10/28/2023
My Rates Explained:
Service call charge: If you were to set an appointment to bring your rig to me, then there would be no service call fee involved since I didn’t have to go anywhere to start working on your rig. However, I do NOT have a shop location that allows you to bring your rig to me. Therefore, I load up and head to your location, I charge a service call fee to offset not only my time to get to your location but also the equipment I have to operate and maintain to support me and carry my tools to you. For example, my multimeter, which is an integral part of my tool kit, is a $450 tool.
Mileage Charge: I service a 25-mile radius, mileage is calculated to and from my place of business to your location at the rate of $0.65 per mile. If you are within my radius there is no mileage charge. If you are outside of my radius a mileage charge will be accessed and it is to and from my place of business. There a some who feel this is the cost of doing business and while I can appreciate their opinion, the rising cost of fuel, vehicle maintenance, insurance, etc. have made this a required fee.
Hourly Rate: There is nothing standard about fixing an RV. That is why the idea of an RV industry flat rate is, at best, a guideline to be adjusted accordingly. I understand what the "flat rate" is and I refer to the Spader Business Management RV Flat Rate Manual as a reference. However, there are caveats that I apply to using this manual. If I were to only charge for my time, by the hour, then a one-hour job could be stretched to two hours – It is not my nature to do that, but you can see how a shady tech or service center can take advantage of a ‘by the hour’ compensation rate. I go into a job understanding what the "standard" flat rate is and how long a job should take me.
Here is the caveat I referred to above. Let’s use a water heater as an example. The flat rate guideline to remove and replace a water heater is 1 hour plus 0.5 hours to conduct an LP pressure drop test (whenever the LP gas line is opened, it is critical to conduct a leak test and a pressure drop test to ensure the integrity of the LP gas system.) So you are looking at 1.5 hours of labor to remove and replace a water heater (this does not include travel or any parts). Now, let’s imagine, getting to the back of your water heater, where all the plumbing connections and electrical connections are, I have to remove a bulkhead wall and your furnace. Now we are looking at additional time to remove all this extra stuff and replace it, just to perform the water heater job. You can see why the flat rate manuals are more of a guideline instead of a de facto standard.
RV manufacturers don’t always make it easy on the tech to make a repair. There have been many times when the cost to gain access to a repair exceeds the cost of the actual repair.
So, I charge a one-hour minimum once I arrive at your location. This is a standard practice that you will find if you look at other mobile service companies. I charge this because a lot of the initial repair is diagnostics time. Even if there is no diagnostics involved there is still administrative cost to my company to provide this service to you. The one-hour minimum helps to offset these costs if the repair only takes a few minutes.
When I load up and head to your location, I have no idea what solution will fix the issue. I take a lot of tools and parts to be ready for just about anything. Take for example a blown fuse job that was the result of pulling too many amps but it could have been a bad control board, that needed to be replaced, or an electrical short, that needed to be traced out and repaired. I will still check the electrical system for any abnormalities to determine if everything is fine. I charged $125 to replace a fuse! But consider that while I am on that service call, I will lose the opportunity to serve another customer and incur expenses to get me to you. If you do call me, I will try to help you troubleshoot over the phone if it will save you and me the cost of a service call. It has been my experience though that by the time folks call me they just want me to come there and fix it no matter how ‘simple’ the fix is.
credit to My RV Works for much of this explanation.
