Does anyone know the productivity rates for an auto mechanic? In other words, what percent of his/her time is billable vs unbillable? It’s for a report.
The answer to that will take some time to figure out because it’s going to be all over the map. It will vary by the month, week, day, and even by the hour along with varying by each individual mechanic.
If a mechanic works a 40 hour work week and flags 40 hours then he should be happy as a pig in slop. Anything over that is a blessing.
The best week I’ve ever had was working 40ish and flagging 92 flat rate hours (and there was NO thieving involved!) and the worst was working 40 and flagging 14 hours. (get the rope)
See what I mean?
Maybe we’re talking about two different things. Put simply, if a mechanic punches in when arriving at work, what percent of the time is being used to perform productive work (diagnosing, repairing, etc.) vs unproductive things like smoke breaks, answering the phone, driving around to get parts, etc.
Much of your answer depends on where the mechanic is employed. My son’s wife brother-in-law is an A.S.E.certified mechanic and worked for a Chevrolet dealer that was forced to close under the G.M restructuring. He had to be at work, but there was no business, so he got no pay. I don’t think he punched in, but in dealerships and big independent garages, there is a flat rate manual for the time a particular job should take. This is what the customer is charged. The mechanic gets a portion of the hourly charge by the shop, so it is in the best interest of a mechanic in this environment to do as many jobs as he can. In a dealership, the parts department in in charge of obtaining the parts. In many independent shops, the parts are delivered to the shop by the parts store (NAPA,Autopro, etc.)
On the other hand, I am employed at a university that has a rather large fleet of cars, trucks, buses as well as tractors for mowing. The mechanics at this garage are paid an hourly rate to service the fleet. I suppose that there are slow days, but every time I have picked up a car from our motor pool to go to a conference, these mechanics have been plenty busy.
Specify the type of operation you are talking about and maybe we can pin down a better answer.
Flat rate work is a mystery to most of the public. Good mechanics seem to like it. The system that has evolved here seems to suit everyone and the most flat rate time I ever recall paying was 210 hours in a month. It is very rare that a mechanic’s flat rate is less than the time spent in the shop. But there is no time clock here.