 20th year in business, we had over 120 full time employees working out of 8 branches throughout the state and NYC. Many of my friends in the business said that I probably wasn't charging enough, but a cost analysis by our accounting firm showed otherwise. Our technicians were all brought in for half day training sessions several times a month (on our dime). We hired some of the PhD's from Cook college as teachers. The results were that our techs were probably the best trained in our field.

The same business philosophy that I had will work in any service business including working on boats. By the way please don't misinterpret my statements to mean that most folks charge too much by the hour or whatever, I don't mind paying a professional rate to an honest provider for an honest job. Remember that price alone means nothing, the final bottom line is what counts. An old expression still makes sense ....."Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten"

Walt

[captddis]

You also have a lot less overhead than some of us. Besides that, the nature of what you do is mobile and the pricing structure reflects that. If you, for example, were running a shop that repaired trucks and had to travel to fix a boat you'd need to charge more for travel time too.

Sorry if you took my post as a dig it was not my intention! Yes I do have a low overhead by design. I also have a shop but not a specialized business like you with very expensive tools.
A very savvy person told me that either stay small or get big. Do not try to have a business with three or four employees as your overhead will be much higher but you won't make anymore money.
I wanted to keep most of the money I make so I stayed small.

The missed point I was trying to make was that price was not an indicater of quality.
You prove it with your superior quality work and your reasonable prices. That is why people from FL send their parts to you in NY.

[Avenger]

This is getting way off where we started.

Dave, your comments weren't the ones I found offensive, and I thank you for your kind words. You have a smart business model with low overhead because the nature of what you do allows that, and that is reflected in your pricing. Unfortunately, the nature of other businesses is that they cannot operate that way, and their pricing reflects that as well.

Anyway, what this thread comes down to is that certain professions charge for travel time, some do not. The guy who's reshingling your house isn't going to charge for travel time for a number of reasons. Your mechanic having to make a trip to your boat is going to, also for a number of reasons. Either way, they are somehow going to recover their costs and make a profit on the customer's dime or they won't be in business for long. That's how it works.

Are there abuses? There's abuses in every profession. And BTW, "professional" only means that you get paid for it.

....So I wonder how many people say "Gee, the exterminator charged me $300 to spray the place and he was only here for an hour. That's $300 an hour. What a ripoff!" And never consider all that's involved in making that hour happen.