How are car technicians get paid?

Depends on the dealer and the tech....and yes.
It can be.

It's more of an industry problem, not a Toyota thing per se.

A faster, and more highly trained wrench can knock out a lot more work (and make more money) than a slower, lesser trained one.
Unlike out-of-warranty repairs, which can and will vary from dealer to dealer, warranty repairs are paid for by the factory...at a set price. If the wrench takes all day to replace brake pads on a G3, and the job only pays .5 hours......he/she's not going to have a very big paycheck for that pay period.
Dealerships are supposed to monitor and correct any problems with their mechanics, but unfortunately YOUR car may be the trigger for disciplinary action against a tech who is on the margins.

 

Scary! Learn more about OBDII+ or slip the master tech a nice tip to get it done right. ( or both).

 

I can see where Toyota would pay dealers less for warranty work than if the customer paid out of pocket - Toyota's warranty department could be considered a very big customer with a lot of buying clout and they likely negotiate favorable rates that are part of their agreements with dealers. This is no different than what any big company or institution would do.

From what I understand there are guides out there that list both the time and parts for any given repair - I know that at least the one time that I had to have insurance work done the company pays the repair shop the "book rate". Its no different than paying someone for something like plowing your driveway - you pay by the job, not the time - if the guy comes with a shovel and it takes hours you pay the same as if he came with a heavy duty plow and took 15 minutes.

All that being said - there is no excuse for cutting corners - that is just the service departments being lazy and greedy.

 

What this technician is describing has been going on for several years now, and is not a Toyota or hybrid specific problem. Having been in the industry for over 30 years, I can tell you its not getting any better. Basically, a top technician's wages have been stagnant for the last 10 years.
What's really going on is that anyone who is truly a skilled technician is leaving for other lines of work that aren't so physically demanding or are more lucrative.

I have not spoken to anyone in the automotive industry that wouldn't get out of the field if he had a realistic option to do so.

Soon the only ones left are those that are not skilled enough to do anything else.

 

This is all true. I was a mechanic for 6 years - for the time I worked for a dealership, this was true. I couldn't stand it. I had to worry everyday how would I make a full weeks wages when I worked more than 40 hours. They should get paid hourly. That's it. Also, a lot of manufacturers are throwing in lifetime maintenance. That's warranty. The mechanic get's paid less for that. Test drives, which are mandatory, are free. I had to get out. I have a degree in Automotive Technology and I was an ASE Master Mechanic. in 2000 (when I left), I could only make $12 an hour. These guys take a beating every day.

 

who's making all the money?

 

The stealer.

 

Wow - I had no idea.
Now I feel guilty for bringing my car in for a 12v battery check and back up beep change (which were both free).

 

This guy is a loon, got sick and tired of hearing his excuses after about 5 minutes. *Most* dealer mechanics get paid hourly nowadays.

Mechanics make an average of <$50k. I know it's nothing and it's important to realize if you want to get in the business, but it's not as abject as this guy describes.

 

The dealer, of course. When I was doing it, I made $12 per hour and the dealer made $85 per hour. It's like a casino - the house never loses.

 

I don't know how it is around where you are, but at least in the Tri-State area, the vast majority, if not all, dealer technicians are paid on flat rate. Even the union shops are flat rate. The wages around here are a little higher, but still require busting your hump to make a respectable living. The key is that guys that have been in the field over 10 years are making the same money that they were then. As you know, the cost of living has gone way up since then.

I do agree with you about the whiney tone though. I wonder if he still has a job after that video surfaced!

 

I would hope the video came after he left the business or else his career is shot. I think the important thing to take away is that mechanics are paid on a flat rate and therefore the quality of the work *may* be compromised. It is similar to knowing that financial specialists get paid on commissions and therefore have a vested interest in the client purchasing a product. I'm not saying all people make the wrong decision, just that it increases the likelihood. Another important thing to take away is this is this guys story and it may not be the same story that every mechanic has.

 

Tenth of an hour is a standard billing unit.. though IME it's usually only lawyers that go down to this level of detail. Of course it was probably lawyers that concocted that scheme for the techs..

 

flat rate is a killer if you're a diagnostic guy. no doubt about it. DH was a top notch diagnostic tech back in the day, but his bay never brought in enough billable hours for the dealership ... not to mention paycheck.

top it off with the fact that a lot of diagnostic-intensive work (particularly on hybrids) is warranty, and you have a recipe for techs not really wanting to spend the time, when it's effectively on their own dime. diagnostic time is time that could be spent doing a major interval service that actually pays. only the truly curiosity-driven types are into that, and i'll give you one guess as to how many are in it for the intellectual challenge over the money...

sadly, the result is often the quickest fix that will get the car out of the bay so the next paying job can come in. most of us are familiar with how often that actually fixes a problem- particularly a novel and/or complex one.

at any rate, at the end of the day it's pressure for the brainy folks to get out of the business if they can. DH took his diagnostic skills out of the dealership, went back to school, and now uses those skills in a hospital with much more job satisfaction. then there's the part about what to do with your own personal tools (required- and that you paid tens of thousands of dollars for) after you no longer use them professionally!

 

I have a few friends in the Dealer/stealer business, of them I have asked this several times.

1) They pay them by the hour based on what the job should take and the level of repair.
If job A says in the book it takes 2 hours and is a level II repair the tech is paid based on a level II repair and is paid for 2 hours even if the job takes 20 min or 4 hours.

2) They pay them by the hour no matter the job for an 8 hour day minus a 1/2 unpaid lunch. They are managed to make the most of that time and paid based on skill level per hour.

3) Time and material rates, with a base pay system (never less than $X.00 a week)
similar to #1 but with a base that is never lower than X. but the ability to make more than 40 hours without the need for overtime.

None of the three shops that I know of fail to pay a tech for Diagnostic work but I can see how this practice would be just as you have stated bad for us the owner.

I know all three pay and retain service managers based on repair costs and turnaround on a 100% commission. All three have a very high turnover rate on this job.

 

The best experiences that I have ever had by far have been small independent repair shops in small/medium sized towns, where the owner is involved in some way. That is where the interests of the customer and ownership are the most closely aligned: the owner needs the customer to be happy in order to keep reputation and is hands-on enough to do this. Likewise, dealerships in such settings tend to have appalling attitudes, because they may have a service monopoly on a particular brand that extends tens or hundreds of miles to the next nearest dealer.

Commission-based repair is definitely putting the customer at a disadvantage, since there is an incentive to charge the customer as much as possible.

 

Absolutely.

On the subject, I am frequently taken aback at how little people are paid for relatively brainy technical skills- many requiring considerable educational prerequisites (often overpriced as well), certifications and experience that the business doesn't want to foot the bill for. The story is the same whether you are servicing hybrid cars, biotech devices, Xerographic machines, enterprise networks or any other relatively complex system, including R&D. It is fairly common for the best techs to leave larger businesses to form their own in order to recapture the fruit of their labors. This of course brings another set of skills into play that they often lack- namely interpersonal skills and business politics. If you have both, you can really do well with a little tenacity.

 

I'm at the Toyota mall of Georgia and asked one of the greathers here, and the story is true.
They do not get payed for everything.