Fleet rate?

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shermfiddle

Thank you sir..

Post by shermfiddle »

On an average, what would you charge to repair a fleet of 300 cars and trucks, vans in order not to be too expensive or too cheap? For small fleets I usually charge $35 + 10. Is this about right for a large fleet?

Thanks for any input.
ricky reed
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Fleet rate?

Post by ricky reed »

That is a fair price to charge! Just drop by sometime and bring them some donuts every once and a while. :roll:
ricky reed
You will clearly see the difference!
GlassStarz
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Post by GlassStarz »

Myself I fell the good price for fleet work is whatever the customer will pay it takes a little salesmanship to feel out the customer. Some fleets I charge as little as $8 per break( I try to raise it a little a couple times a year till I can get $15 per) some as much as $40 per my feeling is get the buisness worry about the $ later
glassdoctor
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Post by glassdoctor »

GlassStarz,
If I understand your comments correctly, I have a problem with your methods. It's unethical in my opinion to lowball bid to steal accounts, and then have no intention to keep your word. $8 and $15 is a huge difference. If your accounts have let you get away with it, I guess it's their fault too. What do they think of it?

There is a difference between choosing to undercut prices to get or keep buisness, and being deceptive and trying to con your buisness from your customers. I think it's dirty. Of course I don't have to live with it, you do.
GlassStarz
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Post by GlassStarz »

glassdoctor wrote:GlassStarz,
If I understand your comments correctly, I have a problem with your methods. It's unethical in my opinion to lowball bid to steal accounts, and then have no intention to keep your word. $8 and $15 is a huge difference. If your accounts have let you get away with it, I guess it's their fault too. What do they think of it?

There is a difference between choosing to undercut prices to get or keep buisness, and being deceptive and trying to con your buisness from your customers. I think it's dirty. Of course I don't have to live with it, you do.
Many fleets need to be shown the value of repair and currently dont use repair at all.(of the 5 school bus companys I do not one was useing repair just replaceing when it actualy broke). Many can be replaced in 15 minutes with a $45 piece of glass. In all buisness sometimes you must go in with a extremly low price until the customer recognises the value of your service. Thats" Buisness 101" as far as undercutting others no account is protected if you give a quality product with good service at a reasonable price your customer will stay loyal. When they leave there usualy is something wrong with you or your methods but they dont often tell you why.
glassdoctor
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Post by glassdoctor »

Alright, I can see your point in this particluar senario. You are creating a source of buisness where it didn't exist previously. It's good buisness strategy.

But if you agree (verbal contract) to do work at a specific price structure, do they understand your intentions to raise prices within a few months? If so, that's all good.

I have considered doing something similar to pick up some small dealers that don't do wsr. Give them a big price break to get them doing wsr and get a good feel for the service, but with the understanding that it's a limited time offer.
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Post by glassdoctor »

This is where I see a potential problem... I am not saying you are doing this, but the issue is interesting and directly affects many of us in this buisness. Maybe I can explain a little better...

quote "my feeling is get the buisness worry about the $ later"

As far as undercutting a competitor, yes all accounts are fair game. If you offer $25 or even $20 to an account I do at $30 more power to you. $20 is still a "normal" price for fleet work in our industry.

BUT, undercutting established accounts at rediculous prices like $10 or less just to "steal" accounts is unethical any way you look at it, UNLESS you fully intend to honor that price for the long term. If you don't intend to continue at your lowball price, you are a cold liar, not a good salesman.

This tactic is bad for the wsr industry. Imagine if everyone did this... fleet accounts would wise up and hold you to $10 if there is always another guy offering that $10 repair. This is why some areas have fleet pricing around $15-20 when in many areas $30-40 is the going rate. What if a new kid on the block could work pretty fast and figured out that 10-20 repairs per day at $5 is pretty damn good money to him(he can always double his price later... worry about that after you get the work, right?)? Assuming he did good repairs, how many accounts would he "get" from you?

I have a big share of the dealers in my area... I know the game well. I have never lost an account to a competitor over price or poor performance on my part. The ONLY dealers I have "lost" in the past ten years are dealers that went in-house with WSR and similar services.

BTW, I had a guy come around about a year ago with a "$10 per car" buisness. Fortunately for me I only lost ONE repair to this guy. My dealers were wise enough to know a skunk when saw one. He made a splash with the little used car dealers, but disappeared within a few weeks.

