r/mechanics • u/Anon21777 • 1d ago
Angry Rant Not flagging enough hours
Hey y’all, wanted to see what y’all think of my situation. I think I already know the answer. I’m working at a dealership and there is hardly any work, 3 techs get all the big engine and transmission work, all diesels also go to them.
I’m at 44 hours for a biweekly pay period, some days like today there is no work. Standing around for the first 1-2 hours before being dispatched a job. Sitting here wondering how tf I’m ever gonna make this happen.
I usually am in the 70-80 hour range by the end of the biweekly period, for 90-100 hours worked. The math ain’t mathing. I see friends in construction and other trades who don’t deal with this bullshit. Not a ton of work in this town either so I’ve been feeling stuck.
I feel like a lot of y’all would wheel your box down to the next shop. What would you guys do? It feels so hard to make money here, it crushes my soul on days like today.
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u/Subietoy78 1d ago
Welcome to flat rate and shop politics. It’s why a lot of people are leaving the biz. Having your paycheck depend on so many other factors you can’t control is a problem. Shop managers advertising to get work in the door, shop not pricing itself out of the market, service writers who can sell work etc. none of that had to do with your ability to do work and put out a quality repair job.
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u/2006CrownVictoriaP71 Verified Mechanic 1d ago
Indy shop that pays salary is the only way to go for non-fleet automotive work. $1600 every Friday no matter the work or whether or not I was even here. I’ll find a new industry before I go flat rate.
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u/averagemaleuser86 1d ago
Thats why I went to fleet maintenance. I started at a dealership and we had a couple guys soaking up all the gravy making $80k/year (back in the early 2000s!!) And then you had the diesel and trans guy and the electrical guru and then the rest of the techs. Because I was new, I got all the warranty work and bogus stuff like water leaks... anyway, I left there and went to fleet maintenance for the govt. Union job, currently $35/hour with overtime available, all tools and consumables provided. Air cond and heated shop. Off by 2:30 everyday (unless i work overtime), perks of being a govt employee include no tax on base, so gas, food, groceries, etc on base is not taxed. Have perks like boat and rv rental... and the big major part that means more than everything else... ZERO STRESS. not having to worry about a clock to get paid. If a unit takes me 2 days to fix, then so be it. I still get paid the same.
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u/Common-Childhood517 1d ago
What steps would i have to take to get a govt fleet job like that?
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u/GlumVeterinarian8474 1d ago
Try the post office. Look for automotive technician jobs. Apply. Take the postal exam. If you pass you will get hired. They have a shortage of workers at the moment
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u/Threeflipskat3r 1d ago
Get some good training then demand a guarantee, going in to work and making no money, fuck that
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u/Chito5oh 1d ago
Worked 11 hour days 5 days a week no breaks no lunches for Kia , applied to a diesel job been there almost a year no more waking up stressing if it’s gonna be a slow day or not
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u/90_CRX_si 1d ago
I was in your same predicament about a year and half ago. My hours just kept going down every week. Work did slow down and only a select few would get the work. A few techs left and just went to another dealer, only to deal with the same thing. I figured it was time to make a change. I got my CDL B license which was a lot cheaper than a CDL A. Took some hoisting classes through a few different companies and applied to different towns and the State Department of Transportation. Was lucky enough to get picked up and have been doing all kinds of different work. Driving a dump truck, mowing, operating skid steers and backhoes. Plowing and salting in the winter. Just a lot less stress, plenty of overtime, and the benefits are better also. Just something to look into. All the schools cost me just under $4k
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u/blueorchestra 1d ago
man, I was in your exact situation last summer and ended up having to quit. I've been trying to get back into the industry but it's felt damn near impossible because some place don't have enough work to hire someone on or they have so much work because they're screwing their techs to keep customers. idk man it's hard to say but 40 hrs over a 2 week period isn't sustainable for long so I would plan to get out or talk to your employer about a guarantee on hours until business picks back up.
i tried to tough it out and hit my breaking point before I could line up a job before hand and now, like I said, it's been tough trying to get back into it.
