Motorcyle workshop rates

[EBT]

I am not to worried what there hourly rate is, what I don't like is when they tell you it took 4.5 hours to do the job and then I speak to 2 different interstate bike mechanic friends who tell me the work I had on my road bike would take 2 hours tops   

[Lewis]

I am not to worried what there hourly rate is, what I don't like is when they tell you it took 4.5 hours to do the job and then I speak to 2 different interstate bike mechanic friends who tell me the work I had on my road bike would take 2 hours tops 

I'm with you on this.Here in Bendigo there are two bike shops I won't do business with. Over priced and crap work. I buy a lot of stuff from the USA and get any repairs done over there. Parts for my brand of bike are readily available over there and the labour costs are far cheaper. Seems a lot of shops only want to work on newer bikes.

[the stig]

I am not to worried what there hourly rate is, what I don't like is when they tell you it took 4.5 hours to do the job and then I speak to 2 different interstate bike mechanic friends who tell me the work I had on my road bike would take 2 hours tops   

      Most bike shops always bill you for more Hrs than the Job actualy took had a mate with a repair buisiness he recond his mechanic's
      worked 10 to 12 hrs a day    on paper..
      Going by the Prices that People tell me they paid for a top end rebuild   
     

      The Stig

[Ktm181]

I'll weigh into this a little as well. I work for a dealership, car not bike, labour rate is $137.50 and all techs are earning at least 50k a year PLUS super and plus a monthly bonus if we get through enough work, a sort of production commission I guess.  Local bikes shops are pretty much all charging $105 and hour for last year or so. Local bike shop tech earns $45k and is a mate of mine, he reckons he is worth more, I regularly offer him a job but he says no, loves bikes, thinks car dealership mechanics are dipshits and continues to whinge at his employer for more money! I am more than happy to pay the bike shop to do stuff for me if I "have no time, am too lazy, have too much to do etc etc". Me, I ran and owned several car repair shops for 20 plus years and am a qualified mechanic for last 35 years, thankfully I am no longer on the tools, I do understand the costs involved, they are big....our current workshop electricity bill is EIGHT THOUSAND A QUARTER, phone bill is the same, rent is just under $2k a WEEK and is cheap for where we are, workers comp is roughly 10k  A MONTH !!!!  its not hard to see why the hourly rate is so high, wages are the biggy, another example...our foreman/workshop controller 70k a year plus super, plus a free car changed over every six months/10000kilos plus commission plus plus plus! (AND the foreman/controller gets rental assistance, tax discounts from govt.!!!)  All on a standard 38 hour paid week where we are all doing about 45 hours! Again, I don't own the place, but I DO help run it!

I figure if 2 hours is quoted and we can do it in an hour and a half because a particular tech is good enough, provided the work is done correctly, its our good fortune, it would not be too smart to simply just charge less, we live in a capitalist system no? An example on a clutch replacement, 6.4hrs is standard quoted book time, our fastest guy can do it in around the 4 hour mark with no mistakes, we still charge the 6.4hrs.  Price is ALWAYS quoted up front and we stand by our estimates and workmanship, its good business and this particular place has been going strong for 40 years now.

As far are regularly buying and spending over seas, I generally try and buy it here, after all HOW MUCH DO EACH OF US EARN?  If we spend enough over the water eventually the guys we are not spending with will not be spending with us and of course the end result is we all go to the wall?  For example, in process of rebuilding an RM 99% I have bought local and dollar for dollar it more or less the same price, the Suzuki bloke loves me, his boss has bought a car from us, everybody happy!

What a great country!
Kt.

[William Doe]

I am a qualified mechanic and worked as one on and off for 20 yrs. A lot of comments in this thread are the reason i will never pick up a spanner for payment again 

The difference between charge out rates and what mechanics are paid is probably about right when you consider all overheads , but obviously the charge out rate is far to low as $45/60 K a year as has been quoted on here is bullshit for a qualifed technician ( no wonder so many get out of the trade disolusioned ) .

The only place i got a fair go ( wages wise ) was in the UK where in dealerships we were paid the Hrs we sold ( book time) rather than the hrs we worked, and we could have worked 24/7 if we wanted due to the workload . If you had a come back that was on you so quality wasn't compromised.

If you were any good and could work fast you made good money.

No matter how good or how honest you are everybodys got a mate who is a technician ( usually a tyre fitter or exhaust fitter  ) who will tell them they would do the job in half the time at a quarter of the price  and the punter will alway believe what they want to hear 

Every kid i hear say they want to get into the motor trade i do all i can to talk them out of it , great hobby , shit profession as the general public will always treat you as a crook or a kunt .

Get into IT where you can charge what you want and enjoy working on your own cars / bikes at home or pay one of those kunts in overalls to do it for you while you think of ways to spend all that extra money you have made from working in IT .

[jerry]

I wonder what the mechanics actually get paid per hour by there employer. J

[80-85 husky]

IT.. my brother in law is in IT and they are shifting to the USA, IT programmers and techs...12 - 15 bucks and hour!!! no reason to stay here

[pancho]

I wonder what the mechanics actually get paid per hour by there employer. J

 most get $24 per hr.
 
Like the man said do the trade, use the knowledge for fun and do something else for more money and no stress.
 
Trouble is most blokes in my experience start the trade 'cos they're petrol heads and they don't care what pay they get until there about twenty eight and then its to late to winge because the customers don't respect the trade as being as complex as it is.
 Computers, hydraulics, basic electrics, engineering concepts, legal design requirements, wheel align technollegy more computers than aeroplanes, pollution control maintenance the list goes on. Then there is standard times requirements to deal with.

[asasin]

I ditched the "HOURLY RATE" 5 YEARS AGO . everything is now fixed price or as quoted. hourly rate for costing jobs is a outdated last century thing., the price is what the job is worth.

[Ted]

If you are worried about what a mechanic charges you'd be mortified to know what a surgeon gets.

But I suppose you could always buy a cheap heart or liver off EBay and you and your mate could fit it in your shed one Saturday arvo just like a car part to save a few bucks.

Are mechanical services expensive. I don't think so.

[huskibul]

  Be a few bloke's lookin' for cheap liver transplants after CD ! could be an opening for anyone wanting to diversify - plenty of info on google to kick the practice off

[topari]

I ditched the "HOURLY RATE" 5 YEARS AGO . everything is now fixed price or as quoted. hourly rate for costing jobs is a outdated last century thing., the price is what the job is worth.

From a customer's perspective, this is what I prefer. I hate surprises.

[smed]

I ditched the "HOURLY RATE" 5 YEARS AGO . everything is now fixed price or as quoted. hourly rate for costing jobs is a outdated last century thing., the price is what the job is worth.

Intersting, So how do you work out what a job is worth? What happens if something out of you or the customer's control goes wrong like a stubborn fastener snaps or something like that & the job goes to shit & takes heaps longer than Quoted or fixed price? I'm not having a crack at you,Your system obviously works for you & your customers, just curios what happens in that scenario

[smed]

      Most bike shops always bill you for more Hrs than the Job actualy took
     

      The Stig

I must have been too bloody honest Stiggy when I had my bike shop,never done that,maybe that's why I ain't rich

[marshallmech]

We don't charge an hourly rate never have in the last 37 years some jobs can and do take longer but it all works out in the long run.
We repair truck diffs and gearboxes so there isn't allot of difference between all the American  makes different story with the euro crap.
we have a fixed price for R&R and a fixed price for the labor depending on what it is diff or a gearbox and the size of them .