hourly flat rate on certain jobs

[buddhapi]

has anyone found any place on the internet where you can look up actual time it should take to repair certain jobs on an outboard motor, like distributor rebuild, impeller replace.....I realize repairing wiring has to be charged by the actual time that it takes, but not to exceed the price of a new harness.

 

[Bifflefan]

Re: hourly flat rate on certain jobs

You have to buy or pay for that info. There are books and online reference available to techs and mechanics that state the flat rate and warranty rate for repairs for marine and auto repairs. The average jobber can get them but they cost a lot.

Also, flat rate and hourly are two different things:
1) Hourly, is a shop hourly rate charged for all time spent working one issue.
ie. It take 5 hours to fix the problem, the tech gets paid for 5 hours.
2) Flat Rate, is the shop hourly rate charged as stated in the book for that repair.
ie. The book says it takes 5 hours to fix the problem, that is what you pay. No matter if the tech can fix it in 2 hours, or it takes 10 hours.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: hourly flat rate on certain jobs

You are wrong on the wiring issue. Replacing a factory harness with a factory harness is far less labor intensive that it is to replace a factory harness with new wiring, one wire at a time. A factory harness for an older boat is not generally available so the only option is to string new wire. That can be cost prohibitive since it could exceed the value of the boat.

 

[buddhapi]

Re: hourly flat rate on certain jobs

hi, Bifflefan. thank you for the heads-up on the hourly/flat rate ciphering. I like to treat my regular customers fairly, so I'd hate to charge for all the time it takes me to do things. take this tower of power distributor and starter for instance. they were both rusted/corroded solid and I needed to free them up and commence rebuilding. I priced out rebuilt starter and rebuilt distributor prices, and wow, crazy! I have a passion for resurrecting these 60's and 70's motors that have laid around for years.
Hi, Silvertip. you are correct about the wiring harness, but with a lot of older motors, it's near impossible to find a new harness, or even a good used one that's not half rotten.