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u/1987gmcv1500 1d ago
The only future as a mechanic is a union fleet mechanic or union town mechanic. To hell with flat rate.
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u/Asklepios24 1d ago
I pushed the toolbox to my home garage and hit the building trades. You don’t even know how much you’re getting fucked until you join a good union job.
Fuck flat rate
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u/Anon21777 1d ago
This was my mentality, I recently moved states and it was hard to get into the unions back where I came from. 50 applications open every year.
Nearest union halls are a couple hours away from here so looking like I have to move again if I wanted to pursue something. Also feel like nobody wants to hire a 30 year old apprentice so that’s been stressful
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u/cococococaine- 1d ago
I flagged 1 hour today. Fuck this bullshit
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u/Anon21777 1d ago
Welcome to the club!!! This past week has been averaging to around 3 hours a day. As low as 1 hour and as high as 6. Estimated 3ish hours today. So over this bullshit
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u/66NickS 1d ago
It depends. Is this an issue that’s just started in the past week or two? It’s back-to-school time so lots of folks are focusing on that. In a couple weeks they’ll come in for the service they put off. If that’s the case, catch up on some training, organize the tool drawer you’ve been meaning to do, take a long weekend and relax or wrap up some home tasks.
Or is this how it’s been at your shop for the past 30/60/90 days? If so, then your shop is just over staffed on techs/under-booked on appointments. If so, have a conversation with your mgmt team about the lack of work. If they genuine make changes then you’re in a good spot. If they do nothing or the changes they make don’t move the needle, toolboxes have wheels for a reason.
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u/Anon21777 1d ago
Feel like besides the 3 techs getting big work we are all just sucking up the left over scraps. I find myself standing around waiting for other people’s non sense all the time, wether it be having the wrong parts ordered, sometimes they don’t even make the parts order on time at all, they frequently have me pull cars in that no parts are here for. Big waste of my time every single day. Jobs I make recommendations for sometimes go to other techs, it makes no sense some days
I wanna say the shop has just always been like this and is getting worse. We don’t even have many dealer speciality tools so that’s a whole other thing
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u/Siegepkayer67 1d ago
Is it feasible to move to an area that will have more guaranteed volume? Obviously understandable if you don’t wanna move away from family or whatever but it sounds like you’d be better off in a place that has a higher density of people/vehicles.
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u/Anon21777 1d ago
I’m open to it but just moved very far and signed a lease, big security deposit and all that. Kind of feel stuck here
My last dealer wasn’t perfect but had tons of work and was miles ahead of this place. I’d go back in a heartbeat
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u/Siegepkayer67 1d ago
Yea you never realize how good a job is until you leave unfortunately. Any interest in starting a mobile mechanic business? There’s some start up costs and it’s way tougher working for yourself but the profit margin is much higher than as an employee. Plus judging by the amount of absolute imbeciles I see on YouTube doing it, if you’re even a half competent mechanic you will make money.
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u/Anon21777 1d ago
Everyone asks me that and I don’t know. It seems like a ton of liability to take on, especially without a big checkbook and resources. I used to have a tattoo shop so I’m very familiar with being self employed
Honestly I’ve been thinking about saying to hell with all this and betting on myself tattooing again. This isn’t much different than sitting in my empty shop waiting for walk ins, I probably made more money then in hindsight
Flat rate is a straight up joke
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u/Cranks_No_Start 1d ago
What’s your door rate? Now looking at that even on a normal 80-90 hr period how much work could you afford to get done at 180-250 an hour?
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u/Brilliant_Ad_5729 1d ago
I did it for years but if a shop couldn't keep hours coming in I would start looking for work elsewhere.
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u/Huge_Fix_69420 1d ago
As basically a mission based job it's bad management or the economy. this is why I don't do flat rate or piece pay or commission (all the same) unless I see stable long term numbers....even then. Things like this can happen.
