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Episode 29- The cost of doing business isnt what it seems...it's as clear as mud!
1 Playsin 6 hours
Brand new podcast hosted by a Shop owner and a Shop owner/Technician . We dive into shop ownership and how it all began for the both of us. We will be featuring special guests every week from the automotive industry and also a few surprise guests we have lined up in the not so distant future. We want this podcast to be fun but informative about the automotive repair industry. We are not perfect in what we do but operate with integrity and have been doing so for years. Sit back and listen in for some fun banter and conversations about the automotive repair world!
Today Frank and Aniz get into some conversation about the cost of doing business and what it takes to run a automotive repair shop. We also talk about the ASTA EXPO which is coming up at the end of September. Visit https://astausa.org/ for more information! If you are in the automotive repair industry, you don't want to miss it!
Sit back and enjoy this one! Please like and subscribe! You can also follow us on Facebook @ The Shop N Tread Talk Podcast.
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Transcript
Introduction & Banter
00:00:01
Aniz Lavji
Welcome everyone to another episode of the Shop and Tread Talk podcast. My name is Anis and as usual we've got our staple with us. Frank, how you doing buddy?
00:00:12
Frank Wiebe
Today I am doing good half asleep, but I'm doing well.
00:00:17
Aniz Lavji
Frank, you had your shower, your hair looking ah like a 9.6.
00:00:21
Frank Wiebe
All right. The beard's coming along. Hair's doing great.
00:00:25
Aniz Lavji
What more could you ask for? you got your 3D auto shirt on.
00:00:30
Frank Wiebe
Represent.
00:00:32
Aniz Lavji
i think i think you're in good shape.
Misconceptions About Auto Shop Owners
00:00:35
Aniz Lavji
um Today, actually, Frank and I both came up with a pretty good topic as something that a lot of people...
00:00:44
Aniz Lavji
don't really get into or talk too much talk about much is uh cost of doing business because apparently all of us auto shop owners are multi-millionaires driving ferraris lamborghinis and jacked up trucks and uh it's not always the case and yes there are some shops that are doing fantastic and really killing it but is it's not every shop owner and uh you know i think it's important to talk about kind of the struggles that shop owners are are going through now and you know the future struggles that are kind of incoming because there's a lot of different things going on right now in the industry that people are not talking about what do you think frank
00:01:30
Frank Wiebe
Well, it's it really is a misunderstanding in a lot of a lot of areas because people think that, okay, well, we're charging, like our shop rate currently is $110. Oh, man, you're
Understanding Auto Shop Costs
00:01:42
Frank Wiebe
making $110 an hour.
00:01:44
Frank Wiebe
Sure, but the cost that we have to put out, like all of our our service information and all of our accounting services and and insurances and all that, holy, it it adds up so fast.
00:01:59
Frank Wiebe
Like I sat down the other day and I started thinking about like the cost of this, cost of that, cost of that. And I'm like, wow. Like that's a lot. It's a lot that accumulates in a month.
00:02:09
Aniz Lavji
It's not just your shop.
00:02:09
Frank Wiebe
And a lot of people don't understand.
00:02:11
Aniz Lavji
That's every shop that's having so many different subscriptions.
00:02:13
Frank Wiebe
Was every shop.
00:02:15
Aniz Lavji
and And these are all fixed costs.
00:02:16
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:02:17
Aniz Lavji
It's not stuff that you know you might have to pay next month or you may have to deal with.
00:02:22
Frank Wiebe
No.
00:02:23
Aniz Lavji
It's all fixed stuff. You have no choice.
00:02:24
Frank Wiebe
Yeah. And it's, ah it's monthly every month, every month. And then, and then you have like subscriptions for our, our diagnostic equipment has to be updated annually. Uh, man, like it's, it's over a thousand bucks a year to do that.
00:02:35
Aniz Lavji
Not cheap.
00:02:39
Aniz Lavji
million The Autel one is, yeah, that's a thousand bucks right there.
00:02:40
Frank Wiebe
and and it
00:02:43
Frank Wiebe
Yeah. And, uh, if you, if you have more than, more than one, right. Then you have to do every single one. It just, it's, constantly adding more and more.
