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Cmark's random photo thread
- Thread starter Cmark
- Start date
DMiller
Senior Member
Gorgeous view Cmark
hosspuller
Senior Member
Interesting photo of the new bucket teeth. Someone got their use out of that tooth...
Must be doing a lot of rock work ? That the reason for the ribs inside the bucket ?
And what's the reason for the rebar across the teeth ?
Cmark ... Thanks for sharing..
Must be doing a lot of rock work ? That the reason for the ribs inside the bucket ?
And what's the reason for the rebar across the teeth ?
Cmark ... Thanks for sharing..
DMiller
Senior Member
Rerod does not appear to be 'attached', suspect a trash/dirt chipper.
Cmark how do you use your time do you travel around taking stuff apart order parts go to another place work on something else while your weighting on parts? How long does it take to get parts? I work on mainly trucks right now i have to always be thinking if i tear in to a truck what if another one has a problem witch is needed more. I spend alot of my day on the phone every day how do you charge for this?
Tenwheeler
Senior Member
Not my question but parts mark up usually. It is a bit tough sometimes when you are wanting to take care not advantage of your
customer. An older truck here just had a bad electric window regulator. $550 so I called them and put in a hand crank deal that cost about $150. I was not personally doing the work but saw the poor condition seals later. Call and order all the new seals - weather stripping to go around that. They only sent one side of the lower window to door seal for $145. I just charged them $145 and attached a copy of their invoice. Let them know who is screwing the pouch. Glad the parts man messed up and only sent one of four.
They can buy their own parts but I will not do warranty work on customer supplied parts unless it is an apparent installation problem.
Firstly, as most of you know, we work mainly on Cat equipment. Now whatever anyone says about Cat's service or prices, the Cat parts system is second to none. With SIS on the laptops in the service trucks, we can look up part numbers and get P&A in minutes. I've tried dealing with the others, Komatsu, Kobelco, Hyundai etc. and it can take an hour just for someone to phone you back and then they will usually want to email you a picture to confirm they are talking about the right thing before they order it, even if it's available. Typically, if a customer wants us to work on anything other than Cat I will explain the foreseeable issues before we start and if possible, get them to organise their own parts.
The issue of getting parts to the machine is dictated by the needs of the customer. If a machine is down and parts are available at the local depot, and the customer wants it, we will happily drive to collect them. In the area we usually work it should be a round trip of 1 to 4 hours maximum. We charge the travel time at a lesser hourly rate, plus mileage. If parts aren't local, 90% of time they're available next day by 9:00 am and in that case, yes, we will try and look at another job in the meantime.
The key to keeping customers happy is communication. If you can only spend a couple of hours on a job, let them know your circumstances before you start. If you're in the middle of a 3 day rebuild and you get a call for a breakdown, explain exactly the situation to both parties. I don't know what it's like in your area but most business owners I know won't have a problem with you leaving their job for an urgent breakdown for a little while, and explain to customer B before you start that you can't be all day on his breakdown.
Minimising lost-and-downtime in a field service based business is relatively easy, but needs discipline. As much admin work as possible relating to a job should be done on site in chargeable time. You have to be tough on yourself and your employees. A lot of guys will want to get back to the depot ASAP and sit down with a coffee and do the paperwork. Not in my business. Parts ordering, writing service reports, filling out oil-sample forms, any admin for the job needs to be done before leaving site. Even if the site is closing and you get kicked out, park on the street outside and do it. As long as it's related to the job at hand, it's totally justifiable to put it all on the bill in my opinion. On the flip side, if you do have to break off to make phone calls relating to something else, make sure you document it and, most importantly, make a point of telling the customer that you've taken a half-hour or whatever off his bill. Most of the time they won't even be aware of it but they will be impressed by your honesty. Besides, you never know who is watching you through the office windows.
Welder Dave
Senior Member
Do you charge by how long it actually takes or by how long it says in the book? I know a lot of automotive repairs go by what a book says but sometimes a repair goes a lot quicker than expected and the dealer doesn't pass any savings on to the customer. I also know there's unexpected stuff that can be charged extra. When I did landscaping and a job went faster than expected I'd take a little off and the customers were usually appreciative. Some customers wouldn't be happy if you did it for free though.
Nige
Senior Member
Usually there isn’t a “Book”, or at least not one that independents can get hold of. Actual hours + Parts is how I’ve always seen it done.
Truck Shop
Senior Member
Class 8 Truck inframe averages 40 hrs give or take depending on engine. Add 22Hrs for front structure.
Welder Dave
Senior Member
It makes sense to charge by actual hours. Is warranty work the same or they only allow so much time?
John C.
Senior Member
If you asking about warranty time at franchised dealers then all have variations of the same theme. The Link-Belt and Komatsu dealers that I worked for had a rate negotiated for the repair. Say your revenue rate was $76 and hour, your warranty rate would be somewhere around $48 and it didn't include any travel time or mileage. The customer gets that bill. In some cases like up dates they gave an amount they would pay per each project. Cat was different is many ways as there seemed to be more set amounts per job. Product improvements didn't pay enough to chase them so they didn't get done unless a wrench was already on the job doing something else. Campaigns for safety items nearly always got done and the money was decent. I've known service managers who got fired for not getting those scheduled and done in an expected period of time. Warranty work is not set up as a profit center and most dealers absolutely hate doing it. The other part of it is the paper work. It works like an insurance policy. The customer is supposed to pay for it up front and then the manufacturer reimburses on their own time frame and at their own amount. Most dealers are set up to just do the jobs that are justified and paid for on previous claims, then they wait to get paid, sometimes for months.
Nige
Senior Member
Versatile anyway......