🚀 go-pugleaf

In a previous article, ns.rl56@cheerful.com (Richard) says:

>You must be joking. A flat rate charge is the biggest scam in the auto
>repair industry. Charging 4 hours of labor for 2 hours actual labor? Either
>you're an auto tech or one dumb sucker. This is the reason I work on my own
>cars.

You've never worked on a Car From Hell that called for 3 hours for "x"
when it actually took you five or six.

If I were a flat-rater I'd be *dead*.  Right now I am doing roughly
6 hours of "work" for 10 hours of paid time.  This is actually considered
good in my company, because we don't schedule pack-it-tight-style,
so there is some dead time, and our labor hours guide is a bit more
relaxed than the factory guide (ours shows less time needed to do work).
Many of the jobs I do aren't even done according to flat-rate, they're
done according to common sense; according to the book, a four wheel
alingment on a IRS Thunderbord should take 1.5 to 3 hours!  BS - 
I can and *have* done them in 45-minutes to a half hour, including two
test drives and setting up the alignment machine.  We charge - suprise!
45 minutes labor for all front end and one hour labor for all four
wheel alignments.  So I'm still "beating the system", but by a factor
of 15 to 30 minutes instead of 45 to two and a half!

>Imagine this. I go to my mgr tomorrow and tell him that it takes the average
>person to perform my work load in 8 hrs. I am fast, however, and can do the
>same job in 4 hrs. Therefore I can take the rest of the afternoon off with
>pay or you can pay me double time for the rest of the 8 hr work day. I bet
>he'll tell me I'm worth it and let me take my pick of either time off or
>double pay. What did you decide to do with your time? Play or double pay?

Depends on how well my finances are at the time.  If that were to
happen to me today, I'd probably work an extra eight or ten hours,
not just four.


-- 
You know your car is pathetic when you are thrilled
one day when you speed-shift into Third and it chirps
one of the tires.
                                    I MISS MY 429!