00:02:55
Frank Wiebe
And so it it just, yeah, it really it really adds up when you start thinking of it that way. And when you have a lot of people talking, oh, you know, mobile mobile mechanics, right?
00:03:10
Frank Wiebe
They still have that too. they They don't have the physical location that they have to pay for, but they still have all of the ah subscriptions and all of that stuff that you come to mind
00:03:21
Aniz Lavji
They still have to I'd say they should have insurance and you know they're all going have subscriptions. They're gonna have a cost of repairing that vehicle that they're traveling all over the place to service you know said vehicle tools that they can use mobile.
00:03:39
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:03:41
Aniz Lavji
I mean, they may have a portable air compressor. I mean, there's there's all kinds of things, but... You know, it's it's unfair for someone to kind of walk into a shop without knowing the whole situation saying, hey, well, you know, these guys are charging 110 bucks an hour.
00:03:57
Aniz Lavji
Man,
Challenges for Mobile Mechanics
00:03:58
Aniz Lavji
they're banking. I mean, without really knowing the backstory and stuff, it's it's not like, you you know, no one's no one's ah digging gold every morning.
00:04:00
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:04:08
Aniz Lavji
I mean, it's all a hustle every single day.
00:04:11
Frank Wiebe
And then then when we have our lovely government that takes their share of it, yeah, too.
00:04:15
Aniz Lavji
God.
00:04:17
Frank Wiebe
Oh, man, payroll is stupid. Like, first of all, payroll is expensive as it is. And then you got all the source deductions that come on top of that.
00:04:23
Aniz Lavji
taxes on the 15th every single month.
00:04:23
Frank Wiebe
yeah Oh, my gosh. And it's like, goodness, like how much how much more do they want to take from us? And then, of course, the more you earn, the more you got to give.
00:04:34
Frank Wiebe
It's a vicious cycle.
00:04:35
Aniz Lavji
And, you know, HST, are end of the month, I just got my accountant just sent me what my HST is I got to pay for last month.
00:04:41
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:04:44
Aniz Lavji
And I'm like, geez, she's like, well, you know, you had a good month.
00:04:47
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:04:49
Aniz Lavji
I'm like, yeah, I did. But damn.
00:04:51
Frank Wiebe
Yeah. And then you wonder, and then you wonder where where did the heck did the money go? And it's like, oh, it's sitting there in that new machine that you bought. That's where that money went.
00:04:59
Aniz Lavji
Yeah. Yeah. So I was talking to, we were talking last week and i got a customer in with a Subaru and it has the new, I wouldn't i shouldn't say new, it's not very new, but it's got the YF1234 air conditioning.
00:05:01
Frank Wiebe
Dang it.
00:05:19
Aniz Lavji
Well, that's what, anyways, it's Y1234. Yeah. So, you know, it's a really good customer.
00:05:23
Frank Wiebe
yep
00:05:25
Aniz Lavji
And I got tired of saying no to a lot of people that are coming in. you know They've got that system, then I have to send them off or have to sublet it. And it was getting to the point where i was starting to turn away a lot of customers every week.
00:05:37
Aniz Lavji
So I said, you know what, screw it. I need to make a decision. So... I ended up getting a ah good customer in where there was some pretty decent profit in the job that I can at least justify, okay, you know, this machine that we're looking at, there was one that was, you know, six grand, there's one for seven.
00:05:55
Aniz Lavji
and you know, doing a lot of research myself and seeing kind of which one and makes sense and consulting, i talked to you, Frank, and got your input and I talked to a couple other people ended up getting on the, getting the ecotechnic, which is basically a snap machine.
00:06:11
Aniz Lavji
And by the time I was all said done with adapters and buying $750 tank, which is the, yeah, the YF refrigerant, you by time I was all said and done, it's 10,000 bucks.
00:06:22
Frank Wiebe
Yep. Yep.
00:06:26
Aniz Lavji
Bam. One shot.
00:06:28
Frank Wiebe
Last year, last year, we ended up buying, i think two or three tanks of the YF refrigerant. And I think six tanks of the one 34, eight,
00:06:40
Frank Wiebe
We didn't go through all of it, but damn, that was a hefty bill just just buying the Freon. Goodness.
Investing in Equipment: A Strategic Decision?