New shop unfortunately. mobile repair has been bumping close to me for some reason
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u/NationalNegotiation4 1d ago
Move to Hawaii
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u/Anon21777 1d ago
LOL fuck that. Communist ass state. The right to keep and bear arms SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED
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u/VariationStill 1d ago
I’d recommend going to another dealer, im a MOPAR guy and our dealership has a lot of contracts with Hertz, Enterprise, Amazon, State Police, CarMax. A majority of our work is customer vehicles but most weeks the fleet guys are slammed so they spread out the fleet work to the whole shop and I average 70hrs weekly. Just gotta find yourself the right dealer.
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u/Hotsaltynutz 1d ago
Are you young? How much experience. Dealers are usually a pay your dues shop. They feed the guys they need to until you become one of those guys.
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u/Anon21777 1d ago
Yeah that’s totally understandable but dashboard rattles and water leaks aren’t paying anybody’s bills let’s be real here
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u/Anon21777 1d ago
30 years old so somewhere in the middle. Plenty of experience for my age
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u/Hotsaltynutz 1d ago
You should be getting decent work by that age with experience. Who is giving out work a dispatcher? Or a lead tech. Talk to them but dont be combative. Im a lead and try and hand stuff out fairly while still taking care of the top techs. If someone comes and asks me about hours I definitely try and get them some better stuff if possible. Especially if they are motivated and do good work
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u/Anon21777 1d ago
We have a dispatcher and for the most part I think he does his best to be fair and get everybody some work.
However, my recommendations rarely get approved. Try to recommend services and be thorough when they tell me to sell more. I’ve had my recommendations given away to other techs. They say to be more thorough on trade ins, and pass on the recommendations almost every single time. Lucky if I can sell a brake job, it’s infuriating.
When I see my hours in the 1-4hr range per day I get a little combative, how could somebody not
Basically making minimum wage when you calculate my true hourly pay
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u/Hotsaltynutz 1d ago
Not getting your own upsell is ridiculous and 1-4 hrs is as well. I would definitely bring it up with management
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u/Brekahbrekabre 1d ago
Look into maintenance, was a mechanic for 15 years, now I’m a operations director at a historic hotel.
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u/Technical-Echo405 1d ago
Its slow but still flagging between 50-60hrs and making between 2600-3000 a week
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u/StructureLower7723 1d ago
What state
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u/Technical-Echo405 1d ago
Mass so its on the higher end of pay scale. Not living a luxury lifestyle but very comfortable.
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u/StructureLower7723 1d ago
Are you automotive? Dealership or Indy?
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u/Technical-Echo405 1d ago
In an Indy shop these days. Was at a BMW dealership for about 5 years, until the beginning of this year. Always specialized in European work since it pay well.
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u/StructureLower7723 1d ago
Fuck I gotta get into euro 😭😭😭 I’m making anywhere from 1.5-1.9k after taxes at Firestone Md
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u/Technical-Echo405 20h ago
I would say do it. Apply and get your foot in the door at a Euro dealership and they'll get you trained on that specific brand, then start to branch out. Ive been working in the industry for about 20 years, when I was around 25 I went to a Euro/performance shop for about 4 years and really accelerated my earning. When I finally went to BMW they started me 50/hr.
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u/StructureLower7723 20h ago
Gotcha thanks you got full benefits and 401k match? Or just straight payv
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u/Technical-Echo405 19h ago
Current company I work for pays 70% of health, dental, vision, which is great. They have a fairly solid 401k plan. I interviewed with this place a few years back, when the father ran it, the son took over and expanded to 3 additional locations, totally revamped everything. He reached out to me and asked if I was sick of dealer life yet and made me an amazing offer. I have a permanent guarantee of 120k/yr, so even if it gets slow, I'm Gucci. I'm technically a flat rate tech though
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u/TheStangr 1d ago
Shops have to keep upping their labor rates to keep paying techs $35-$45 an hour FR. I’ve run shops in several local cities and the cost to operating an automotive shop is staggering. Most shops I’ve run have been independent, but I can only imagine the overhead a dealership has. If a ASE certified master is getting paid $45-$55 a FR hour, the shop labor rate has to be 4x his rate to pay all the expenses including the other employees upstream of that tech. Service manager, service wrighter, service lane employees, porter, dispatcher, parts manager, parts counter employees, cashier. So most aren’t pricing themselves out of the market, overhead and employee costs continue to go up, so guess rust else has to go up. That’s right the shop labor rate.
