DealersEdge Professional Forums

over the last year or so, we have had an unusually high number of accidents involving demos. while most have not been due to employee negligence, obviously our insurance has almost doubled.
while it is common for sales staff to have a deductible pool that is part of their pay pack, i have never seen parts/service employees pay into a fund. none of my fixed ops people have been in an accident yet....but the way we are going i wouldn't be surprised to see it happen.
does anybody have their parts/service staff pay into such a pool?

Our fixed ops staff has the option to pay $2.50 per week into an insurance fund. Without joining this fund, the deductible for an accident is $1000. With this fund the deductible is $150. All parts drivers & techs chose to be part of this.

The basic rule as far as things like that go here is "make all the mistakes you want. Just make them once." I feel that mistakes do happen and I don't like to punish people for honest mistakes. But when it happens a second time, obviously nothing was learned the first time so the second time it will cost $$. The $1000 deductible will be paid by the people involved after looking at the situation on a case by case basis.

P.S. I do like the idea of the insurance pool.

Fixed ops personel paying into a fund that covers the deductable for a salesperson's demo? hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....Here's another great idea, how about sales people paying into a fund to cover inventory shrinkage or obsolescence? I think the reaction from employees might be about the same either way.

hey I'm in for any fixed ops folks to get the demos! They are none existant in our dealership. Only Sales have the demos here. Give fixed op folks demos, and they would be happy to contribute to the demo deductible fund.

daltach & wrench, perhaps you are missing part of the point. we are not just talking about demos, but customer vehicles, shuttle bus, parts truck, snow plow etc etc!!

I do not think we have a legal or moral right to charge a tech or support staff any money to cover a lot damage issue. Managers who drive the vehciles absolutely have some responsibility. Techs do not. The alternative is to fire them if they screw up on a frequent basis. I think a tech would have a legal holidy if a shop charged them