00:06:46
Aniz Lavji
Yeah, luckily the job that I did You know, I think we ended doing breaks and stuff like that. So like the gross profit in that job was about a thousand, 1500 bucks with, the you know, replacing the compressor and recharge.
00:07:01
Aniz Lavji
And we did breaks and, you know, a couple other little things on there. So, In my mind, I was like, i the reason I was doing getting this job is because I've got the machine now.
00:07:11
Aniz Lavji
So not that I can take $1,500 off the machine, but at least there's something that I can say, okay, fine, I got the machine, so I've got an immediate you know job from Yeah.
00:07:15
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:07:24
Frank Wiebe
Just helps justify it. No, I get that.
00:07:25
Aniz Lavji
Yeah, it it didn't burn as much. And, you know, I got a sign going up tomorrow morning, actually big react sign, uh, you know, for AC service. So hopefully I can try and pull in a few more jobs and I've got another car 20, 21 Kia Forte coming in that has a AC issue.
00:07:34
Frank Wiebe
Okay. Okay.
00:07:44
Aniz Lavji
So again, that's going to be a YF I'm sure.
00:07:46
Frank Wiebe
Okay.
00:07:48
Aniz Lavji
So again, as you know, Frank, when, uh, Times change, we have to keep going with the times and it it comes down to us having to purchase different equipment, scan tools, and again, going back to cost of doing business. Like, did I have to buy it? No, not not really, but...
00:08:07
Aniz Lavji
if I wanted to keep subletting it and somebody else making the money and I'm just taking skimming a little bit off the top there, then it is what it is. But if I want to actually be able to service these vehicles properly and have my customers coming to me and not having to be sent off to another place or thinking in the back of the mind, like, you know, this guy does all my repairs. Now I have to go somewhere else for AC because he doesn't have the machine and he's going send it to some other place. I might as well just go somewhere that can just do everything. So, yeah.
00:08:39
Aniz Lavji
That's what a lot of places are, or a lot of people are saying that they just want to go to one place, get their car fixed, and that's it, done. Tires, brakes, suspension, AC, whatever I need. I don't want to go to multiple places because they want to create that relationship with one place.
00:08:57
Frank Wiebe
Exactly.
00:08:58
Aniz Lavji
Right?
00:08:58
Frank Wiebe
that That was the reason why, like with the with the AC, i bought I bought equipment to do that, I think two, three years ago already.
00:09:07
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:09:07
Frank Wiebe
and And I was the second shop in our town to be able to do the YF refrigerant. And it's already paid for itself.
00:09:16
Aniz Lavji
Oh, yeah.
00:09:16
Frank Wiebe
And ah the people come up and say, oh you do that? Yeah, I do that Freon. I do that refrigerant.
00:09:22
Aniz Lavji
Damn cold, eh, compared to the R134.
00:09:22
Frank Wiebe
And
00:09:26
Frank Wiebe
what's that?
00:09:26
Aniz Lavji
I find it to be ridiculously colder, like the refrigerant. Again, I don't know if that's the right way to say it, but I noticed, like, it's it is freezing in comparison.
00:09:33
Frank Wiebe
Oh, I see what you mean. it it could
00:09:39
Frank Wiebe
I mean, yeah, like like it's fresh freon and all that stuff, so it will make a big difference. Generally, it all kind of goes to the same temperature or whatever, but yeah, it it runs different pressures for sure.
00:09:50
Aniz Lavji
Cause I did an R134 a few days prior to this.
00:09:51
Frank Wiebe
It'll run different. Yeah.
00:09:55
Aniz Lavji
And again, it was a, it was I think it was a Honda Civic. We put a new compressor with our 134 and all the, yep, this nice and cold. But then we did the Subaru and I'm like, holy, like
00:10:06
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
Educating Customers on Vehicle Features
00:10:07
Aniz Lavji
I got warn her maybe.
00:10:07
Frank Wiebe
well Well, some, some vehicles in general, they just, they just are much colder than than that. Like I had years ago, I remember this, um, Crown Vic or something like that.
00:10:21
Frank Wiebe
And, and when I got the AC fixed on that, man, it pulled it down. i always, I got this little thermometer. I stick in the, in the vent and read it. And it was, uh, 33 degrees Fahrenheit.