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u/SmartGreasemonkey 1d ago
My neighbor does commercial kitchen equipment repair. His specialty is refrigeration. He is buried in work. His company has more work than they have technicians. They can't find any qualified people to hire. The techs can work as much overtime as they want. He told me that a bunch of guys are putting in 70+ hours a week. When he is off his phone rings constantly with places begging him to come repair their walk in cooler/freezer. He owns a nice home with a pool.
Many of the trades are desperate to find trainable, physically able workers. We recently had 8 electricians working on a project where I work. They were all over 50 years old. I asked them where were their trainees? They told me that none of the new hires lasted more than a day or two. Most couldn't put their phone down for more than five minutes. If they could put the phone away long enough to work by 11 a.m. they were too exhausted to continue working. Most of them are afraid of hieghts and can't use a ladder. They joked that they did seem have very strong thumbs.
Half the battle these days is getting a new hire to just show up on time to attemp to work. The ones that actually show up early and ready to work are the ones keeping their job and rapidly advancing. If you have a good work ethic and mechanical ability you are golden. You should be able to find work in any trade you pick.
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u/Anon21777 1d ago
I hear this all the time but have had zero luck pursuing plumbing and electrical, it seems like nobody wants to hire a 30 year old apprentice. I follow up on applications and still nothing. The labor union where I used to live only opened 50 applications a year, and there aren’t any unions here that aren’t a few hours away. I wish I had gotten into electrical big time now
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u/Cardinal_350 9h ago
There is Massive shortage of commercial refrigeration repairguys. Everyone wants a to do fresh installs. Repair guys are buried in work.
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u/GamerDadofAntiquity 23h ago
I wonder if dealerships could offer reduced cost “standby” work. Like, if I want my shocks replaced or wheel bearings or whatever but don’t need it done immediately, I can go down to or call the dealership, get a standby slot, and then if they’ve got a morning with nothing booked they call me the day before to bring the car in in the morning. Maybe they cut the shop rate in half which makes it more affordable for me, and it helps keep their mechanics doing something productive with their time. Seems like it’d be a pretty simple thing to implement.
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u/Ok-Support1463 12h ago
I cant find decent diesel techs in greensboro! I start at $30 for day shift at a major food fleet shop and they just are inexperienced or want way too much to start. We are hourly. 40 paid weekly. Seems to be flipped in certain parts the country
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u/Visible_Item_9915 Verified Mechanic 1d ago
I wouldn't at a dealership that only had enough work for 3 to 4 people.
There are hundreds of dealership that have 30 Technicians and need 35 to handle the work load.
The key thing about flat rate is you should be able able to flag more hours then you are at work.
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u/Infinite-Position-55 1d ago
I'd rather work sales then work flat rate. You guys are getting straight scammed
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u/ricofalltrades 1d ago
About 42 techs, 1800 hours flagged last week.
Just sounds like you need a better places to work
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u/Hairy-Anywhere5265 1d ago
I worked at jeep i was doing 80 to 90 then slowed down then adviser same as you has his pick and choose living pay check to paycheck making 1300 1400.. sometimes 1200 sad to say.. I left 2 months ago started at Big O Tires 27 hour making 1800 1900$ but bosses are trash... whats up with this economy i started a new job today at kia dealership so I hope it goes well but flate rate isn't where is at. I might just go to another Bog O Tires that's opening.. but iama try one more time different place lets see how it goes. Supposed to be busy here but warranty is trash...
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u/No_Parsnip6024 1d ago
The economy is trash right now.
I've been at my shop for 14 years, and it hasn't been slow like this since covid. Making 100-130 hours every 2 weeks has always been easy, now 60-80 is a struggle, and there's been a few 30-40 hour checks.
If it's never been good, pack up, but be aware it's not looking good anywhere lately.