Need advice from one shop to another

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extreme1

Silver - Posts: 1,070

Joined: February 12, 2003

Location: Canada

Posted: November 29, 2004 at 12:34 PM / IP Logged

Ravendarat wrote:

I Dont charge for aditional relays, diodes, resistors etc. :)

And that's why your FS loses money every month on shop supply.

When I was at FS we charged $10 in parts for locks, $10 in parts for trunk.

I carry the same over to the new shop I'm at, keyless labour is $45 + $10 for parts, trunk is $25 + $10 for parts. Bypass is $100 for 98% of vehicles and about 120 for new chryslers. (prices in Canadian Funds)

I've never had a starter with keyless and locks take me longer than 2 hours. All my work is soldered and secured with whatever the factory uses for tape.

If your shop is taking 3-7 hours to do a starter, your shop is losing money.

Shaughn Murley

Install Manager, Dealer Services

Visions Electronics

Red Deer, Alberta

extreme1

Silver - Posts: 1,070

Joined: February 12, 2003

Location: Canada

Posted: November 29, 2004 at 12:42 PM / IP Logged

Also, paying installers by the hour is poor incentive to work faster or get better. I pay my rookie installers 40% of the labour they do, and it caps at 50%.

Shaughn Murley

Install Manager, Dealer Services

Visions Electronics

Red Deer, Alberta

Velocity Motors

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Joined: March 08, 2002

Location: Manitoba, Canada

Posted: November 29, 2004 at 1:05 PM / IP Logged

Preping wires actually speed up the installation because you don't have to sort through all the uncessary wires in the harness. If you pre the wire harnesses, the only iones necessary will be left out of the wrapping and ready for installation.

Jeff

Velocity Custom Home Theater

Mobile Audio/Video Specialist

Morden, Manitoba CANADA

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kgerry

Platinum - Posts: 3,455

This member consistently provides reliable information

Joined: February 07, 2004

Location: Saskatchewan, Canada

Posted: November 29, 2004 at 1:30 PM / IP Logged

plus it makes for a far cleaner install because you cut all wiring as short as needed and remove the wiring not needed before you even get into the vehicle.... if you interconnect all bypass and data modules before you get into the vehicle you only have one or two wires to deal with in the car.....i cant count the # of times i've had to troubleshoot someone elses wiring and they have all the unused wiring jammed under the dash like spagetti....

as Shaughn said, putting your guys on a percentage of their billable time is a heck of a motivator..... i did that with some of my guys years back and found one of my junior installers doubled his wage almost overnight and one of my main guys dropped in salary almost 50%.... sure lets you know who's doing what..... i've always found paying anyone by the hour is a sure way to have the job take twice as long as it needs to, whether it's an installer, a painter, plumber, etc, etc.....

Kevin Gerry

Certified Electronics Technician

MECP First Class Installer

Owner/Installer

Classic Car Audio

since 1979

Ravendarat

Platinum - Posts: 2,806

Joined: February 23, 2004

Location: Canada

Posted: November 29, 2004 at 7:07 PM / IP Logged

Shaun, over the last 6 months we have turned that around. Every single job has a 3 dollar shop supply charged and being I very rarley ever buy more than 200 dollars a month in shop supplies, it covers our bases. As to paying by the hour, it all depends on how it is relayed to the staff. I get paid strictly by the hour, yet I know its unacceptable for me to take 4 hours to do a 2000 cavalier. If it took me that long then I am obviously not doing my job. I also get paid a ten precent commision on top of my hourly wage so in reality I decide my bonus. The more jobs I do the more I make, but I still have the security of a base pay. Mabye if you want to give your guys some incentive but want to retain that hourly pay structure you look at a pay scale that reflects their productivity. Just a thought.

double-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer

zargon

Copper - Posts: 186

Joined: January 27, 2003

Location: United States

Posted: November 29, 2004 at 7:31 PM / IP Logged

this has been interesting, i have heard a lot of claims, but i've been here for a long time, and some of these claims are just claims, never had a remote start take longer than 2 hours? never had a easy remote start take more than two hours i will beleive, and if you have never had a problem with one of your installs with your wiring then my guess is you have not done many, we do lots of remote starts and when we get into crunch time remote starts 7 days a week you are going to have some problems, usually small but if you are doing a lot you will have some come back. i had a successful business man once tell me if you are to busy then you are not charging enough, less work more money he would say, good luck everybody for the next three months of remote starts.

zargon ruler of estranorth

extreme1

Silver - Posts: 1,070

Joined: February 12, 2003

Location: Canada

Posted: November 29, 2004 at 9:00 PM / IP Logged

Ravendarat wrote:

Don't forget I worked at FS for 3 years.

$3 material fee doesn't cover $15 worth of relays. over time $3 doesn't balance out.

My favorite was when FS raised the price of antenna adaptors 3 bucks because the free deck sku wasn't triggering the material fee, and they never ever reduced the price.

Shaughn Murley

Install Manager, Dealer Services

Visions Electronics

Red Deer, Alberta

arctic

Member - Posts: 30

Joined: October 05, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: November 29, 2004 at 9:17 PM / IP Logged

i've been doing this for about five years, and a basic start takes me no longer than an hour. alarm/start/keyless/transponder shouldn't add on much more than another hour, no matter WHAT car. divide the difference for all cars in the middle. 4-7 hours? ask your installers what the white stuff is under the car, cause i think they are milking their jobs.

arctic

Member - Posts: 30

Joined: October 05, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: November 29, 2004 at 9:26 PM / IP Logged

i should add that a quick, neat prep should only take minutes when you know your product and car... we have 3 installers at our shop and we're putting out 25-30 jobs a day depending on how busy it is. it's not boomerang business, either.

Mja1962

Copper - Posts: 119

Joined: September 14, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: November 29, 2004 at 10:15 PM / IP Logged

arctic wrote:

25-30 jobs per day by 3 guys? That means each guy does 8-10 jobs each. Which means that they are either doing at LEAST one "job" (or more) per hour, or working more than an 8 hour day. What constitutes a job? Is it a remote start with bypass/door locks/headlights/etc? Do you solder te connections? Are you guys robots?! LOL

I would love to know how to do 8-10 remote starts in a 8 hour day. Admittedly, I don't install full-time, but I can't imagine that these numbers are realistic for a typical day's work. Anybody else have thoughts on this? There is quite a discrepancy between the opinions of the people posting on this topic...

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