![]() ![]() If you foresee giant gaps of time between busy periods, a flat rate may not be your best bet. Part of your job as a shop manager or owner is to ensure your techs are cared for. You may shrug this off at first after all, there’s a tech shortage, so your shop should be plenty busy, right? A flat rate tech needs a vehicle in the repair bay. An hourly tech is paid for being there, whether they’ve got a truck to work on or not. ![]() You’ll want to track the work your techs do carefully and hold them accountable if you implement a flat rate system.īeyond the potential for cutting corners in the name of efficiency, a flat rate also puts your techs at the mercy of their workload. This, of course, can lead to shoddy work and comebacks. “ makes a tech more efficient, but it can also make some techs cut corners too much.” The allure of the flat rate can lead to problems, namely techs rushing through jobs in an effort to get to a particular number. Ray’s flat rate experience came in the auto world, but a lot of what he said will still apply in the heavy-duty environment. In a recent interview with Ray Clark, Director of Training and Development for Truck County and Stoops Freightliner, he remarked, “I like flat rate! I was mad at myself if Wednesday came and I didn’t have 40 hours in the bank already.” A talented, motivated technician can make a lot of money under the flat rate. If they can complete a two-hour job in half an hour, for example, there is nothing to stop them from taking on multiple two-hour jobs per day, completing them early, and racking up the dough. Advantages & disadvantages of a flat rateĪ flat rate can work in favor of a skilled tech. This guide is intended as a primer, a way to get you thinking about how you pay your techs (or, if you’re a tech yourself, how you want to be paid). To save you time (and our sanity), though, we’re going to condense them here. We could probably write a series of blog posts about the pros and cons of these two types of payments. What are the advantages of each pay rate? If you have a busy day and they work on five vehicles, they’re paid for that, too. ![]() If you have a slow day and they’re mostly sipping coffee and chatting with the service manager, they’re getting paid for that coffee. As soon as a tech clocks in, they’re earning money. With an hourly rate, what matters is time spent in the shop. If you earn $35/hour and work 40 hours a week, you’re making $1400/week, $5600/month, and $67,200/year. Hourly pay is a wage based on how many hours you work. There are several ways to choose your flat rate, ranging from pulling numbers out of a hat to the more scientific method of studying labor guides and setting your rates based on their information. The opposite is true, too: if the job takes four hours, the tech is still paid for two hours. If the tech finishes the job in one hour, they still get paid for two hours. For example, Job X will take a good tech two hours to complete. Ready to learn all about wages? Let’s go! What is a flat rate?Ī flat rate is tied to a particular job. But we’ll lay out the background of each in an effort to help you make the right choice. We’re not going to take a stand and say which is better that is up to you and your shop. You see, in our modern world we have all kinds of ways you can pay a person. Let’s talk about that last question a little more. Should you pay your techs a flat rate or an hourly wage?.Will you help them continue their education?.How will you make sure they’re staying efficient?.If you’re employing technicians (or thinking about employing them) certain questions inevitably come up: ![]()
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