Are you getting enough labor on some jobs?

[Joe Marconi]

Some repair operations have finality to them. By that, I am referring to jobs that do not require additional labor after the job is complete. For example; installing a tail light lens, set of wipers, an air filter or cabin filter. Once these jobs are done, they are done.

 

There are other labor operations, such as brake work and wheel alignments, that even though a road test is required after completion, there is enough gross profit built into these jobs, that we do not need to worry about the total labor charges.

 

Now, let’s take an O2 sensor, catalytic converter or other similar jobs. Theses jobs are not over once the part is installed. The tech needs to retest the system and the component, verify the repair and road test the vehicle. In addition, more time is needed to sell that type of repair. Where I am going with this? Understand that you need additional labor charges for retesting, verifying the repair and road testing.

 

The labor time to replace an oxygen sensor is only part of the repair. You also need to account for the additional time needed to complete the operation: retesting, verifying and road testing. Not taking this into account could hurt labor production, which will affect your bottom line.

 

Oh yes, I am hoping that everyone is getting paid for testing too.

[xrac]

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[Tires Too]

I've been struggling with this for some time. We are often doing O2 sensors or EVAP system repairs for vehicles that have fails emission testing. After spending the time to diagnose the problem, replace the faulty component, we still need to reset the monitors in the PCM and test drive the vehicle. On older cars where we can not run EVAP testing monitors in the bay, we may have to drive the car multiple times before the EVAP monitor will run. We often have a service advisor or myself drive the vehicle so the techs can move on to the next vehicle, but on some of these cars you can be looking at hours of time to get all the monitors up. We do sometimes let the customers take the vehicle and drive it for a few days to reset the monitors and bring it back in for emissions testing, but I'm not sure that is the best way to handle these situations. We have seen where an O2 sensor failure has caused a converter failure that did not set a P0420 until the O2 was replaced because the PCM would not run the cat efficiency code with the O2 failed. I want to know that everything is complete before I give the vehicle back to the customer, but charging an additional $200 for drive time not practical.

[Joe Marconi]

I've been struggling with this for some time. We are often doing O2 sensors or EVAP system repairs for vehicles that have fails emission testing. After spending the time to diagnose the problem, replace the faulty component, we still need to reset the monitors in the PCM and test drive the vehicle. On older cars where we can not run EVAP testing monitors in the bay, we may have to drive the car multiple times before the EVAP monitor will run. We often have a service advisor or myself drive the vehicle so the techs can move on to the next vehicle, but on some of these cars you can be looking at hours of time to get all the monitors up. We do sometimes let the customers take the vehicle and drive it for a few days to reset the monitors and bring it back in for emissions testing, but I'm not sure that is the best way to handle these situations. We have seen where an O2 sensor failure has caused a converter failure that did not set a P0420 until the O2 was replaced because the PCM would not run the cat efficiency code with the O2 failed. I want to know that everything is complete before I give the vehicle back to the customer, but charging an additional $200 for drive time not practical.

 

This is a perfect example of some of the scenarios that we need to consider when performing high tech work. While it may be hard to standardize each operation, as the years pass we will see more and more high tech work replace traditional straight forward labor jobs. The important thing now is to start tracking the time it actually takes to insure that the car is done right. And while I agree with you about charging $200, we need to establish some sort of compromise.

 

This may not be a perfect analogy but here goes: If a doctor has to order an X-ray after he takes a cast off to insure the bone healed properly, the X-ray is billed to the customer (or insurance). The doctor is verifying his repair.

 

This is great conversation and I hope to hear more comments from others.

[xrac]

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[mmotley]

I know some people will freak out, but maybe you could just raise your labor rate a dollar or two to make up for the difference instead of charging for each individual thing you're doing. Much like offering free loaner cars, car wash, code checks, or whatever else. They aren't really free, but you don't charge for them either

[ADP]

I know this is slightly old topic, but I don't get much time to check things out here. Very good topic, and something I didn't think about. How are you billing these additional hours? Are you simply just adding time to the part change, or are you adding a totally new line for test drive and verify? At my shop we do a ton of motors, and all the testing and driving after the repair cost a lot of time.

[mspecperformance]

I know this is slightly old topic, but I don't get much time to check things out here. Very good topic, and something I didn't think about. How are you billing these additional hours? Are you simply just adding time to the part change, or are you adding a totally new line for test drive and verify? At my shop we do a ton of motors, and all the testing and driving after the repair cost a lot of time.

You should look at your numbers and see how much time you actually spend on the job especially during the verification of repair part. This is very important as a possible area you are leaking billable hours. Of course whenever you increase the cost of a job you have in increase VALUE. the value you should be adding is the additional testing and verification of the repair which should be presented to your customer has a benefit and noted on their invoice.

[alfredauto]

We figure it in up front for check engine diag, most of the time the car is due for inspection so we add an hour to get the monitors up. Example - CEL on p0442, p0456. We charge 2 hours to diag it. 10 minute smoke test we find a bad filler neck.1.5 plus part to install it. Smoke it again no leaks, run evap test with the scanner vent solenoid stuck. .5 plus part for that. Test again all good, 20 min test drive ("free") gets the rest of the monitors up. Total 4 hours billed, we are confident codes are fixed. We used to underbill it was bad for us. The customer that can't commit to 2 hours for diag is not a customer we want, its someone who doesn't think my time or equipment is worth anything.

[alfredauto]

We had a different type of job the other day. Exhaust manifolds on a Durango. I quoted it high anticipating some problems. I broke 12 bolts. After running through 2lbs of welding wire and 10lbs of nuts i finally got them out. Its not the customers fault I broke them all, but again its not my fault his truck is rusted out. I charged him 3 extra hours, it took me 7. I made money on the job but it took way longer. I feel if I quoted him triple labor we might have had an unpleasant situation. In the end he bought me a nice bottle of wine as a thank you so at least I felt appreciated.

[ADP]

I have run into this situation as well. Always hard to charge the customer for the hours you have into this type of job.

[aauto]

When I do jobs like that I tell the customer best case (bolts spin right out) or worst case (the heads are coming off) and advise them that I hate broken bolts and do my best to not break them and can take time to remove them without breakage. Advise customer broken bolt are more involved than just drilling them out, such as other components needing removal like p/s pumps, starters, motor mounts etc for access. Always open the customers eyes to these type of problematic jobs like this, the last thing you want is your pants down around your ankles while trying to explain to your customer after the fact. In the end get paid for the job or just don't do it.

Edited January 1, 2015 by aauto