Do any of you actually know how much per hour bodyshops get paid by the insurance companies.
Dent on to of wing you say, now this may be PDR work, which is what I do and teach. However if it needs painting, well.
Paint £95 per litre
Laquer £40 per litre
Consumables.
Rent
Rates
Insurance
Gas
Electric
Oven this can cost up to £60 per hour to run.
Staff wages
Depreciation
V.A.T
This list goes on and on, a reputable large bodyshop will work to different standards and regulations than the smaller one.
Read this if you have the time.
- Policyholders who enjoy free courtesy cars believe they are funded by their insurer. They are not. Bodyshops are required to pay for them and lend them out free of charge to customers.
- Policyholders think their insurers pay for vehicles to be cleaned following repair. In fact the bodyshops must do this for free – and have to employ staff to do it.
- Bodyshops often have to collect and deliver customers’ vehicles, even outside of working hours, as well as provide roadside recovery. Bodyshops must supply or sub-contract these services to insurance customers free of charge.
- Many insurance companies require their approved repairers to give them a percentage discount off the invoice ‘bottom line’. Even a 7.5 per cent discount can reduce the repairer’s gross profit margin by up to a third.
- Insurance companies dictate how much bodyshops get paid. Electronic estimating rigidly controls the hours per job. Bodyshops first have to buy this estimating equipment and then, in many cases, have to pay a fee each time it is used. A small bodyshop doing just 15 estimates per week could face an annual bill in excess of £7,000.
- Average hourly discounted labour rates have hardly altered for 8 years, staying at around £20 an hour in many cases. Rates such as these inhibit meaningful wage structures and make it difficult or impossible to attract new recruits into the industry. A youngster can earn more as a supermarket shelf stacker.
- Although customers have the legal right to select the bodyshop of their choice, those attempting to go outside of the insurance company’s approved network may find their efforts thwarted. One customer was told that his £75 excess payment would double if he took his repair away from an approved repairer.
You'd think that the cost of repairing your car would constitute the major element of an accident claim, but with increasing numbers of people claiming compensation for personal injuries, the car repairs are becoming almost incidental. Peter Woodhouse, co-founder of the Bodyshop Owners Fellowship added, "
As the cost of repairing vehicles represents a small percentage of most accident claims, it is totally disproportional for insurance companies to spend so much time and effort trying to drive down repair costs."
Sorry guys rant over, but without understanding how much business costs are it seems everything is expensive.
I have friends who own small family owned main dealerships and they are paying £75,000 a year rates and much the same for insurance, the mind boggles at the stress when things are quiet.
