[MclarenF1]

Hello!

I help my brother quite a bit with a diesel repair and wrecker service up here in TN. Generally speaking, we think that simple hourly pay is the best way to go for this kind of stuff. Time and a half for overtime is required, of course, and only fair. It's just a pain to monitor absolutely everything that goes on. Every once in a while you might get someone who wants to pull their own car or truck in the shop to do some work on it. That's fine- we consider access to all the tools and equipment a well deserved job perk. But he might try to stay on the clock while he does it. Make it clear that you will NOT put up with that kind of behavior. As far as pay rates go, we pay pretty high wages compared to other shops in the area. It's fair. Good mechanics are the backbone of the company, and good pay helps insure that our mechanic stay with us, as well as attract top notch ones when we have an opening.

I don't know if your shop does wrecker service, but that can be the biggest headache of all. We have off hour calls transferred directly to our cell phones, and then we in turn transfer call assignments to our on call drivers. If you make the mistake some companies make, and have calls transferred directly to the drivers, you will have no idea the driver even went out if the customer paid in cash. It's a pain to handle calls when you're at home with the wife or eating dinner, but that's just part of it if you don't want to get ripped off. Good, honest wrecker drivers are, for some reason, hard to come by. If you get a good one, hold on to him.

Just a few things I've learned. Hope this was some help!