00:10:34
Frank Wiebe
I'm like, it ain't going to get much colder or not. It ain't going to work. So it was cold.
00:10:40
Aniz Lavji
I had a had a customer come in today, was actually sent to us by another garage that doesn't really do AC. So they were sent to us because it was 2017 Tucson.
00:10:54
Aniz Lavji
And he he had just bought the car from there and he said the AC is not cold. So I got the car in, I sat in, I started up, turned the AC on, freaking thing was ice cold. And I'm like, can't get much colder than this.
00:11:10
Aniz Lavji
So I talked to the what did you drive before? And he's like, I drove a 2008 Honda Civic. And I'm like, okay. So it's a complete different vehicle for one. And i' was like, was your AC working in your other vehicle? He was like, no, it never worked. I'm like, okay.
00:11:24
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:11:25
Aniz Lavji
So now you've got a complete different vehicle. and this may not be as cold as you think it should be, but this is freezing. So he's like, it's not very cold.
00:11:35
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:11:37
Aniz Lavji
So at that point i was getting a bit irritated because I'm like, it's cold, dude. So David has one of those, um, those thermometers where I guess you, you can point it right at the vent and it'll show you the temperature infrared.
00:11:50
Frank Wiebe
Yep. and infrared yep
00:11:53
Aniz Lavji
Sorry. Thank you, Frank. Infrared. And David, David cranked it all the way to cold, put on the highest setting. He's like, well, let's, let's, let's let this run for a minute.
00:12:04
Aniz Lavji
Let it run for a minute. And he's like, uh, ask the customer, would you like Fahrenheit or Celsius? So he said Celsius. It was like minus seven Celsius.
00:12:14
Frank Wiebe
Holy cow.
00:12:15
Aniz Lavji
So he's like anything colder than this, you're going to need to go to the doctor.
00:12:21
Frank Wiebe
Well, even even if it's actually blowing out that cold, it's it's possibility of freezing up the ah the evaporator core.
00:12:21
Aniz Lavji
So.
00:12:29
Aniz Lavji
Yeah, again, he was right up in there. i mean, it was cold.
00:12:32
Frank Wiebe
Yeah. So cold. Regardless.
00:12:35
Aniz Lavji
Like, it was not like it's, you know, sitting there at 10 degrees or 11 degrees. Like, it was cold.
00:12:42
Frank Wiebe
As long as it wasn't getting so cold, like If a system is charged improperly, it can, or or there's a blockage there, it can freeze up. It can get real cold for a bit, and then it'll just slowly die off and quit working.
00:12:51
Aniz Lavji
Hmm.
00:12:57
Aniz Lavji
Yep, but we change we we changed the temperature on it it, warmed it up, and then it did change.
00:12:57
Frank Wiebe
And then it's just going to quit. Yeah.
00:13:02
Aniz Lavji
like The temperature went up.
00:13:03
Frank Wiebe
Yeah. Yeah. yeah
00:13:04
Aniz Lavji
So was all working fine, but again, we had to educate the customer because they're not used to having a vehicle with working
The Importance of Comprehensive Service Information
00:13:14
Aniz Lavji
very good working AC, working cruise control.
00:13:17
Aniz Lavji
So when customers that are accustomed to having these older vehicles, that 95% of the high tech, and I use air quotes if anyone's watching, not watching high tech features like cruise control,
00:13:19
Frank Wiebe
and
00:13:33
Aniz Lavji
don't work on their vehicles. And then they get this, you know, 2017 or 2020 vehicle. It's got all these features. They don't have the hell to use them. And automatically it's like, well, the dealer sold me a a crap box.
00:13:44
Aniz Lavji
The AC doesn't work because, you know, I've never had AC, but man, when I sit in there, oh I want, I need a jacket. I want to be that cold. So a lot of times, like today, what i we had to do is educate the customer you know,
00:13:59
Aniz Lavji
these different features because he's like, yeah, I've never had this stuff. I'm like, that's fine, but you can't blame the dealer that they sold you a car the AC doesn't work. And then he's saying his tire pressure is low.
00:14:11
Aniz Lavji
And so, you know, ah we checked the tire pressure and it was down by one pound. So he's like, I know, but check it every single morning. Like, Oh geez.
