Flat rate

Just wondering how the guys on here that work on customer tractors figure a estimate? Is there a flat rate book for old tractors? Never had my D 15 in a shop mostly thanks to good help from you fellas. Thanks

Ac had flat rate manuals. I have a few but never used them. Just a nostalgic thing to look through. Not really interested in running a shop at this time!

jaybmiller wrote: FYI... The local tractor place near me are close to $150 per hour + 13% taxes on top !!!

Michael V (NM) wrote: I've seen the I-T flat rate manuals show up on ebay sometimes,, ya might check there.

What is horribly sad as to Flat Rate is mechanics as myself left or are leaving the trade as are unable to make ends meet at even $45/hour wages, mainly due to the “Adjusted Hours” being far less than what it takes to repair the average machine on the road.
As I began as a HD Truck and Equipment mechanic(NOT Ever Technician) we had Flat Rates that paid the men and a few women Good Money over a week’s time, if a warranty occurred “Due to negligence of the mechanic” we repaired the machine for free. HOWEVER as materials bought failed we were still expected to work Free to repair a parts problem not our quality of work issue.

A 1976 Freightliner COE clutch replacement was over 6 hours that as time wore on was ‘adjusted’ to less than 2 hours. Whining of excessive cost to truck owner or fleet company revenue drove this in my old industry. We were often shorted on time to diagnose problems, or as found additional issues during a repair were expected to take a lesser value of repairs time payments as ‘Already had it partially disassembled’, was not ever any such notations in Flat Rate guidelines, just personal judgement by the shop owners.

Currently, diagnosis time is often decreased to a shop figure of a few tenths of hours as determined by the owner/manager to lessen the severity of visible charges to a client, regardless the cause of the failures. Is/Was not the mechanics fault yet falls on that poor souls income capability as a fault.
What is worse is “Technicians” as mechanics are now termed, are more required to purchase and have a available all the high tech computer based diagnosis machines as well keep the databases in those updated at cost to themselves. Some computer analytic mechanisms are in the several thousand dollar range, updates and software changes are as bad averaging in the hundreds to thousands of dollars each and every occurrence.
Buddy of mine that I traded the KW from has a Diesel Laptop, cost $7500 base unit, added data stream applications for more machines and added $3200 to that in a year. Updates his first year were over $5000 in total and he has to recover those dollars before ever makes a profit. Shops NO LONGER buy these devices and gripe as their employees demand more payroll. I still have several pre OBDII DIAGNOSTICS handheld units. Are junk these days as cannot be updated, cannot even connect to OBDII autos. Had to buy to see the processes in the autos of that time to see bad sensors or wiring to those and were worthless in less than 5 years. I not ever recovered the expense for those.

Edited by DMiller - 4 hours 23 minutes ago at 1:59am