sjdieselrepair

Please let me know your feelings on this program. I have been searching for a replacement, I currently have Napa tracs and want to change it for the first of the year. 

We are a diesel repair and fleet service shop, that is my main concentration. I recently bought out a garage with 2 gas techs and all there customers and started doing light duty gas cars and trucks in my shop. With that said, I have 3 tow trucks. 1 rollback, and 2 med duty wreckers ALL PAID FOR (key word). On average I tow 2 trucks in a week for my fleet customers as a added bonus of a one stop shop. Now average I tow 1 of my private customers a week as a added bonus, somtimes its because they need the vehicle delivered or picked up. Its been an added money maker for me definitely since some of my city contracts require it. Definitely for me worth it. 

Some of the cons. First off the insurance for me is just an added average of $3900 a year per truck since the umbrella covers most of it besides the on-hook. Also another con is out of 5 mechanics only 1 tech and me can operate the rollback. Only I can operate both wreckers. If I go on a long tow I'm out of the shop for a wile, my service writer can handle most of the issues but most fleet supervisors want to talk to me and me only. 

If your really thinking of a tow truck you have to think of your customer base and cost effective. If its worth it go for it. Worst thing though is to have to pay for a truck monthly that sits there costing money instead of paying for itself.

Yes some of my fleets are on a discount program and or contract pricing.

Reaching out to see what other shops are marking up filters: oil, fuel, and air filters for fleets.

Right now I'm doing 35% mark up for all the filters. And I have 5 fleets of 20-46 trucks. Class 3-6.

I want to keep them coming but don't want to loose to much. Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks everybody for the help. I do net 30 with my other fleet customers but wasn't sure if any one had anything different for school bus fleets. The school bus company does have there own mechanics and we are only doing there diesel engine work at this time.

I looking into picking up a school bus fleet. I was wandering what is the going terms for monthly billing if anyone uses . Thanks

We offer credit through our Napa truck center membership. I believe it is called Napa care, through GE capital. We specialize in the ford power stroke diesels, our main customer is the 6.0 diesel trucks. Some of the repairs can get very pricey (over $3000). It has worked wonders and also brought in some business. BUT the customer must be approved through ge to get the credit.

Just wanted to say thanks for starting this thread. Have been on here a wile and this is this first.

S&J Diesel Repair is a diesel truck repair and performance shop. We specialize in the cummins 6.7 and the ford 6.0 and 6.4 powerstroke diesel engines. I will admit my parking lot is always full. They get towed in by the dozen. My biggest competition is the internet. I will give a customer a quote on a egr delete and oil cooler relocation job. They will complain how expensive it is and how there buddy can do it cheaper. A week later im towin the truck in and the customer has a cardboard box filled with parts and cans filled with bolts. Come to find out they bought the same aftermarket parts i get for the same price. THE INTERNET turns everyone into a mechanic overnight.

As a small shop owner myself with a budget, we use identifix and also napaprolink. We get it free through our local napa store. It comes in handy doing estimates and u can beat the price! Identifix is $160 a month for good information also.

I too charge for diagnostics. We do mostly diesel trucks and some times it takes about 45 - 50 min to diagnose. That's 45-50 min off lost time. If we do this 4 times a day, we worked a half of a work day for free!!!

I too charge for diagnosis. I don't charge enough most times but I always try to anticipate how long it will take to figure out a problem. Like Gonzo wrote, it's a good way to pre-qualify the customer type. I struggle from time to time with diagnosis but I usually figure it out in a timely fashion, that's why I don't charge enough, I try to empathize and charge what it "should take" to figure out that problem, not what it took me. Part of my dilemma is that I'm a one man shop and get interrupted and have to "Get back in the groove" so my 3 hours maybe should have only taken 1.5. That is in no way the fault of the customer or their car so I feel they should not be responsible for the inefficiencies of my business.

 

Like many have said, I lose consumers at the front desk. If they don't want to pay I don't do the work. I had one just last week, wanted to know if I had free inspections. I asked what I would be inspecting,he said his car wasn't running right. I told him the equipment, information and education to competently "inspect" or more accurately diagnose his problem was not free so I had to charge for my use of it for his benefit. He decided he didn't want me to find the problem for him, apparently he would keep going to the parts store and throwing parts at it until he ran out of money.

 

I wonder if part of the reason why the consumer doesn't value our time, skill, equipment and commitment is because we make it look too easy. Or maybe why they value the medical testing more is because they are personally, physically involved where with their car it's behind-the-scenes. With medical, they feel the pin-prick, they see the massive, expensive MRI, there is big drama with the x-ray and the tech running off to the radiation free zone, etc. With their car, they drop it off and come back when it's done. No muss, no fuss, no pain, except in the wallet.

 

But unfortunately as long as there are low-ball, low grade low-equipped shops out there doing it for cheap, we will never achieve the level of respect or compensation that our years of masochism deserve.