DealersEdge Professional Forums

With the new year coming 'round I have been reviewing some of our expenses and we've spent more than usual this year on shop damage......by that I mean the cases where a tech accidentally punches a hole in a radiator, drops an alternator, cross-threads a caliper, etc.

So, how do you guys (and gals ?) handle this sort of thing ? Naturally the tech donates the labor but what about the $150 caliper or $300 radaitor ? Does the shop "eat it" or does the tech pay for it or......?

I usually end up absorbing these goofs unless it becomes a habitual problem but my motto for 2001 will be "accountabilty". Before i drop the hammer I'd like to know what the concensus is. Many thanks,
Doug

We keep track of what Tech doea which damage, The labor we only able to reduce on the Spiff side (can't touch the Base Pay or you and up in Court). If the yearly job review comes around we determine the value of the Tech and take necessary action depending on the Techs Case history. We had Techs they needed to be slowed down in order to prevent "exidental damages" due to excessive use of airtools. We did how ever implement a Policy on Parts damge thru Excessive force and use of incorrect tools, which would make the Tech responsible for his Damage. This is not an easy thing to proove and only needed if a Tech has to much damage and needs to be replaced.

Doug,
This issue strikes a very sensitive nerve with me. This inability to hold technicians accountable for the expenses they cause typical resulting from careless errors, whether that be mis-diagnosis or damage.
As I see it, everyone but the technician suffers in most cases the ramifications of tech error. Certainly, C.S.I. is compromised which, if tied to the advisors and managers compensation has an impact on their income. And certainly the the time spent remedying the error could have been better spent on 30k's, again affecting the front line people. Never mind the aggravation and inconvenience. Like RPMGeorge points out, if you mess with "their" pay you can wind up in court, but the fact that everyone elses pay is affected somehow must be tolerated!?
Has anyone successfully implemented a pay plan in which comebacks and damage are a factor in achieving(or not) some tier incentive?
Like Doug, I find absorbing these many levels of costs very troublesome, and words don't have the corrective impact that sometimes seems warranted.

Speaking as someone who has punctured a tire or two on in-ground lifts (I even did it once on my own car), and who has been known to close a garage door a little too early (hey it's cold out there you know and these little heaters don't quite warm up the shop like they used to), I can be very sympathetic with the occasional damage.

However, like Doug and RPMGeorge said it really comes down to tracking the occurances by tech to see if there really is an on-going problem with carelessness.

At the end of the day, I used to sit down with the tech and ask what went on. It was as non-confrontational as possible -- just trying to get to the bottom of what caused the problem (was it a bad part, do we need better tools, do you feel rushed, do you know what you're doing, etc.) Their attitude normally told me the story -- if they were overly defensive then they probably messed up and are covering up something and I need to watch them. If they accepted what went wrong, then I figured they'd manage their own behavior to make sure it didn't happen again.

I did have one tech that we ended up having to let go because of the damage he was causing. He had worked at every shop in town and his nickname was "Cross-thread Dave." Ol' Dave would cross-thread an oil drain plug if you didn't watch him. As we realized what we needed to do, I began saving his little botch ups. Sure enough, Dave dragged us into the state for unlawful discharge, but we brought all of Dave's handiwork with us. Some of it was so obvious that the judge saw our point, and after seeing 5-6 examples of problems my service director just looked the judge in the face and asked, "would you want Dave working on your car?"



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** Rob, Editor WD&S **
Help is only a message post away!
robc@dealersedge.com

There is no complete cure for the damage issue but holding the techs (and porters) accountable helps. We document all incidents regardless of how small so that we have a track record. It is usually easy to spot a trend when you document the damage and speaking to the techs usually helps a bit. We mention damage at every meeting and we go over what has happened recently so that everyone knows. Peer pressure (or embarrasement) is a strong tool. We mention the incidents and we talk about the causes. If it is not the techs fault then it is obviouse but if it is, they sometimes object to having the incident reviewed in public. That is our best hope of reducing the problems.

North of the border labour laws and other things are somewhat different, some times more strict and sometimes less so. The shop policy here is that if the damage was from stupidity and clearly avoidable, and not repetitive, the total damage (parts and labour at retail) is divided by the door rate and he tech deducted that many hours. It boils down to the tech participating in 33% of the repair, parts and labour.This applies whether or not the same tech ends up doing the repair.The occaisional oops not clearly the sole fault of the tech, is usually not penalized. If the tech does not report damage to a vehicle it is grounds for dismissal.

This is a sore spot for me as well.
As a Service Manager it doesn't take much to notice if you are having a problem with a Technicain and accidents.
But what about Parts counter help giving out the wrong parts, once a day? twice or more.
Or what about your Advisor who never asks Questions, Parts not billed out!
Do these mistakes go UnColleted ?
Techs are human and there will always be accidents, if you don't remember when or if he ever blew out a tire hitting the hoist before perhaps he's no more careless than the person omitting a few tenths of labor time when submitting a claim. Just my opinion