I know that many dealers would jump on an opportunity to save a buck. I have heard of guys who lost most of their accounts to the "$10" type.
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Post by GlassStarz »

Obviosly people already used to repair are already used to the price myself I dont need to go in and undercut someone else there are enough out there who arnt bein serviced at all. Accounts that switch usualy its not the money its the service they are unhappy with. Dude buisness is competition if I create a new account tell em im coming in the door at this price to earn your buisness and prove the value of it then slowly work to a more reasonable price. Hey thats how every buisness in the world works. As far as Car dealerships go I worked in car sales and sale mng for 20 years you will have a hard time finding someone with a better knowledge of how to earn the buisness there or more importantly keep it. Some little used car lots are easy to get hard to keep. I go in a couple of them once a month walk the lot then tell em what i will do the whole bunch for not a per break price( EXAMPLE: Mr sales mgr I see 13 breaks on 9 cars 4 bad breaks one whopper the rest normal will do the whole bunch for $175) Hey im there a couple hrs the material cost is less than $5 and he will refer retail customers to me if someone finds fault in that they dont understand buisness. Personaly I find many people who are good techs fail because they are bad buisnessmen. Also you need to understand the area you are working in im in a rural state 50% or more dirt roads a per capita income of less than 22k it really breaks down to what the customer can pay and each one is different
GRT

Post by GRT »

Interesting topic....

Hmm.... Quick nickle or slow dime.

Stack it high sell it cheap.

Load the wagon screw the horses.

Get the volume, then work on profitability.

Volume cures all.

This is definitely a discussion about the business side, whether it be widgets, mowing grass or WSR. Me thinks its about each individual business person's strategy. There is no right or wrong. The bottom line is making money. In my mind, most business owners fall into 3 categories:

1)FlyByes- They are here and then they are gone. They think having a business will be fun and easy and they will make lots of $'s. When they find out it takes lots of blood, sweat and tears, they go back to working for the man.

2)Sales Oriented- These folks will do anything to make the sale. They are usually aggressive and fly by the seat of their pants. CPA's love them because their books are usually a mess which means lots of hours billed cleaning them up. Also, They usually leave money on the table because they will give an item or service away at the first hint of a customer walking. They hate to lose. NOTE: If selling to a salesperson you can usually get top dollar because like I said, they hate to lose the sale even if they are on the buying end. (Its in the genes) :wink: Now the good thing about this person is it takes volume to run a successful business and these folks deliver.

3)Technical Oriented- These folks are usually control freaks and I dont mean that in a bad way. They like order and discipline. They are usually extremely organized and structured. If they say they will by on the 15TH of every month to do a fleet inspection, you can set your watch to it. They like the fact that 2+2=4. Its just cut and dried. These folks usually do the best repair jobs period. NOTE: Did you notice I didn't say WSR techs. They are consistent and methodical. Analysis is their game. They play by the rules and expect everyone else to do the same. They make more $ per repair because they know their work is excellent and they would rather takes their tools to the shop than get less than their asking price. (It would mess up the P&L for that week). Now the good thing about this person is it takes profits to run a successful business and these folks are profitable.

Which one are you?

Basicly, there are no rules on how you conduct your business. Just perception and laws. (Local, State and Federal)
Well thats my phyco bable take on running the business side. I would be interested to see some other categories some of you think I left out. :P

God I hope business picks up I sure dont want to be a Flybye. :lol: I think I've been watching too much Dr. Phil. :shock:
desertstars

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Post by desertstars »

Every one of the previous posts contains interesting thoughts.

An appetizing and hefty Irish stew if we include some ingredients and leave others out.

One that I would omit for sure is lowballing with the intent to sneak the price up. Or lowballing for any reason whatsoever!

I won't forget an ice company with a fleet of trucks about ten years ago whose fleet manager looked at me like I should have been wearing a mask when I quoted $25 per vehicle for the first two repairs per truck. He told me they were paying $15. I asked him why six of the fifteen trucks needed repairs and he said that the guy hadn't been around for a few weeks.

I told the fleet manager and his grinning cohorts that he could find the guy easily enough by checking out soup kitchens or the license plates on grocery carts and walked out.

They weren't grinning when I left.

The only fleet account we've lost in 16 years was a municipality with almost 400 assorted vehicles and that was over five years ago. After the first few months of our quoted, non-contractual price, the manager would suggest that another "company" had offered a lower price. After we had lowered our rates three times to the tune of @ five dollars less than our original charges, I finally wised up and told the fleet manager to go fly a kite.

Turned out the other "company" was a retired AF buddy from Luke AFB living on his hefty thirty year retirement pay who decided to get into the w/s business either on a lark or because he didn't know how to play golf or bait a fishing hook.

But, it could just have easily been some other lowballer that drives down the going rates and are here today and gone tomorrow and leave nothing more than a ravaged landscape in their brief passing.

Those kind of "techs" need to either limit their work to auto-washes or cozy up to "previously-owned" car dealers who always seem to specialize in vehicles obtained from teachers or senior citizens.

Figure out your margin and stick with it.

Don't even think about screwing your competition with the intent of screwing your customer somewhere down the road.
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