Looking for honest flat rate opinions

Keith Browning · September 2, 2015

I for one was not arguing - just sharing my observations from the past 29 years. In essence, your job is what you make it. If you cant deal with what you have to work wit then you move on. And many techs do. On and on and on...

Clark · September 3, 2015

I really appreciate the feedback guys. The meeting for my job offer is Friday morning. I'll keep you posted!

Clark · September 5, 2015

Well gentleman, the offer was made. The shop is great, the company seems great, the benefits are actually quite good, but holy crap the base hourly rate sucks! Crazy confusing incentive plan or not, I think I understand why their looking for techs.

I spoke with the service and HR managers and the base pay is non-negotiable unless I flat out turn down the offer, then they might reconsider.

I want to move, and I knew I'd take a pay cut, but damn, I didn't think it'd be 40%.

Clark · October 14, 2015

After a pretty long process, i made the decision that flat rate just wasn't the move for me right now. I found a job a a nice independent truck shop. Pay is right where I want to be, benefits are... meh, but it's an independent atmosphere and I think I'm going to like it!

I appreciate everything! Good luck to all of you!

nelsona19 · October 14, 2015

Sounds like the right choice. :cheers-jeers:

DieselD · October 14, 2015

The idea of flat rate is sound for the reasons tyler has already mentioned, IF everyone played fair but we all know that isnt how the game is played most of the time. Between dealer politics, warranty time, and fellow employee drama flat rate can be down right stressful to make a paycheck.

I have worked both sides of the fence with flat rate for about 12years and now salary for 4years. I have worked at both the dealership retail and commerical along with my current position managing a fleet of 200 trucks. I can honestly say my professional and personal life has greatly improved with being salary. Gone are the days going home at the end of the week stressed out thinking how I busted my ass all week to earned 30hrs. Even If I did great and was ahead for the pay period it was a short lived satifaction until going back to work the following monday and wonderning how I was going to make my goal. I learned the warranty book, billed my own hours and looked up my own SLTS. I saved copies of each RO to fall back on incase someone tried to second guess or change the claimed labor ops(happed alot at my dealer!) and fight for every tenth of a hour. There where lots of times I spent more time claiming the job and backing up my reasoning then it actually took to repair the vehicle.

At one of the dealers I worked for they had a hourly + flatrate system that worked pretty well. You had a decent base pay that reflected your productivity. If you flagged over you 80hours in a pay period you would move to flatrate and you could earn up to 3bucks more per hour. The problem with this system is once you reach the top techs stop being productive and start coasting through the day. That killed that system pretty quickly and it went back to straight flat rate.

I will say flat rate has been a big reason for alot of the repair practices I still use today. It has motivated me to be efficient and accurate technician as I only want to fix the vehicle once and move on to the next one. I do not despise the flat rate system and think its a great learning experence but I do not believe its the ultimate answer to how we are paid as technicians.

Good luck with the new job Clark!