Engineering Service Charges

Here's my rules of engagement Bill.......

I will never (ever) charge less than WTGC.

I like to charge WTAC if possible.

I strive to charge WALWC.

WTGC = What The Garage Charges (for a service).

WTAC = What The Accountant Charges.

WALWC = What A Laywer Would Charge.

when

For local clients, traveling to their facility incurs a minimum charge. But there's no minimum charge for phone calls or visits to my office.

I just love the autobahns, just crank 'er up to 210km/h and go ;-)

My time zone adjustment to Europe works like this: Arrive Frankfurt at

Work all day, have a nice dinner, then I have absolutely no trouble sleeping ;-)

...Jim Thompson

I was in an (IIRC) Opel Vega.

And probably with six people in the AMG? 600D's aren't too shabby either.

Bosch Motor Works... electronically commutated motors used in AC blowers in Mercedes vehicles.

...Jim Thompson

Lol @ WTGC. A neat unit of measure. I discovered after asking that my local Saab dealer charges £85 / hr. I wouldn't feel too ashamed about getting that rate.

Graham

Get an Armani suit, a nice car and a Rolex, and you can charge double. But you must know how to wear those things. If you look like Bob Pearse it's also possible, but you need to be a geek. All depends on you. I usually wear a white smock on these occasions, I had bought a dozen in Brasil last year.

Jim, for you is the geek part apparently.. It is fun to wear a nice silk Armanisuit and good shoes, comfortable and you can always go out with the girl from the reception. :-)) And remember, with the receptionist just Champagne! even Easy-Jet a no frills airline offers 0.2L Lanson for 11Euro.

:-p to you ! Lol ;-)

An oldish 9000 CSE. One of the best cars I've had in many ways. Over in the Saab group they were talking about quality issues and how they aren't like they used to be etc - including that new Saabs may squeak and rattle a bit. Up 'til then it hadn't even ocuured to to me that a Saab could do that. Even an older one. It is fabulously quiet.

I was quite interested in one a long time back but I have to confess I initially found the sheer size of the thing a bit daunting and that put me off for years. It was indeed classified even in the US as a 'large car'. The moment I actuallty drove one I realised it actually doesn't feel that big and it felt 'just right' from a drivers perspective.

Some of the best seats you can ever find in a car too !

So, what's your choice of wheels ?

Graham

That depends on how I bid the job. I usually throw in an hourly rate for travel and time spent beyond some amount expected for a typical job. Otherwise, clients waste my time.

My garage has a sliding rate scale:

$75.00 per hour

$90.00 per hour if you watch

$150.00 per hour if you tried to fix it yourself first.

Just don't hire out as a tech writer:

"Exclaimer" = disclaimer

"pickey" = picky

"leger" = ledger

Jim

Don't hire out as an HR manager.

John

Hello Budgie,

An initial chat of 1/2h to 1h is usually free. After all, they have to get to know me. That's also what many other professionals do, such as attorneys. Travel time, yes, at half the rate. Except for local clients as long as they don't need me for one hour at a time.

The most bizarre trip was way out to the boonies. It took over 15 hours to get there and the same time back. The problem turned out to be easy for me so I started the next morning at 8:00am and at 11:30am we were done. Since I usually work on an hourly basis that trip would have been a loser for me if I wouldn't charge travel time. The client didn't mind, they were happy like a fish in the water because now their production was humming again. They even sent me a Christmas card from the whole team (before I had sent off mine).

Another example was a proto system down at a trade show. The only one they had of this type. 400 miles away. It took only 15 minutes to get it going. Just imagine that with no billed travel time. Because Europe often doesn't have a speed limit one way cost me (and them) just 5h on the autobahns. I took one of their folks with me on the way back who wasn't used to European driving. He said it was a true white knuckle ride for him. Never again, he said. I applauded him though because he didn't let off one single scream the whole trip.

Regards, Joerg

Hello John,

I wouldn't be so sure. If someone does a little bit of informal background checking one tool that is used is Google. If they find nothing when they key in the web site address that can raise concerns. If they find something, or find a lot, it better be of decent content.

Once I did that on a guy and to my big surprise found that he often engaged in flame wars. Not the little scuffles we have here once in a while but really mean stuff. I didn't hire him.

Regards, Joerg

Exclaimer: I'm not a for-hire type (salary all the way, at least so far). But if I were, I'd have a sliding scale depending on the work. Even as a "captive" there are things I won't do and people I won't work for. I can't imagine a contractor being less pickey.

I got beat up here a couple of years ago (I believe you were in on the discussion) for suggesting that employers advertise their proposed salary range too. Either side of the leger, it's nice to know the expectations.

Hello Jim,

I just require that it be for a minimum of four billed hours of work.

As long as the car does that nicely. I don't like to go that fast in a small sardine can. My Audi over there was the fat one so you could join the big guys in the fast lane. Then one day I took a company car of a client, a smaller Audi but with a stronger engine. This one began to fishtail a bit above 180km/h. That was too slow to be among the big guys in the fast lane.

Once I drove a souped up Alfa Romeo at about 220km/h. Saw headlights flash way in the distance. Moved to the right and within very few seconds, whoosh, a big AMG Mercedes thundered by. It almost appeared I was standing still in comparison.

Then once in a while a clunky old Russian truck pulls out in front of those. After that it's carnage.

Good old Black Forest. What kind of companies do they have there that need chip designs? I hope they don't electrify the cuckoo clocks now. Although I was quite disappointed about the workmanship when I restored one that was given to us.

That's the trick. Absolutely try not to fall asleep during the first day.

Regards, Joerg

Hello Jim,

Don't know that one. Could it have been a Vectra? I probably wouldn't take it past 200km/h, my late father in law had one. They aren't heavy enough for really high speeds in my opinion.

Most of the AMG editions can only comfortably fit two people. And don't expect a large trunk either. But they do have lots of oompf.

Nice company. I treated myself to one of their "Bosch Bulldog" rotary hammers. And they didn't take you for a spin in one of their Mercedes test vehicles?

Regards, Joerg

Note that they're paid by the *book* hour, not by the clock. A technician with the proper tools can beat the book quite often by 2:1, greatly increasing their income. A friend tells me that the techs where he works can easily pull down more than $100K/yr. They're the highest paid people in the place.

I know a lot of businesses that have scrapped *expensive* tools. It's part of the business. The fact is that auto mechanics are more freelance than captive employees.

You needn't worry!

I have no clue how I did that!

That's a normal myspelling, for me.

No sppellchecker here.

No, I have no interest in being a member of the spelling police.

Too much of a pussy.