a question for Service Technicians and the impact of fuel prices?

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idlearts

85 posts

Master Geek

# 21221 19-Apr-2008 18:34

I'm doing some research on the plight of independent IT Service Technicians?

I'm interested in trying to quantify the differences between city based technicans and rural / small town based technicans.

1) How many call outs can you generally get done in a day ?

2) How much time do you spend driving and the distances travelled?

3) With fuel prices going up how do you think its going to effect your earnings?

4) How much do you really earn per hour over an 8 hour day in light of the fuel increases?

Fuel prices are bad enough now and they're not likely to go down anytime soon

We need to get smart, as we simply won't be able to pass on the additional costs to our clients or we'll end up loosing them.

Service Technicans please pm with replies to the questions

Or for general discussion on the impact of fuel prices which are going to impact everyone please carry on here.

We all know the proverbial is going to hit the fan in the next couple of years and we all need to start thinking of ways to minimise the impact.

Cheers Andrew

zocster

1786 posts

Uber Geek

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# 124967 19-Apr-2008 18:58

This is an interesting topic, I would say it depends on what sort of vehicle you drive to start with. I would say you will be sensible If you were driving a suzuki swift with a 1.3L engine compared to a say an avalanche HSV as a service vehicle. I would personally charge a minimum call out fee, and per KM charged on top of a radius that you would set of your 'office'.

I'll be watching this topic with interest.

idlearts

85 posts

Master Geek

# 124978 19-Apr-2008 19:49

zocster: This is an interesting topic, I would say it depends on what sort of vehicle you drive to start with. I would say you will be sensible If you were driving a suzuki swift with a 1.3L engine compared to a say an avalanche HSV as a service vehicle. I would personally charge a minimum call out fee, and per KM charged on top of a radius that you would set of your 'office'.

I'll be watching this topic with interest.

That would help a bit I'm sure, though there is always the cost of getting a vehicle and it'll be pretty hard to get rid of the HSV once the fuel prices tip the logic switches of the masses.

We may not be ready to admit it but fuel prices are going to go keep going up probably another 100% over the next few years.

zocster

1786 posts

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# 124981 19-Apr-2008 19:54

no doubt fuel prices will play a huge part in costs etc, I remembered a year and a half ago I used to get a bar of crunchy chicken sushi for $2.99 now it's gone up a whole DOLLAR!

billgates

3958 posts

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# 124999 19-Apr-2008 21:28

1) How many call outs you generally can get done in a day ? Townie 2-3

2) How much time you spend driving and the distances travelled? 1hr - 2hr if calls within town

3) With fuel prices going up how do you think its going to effect your earnings? There is a $20 call out charge in town/some rural places which I think is enough for atleast till end of next year

4) How much do you really earn per hour over an 8 hour day in light of the fuel increases? $40-$60/hr (Though majority goes to DSE)

Do whatever you want to do man.

exportgoldman

1200 posts

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# 125003 19-Apr-2008 21:41

1) Is 'it depends' somedays we spend all day at a client, and others we can do 5 1hour callouts. Our job tracking system says we do around 3 jobs a day.

2) Don't know. We don't track this, but our office is in Grey Lynn and we have clients from Albany to the deep south. The real killer is rush hour, or traffic jams.

3) Not a lot, our cars are a profit centre for us. We charge a callout fee which covers the cost of petrol and 80% of all the other running costs of our cars.

4) Now that would be telling :-)

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idlearts

85 posts

Master Geek

# 125004 19-Apr-2008 22:02

I assume everyone is passing on the cost of travel to the clients, though it will eventually become prohibitive to do so, as the call out costs increase due to the rise in fuel prices. The client will seek a local service to minimize the additional cost. I think the market is going to become quite competitive and volatile over the next couple of years and if you have an advertised or agreed call out cost and the price of fuel suddenly goes up you're going to be eroding your profit.

PenultimateHop

637 posts

Ultimate Geek

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# 125014 20-Apr-2008 00:40

idlearts: I assume everyone is passing on the cost of travel to the clients, though it will eventually become prohibitive to do so, as the call out costs increase due to the rise in fuel prices.

Why not? Many other industries are doing it. Freight, air travel, taxis, all seem to have a 'fuel surcharge' component now.

idlearts

85 posts

Master Geek

# 125033 20-Apr-2008 10:23

PenultimateHop:
idlearts: I assume everyone is passing on the cost of travel to the clients, though it will eventually become prohibitive to do so, as the call out costs increase due to the rise in fuel prices.
Why not? Many other industries are doing it. Freight, air travel, taxis, all seem to have a 'fuel surcharge' component now.

Yes they sure are, though doing so leads to inflation and inflation leads to a downturn in business, taxis for instance will loose custom as their prices become prohibitive, people will sooner get a bus or train, just look at what inflation is doing in the US some people have resorted to burning their houses down in an attempt to get the insurance back to pay off their mortgages and many others are facing foreclosures and been thrown out of their houses. Here in NZ we're not there yet but we are under the impression that cows run on petrol, considering dairy products have in some instances gone up 100% over a two year period and this is directly related to the price of fuel. Every company affected from fuel prices passes on the cost but it only stands to reason that consumers are going to respond and look for ways to save money as they become squeezed. How this relates to Service Technicians is specifically what I'm looking at and the indicators are suggestive that the market is going to get increasingly competitive and volatile for them over then next couple of years. They will all need to look at how they can address the issues, if a client is feeling the squeeze they'll look for alternative providers who are cheaper. It's a mute point at the moment but once the economy really goes into recession everyone will suffer the impact of inflation. Fuel prices will keep rising and they're not going to stop for awhile and the consequences will be far reaching. I very much doubt preemptive action will be taken as human nature is generally reactionary so it'll be business as usual until it reaches a crisis point, its more a matter of how long will that be.

coffeebaron

5545 posts

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# 125082 20-Apr-2008 14:50

I stick to the Westside, or charge an arm & leg to go further. Efficient job-job travel & minimum charge. Avoid peak time travel. I do some stuff on a fixed cost.

Oh and as for type of car, well I did look at a smaller more fuel efficient car, but they are just too small. And when your a bit of a petrol head, the small cars don't really save you much fuel, coz you always drive them with foot to the floor.

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idlearts

85 posts

Master Geek

# 125087 20-Apr-2008 15:13

coffeebaron:
I stick to the Westside, or charge an arm & leg to go further. Efficient job-job travel & minimum charge. Avoid peak time travel. I do some stuff on a fixed cost.

Oh and as for type of car, well I did look at a smaller more fuel efficient car, but they are just too small. And when your a bit of a petrol head, the small cars don't really save you much fuel, coz you always drive them with foot to the floor.

Ah I'm quite familiar with the westy wagon of choice a nice deep brump brump brump is a lot nicer than a ring ding ding ding liberally hoofed to the floor. lol!

Staying local is a good option.