00:14:22
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, well, tire pressure is your is irrelevant because it'll change just from driving it or from one side pointing at the sun and one side not.
00:14:29
Aniz Lavji
Oh, yeah.
00:14:32
Frank Wiebe
So...
00:14:33
Aniz Lavji
You can drive it out of the, you know, in the wintertime, drive it out of a heated garage and go down the road and, you know, your tire pressure going fluctuate up and down.
00:14:33
Frank Wiebe
it
00:14:43
Frank Wiebe
Well, and it's for reasons like that why we have to have service information. Cause if a customer comes up and says, Hey, you know what? My AC isn't cold enough. You can pull up the service information and it, and a lot of them will actually tell you, like it'll go through the whole description of how the system works. And, you know, if it doesn't reach a certain temperature, then such and such.
00:15:01
Frank Wiebe
Um, and without that, if we don't have that, we're kind of, you know, playing it by, ah our experience over the years. Right.
00:15:11
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:15:11
Frank Wiebe
But if you haven't worked on that particular vehicle very much, then, then you really rely on that. Like I worked on a, a Dodge, like a Ram eco diesel three liter eco diesel today.
00:15:22
Frank Wiebe
And I, I normally don't work on diesel vehicles, but it was just like, you know, turbo not working, had some engine lights on and a, and a traction light on so something like, you know, scan well it.
00:15:25
Aniz Lavji
Yeah, I know.
00:15:33
Frank Wiebe
Well, I had turbo boost temperature sensor codes.
00:15:39
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:15:40
Frank Wiebe
I have no clue what where to even look on this stupid thing. So I'm trying to figure it out. I kind of had an idea. So messaged my buddy who works at Chrysler and I'm like, hey, I'm coming up with this code.
00:15:51
Frank Wiebe
what Where is this sensor? So he sent me a picture. He said, this is where that sensor should be. I said, okay, I'm at the right sensor.
00:15:56
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:15:58
Frank Wiebe
I thought I had it. And then I'm looking at the wiring diagram and like, okay, that wiring diagram matches. So now I was able to put two and two together, say, okay, that wiring diagram that I already had matches the color of this sensor.
00:16:10
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:16:11
Frank Wiebe
Now I can go and I can do my testing. So i unplug the computer and, but I had,
00:16:15
Aniz Lavji
But see, you got the service information.
00:16:18
Frank Wiebe
I had the service information so I could get all that because if I wouldn't have had that, would completely flying in the dark, right?
00:16:19
Aniz Lavji
Yep. Yep.
00:16:26
Frank Wiebe
I had i had ah a scanner that was capable of reading a code, okay? I had service information, very vague service information that gave me ah the wiring diagram, the colors of the wiring diagram.
00:16:39
Frank Wiebe
And I had knowledge to say, hey, a sensor should give me such and such similar whatever reading, right? So i was able to do that. And with all of that information, i was able to come to a conclusion, say, hey, we've got a bad sensor, order a new new sensor, put it in, fix the problem.
Complex Vehicle Repairs & Collaboration
00:16:55
Frank Wiebe
But had I not had service information, had I not had a capable scan tool, completely lost.
00:17:02
Aniz Lavji
And, you know, have access to your buddy that help.
00:17:05
Frank Wiebe
Access to my buddy who now I owe wings to and I will make good on that next week.
00:17:11
Aniz Lavji
But, you know, this is what I mean.
00:17:12
Frank Wiebe
so
00:17:14
Aniz Lavji
All this is baked into your hourly rate, which a lot of people don't understand.
00:17:18
Frank Wiebe
It has to be, yeah.
00:17:21
Aniz Lavji
And...
00:17:21
Frank Wiebe
it the The wings is also going to be baked into my hourly rate because
00:17:25
Aniz Lavji
Yes.
00:17:26
Frank Wiebe
yeah that will be a shop expense when I go out for wings.
00:17:28
Aniz Lavji
You're...
00:17:31
Aniz Lavji
I was going to say, you know, chicken wings are costing you a lot of money this year.
00:17:35
Frank Wiebe
it's It's unreal.
00:17:37
Aniz Lavji
bigger
00:17:37
Frank Wiebe
It's... Yeah.
00:17:37
Aniz Lavji
We'll get into that in a bit. but but But, you know, if if you think about it, like your your labor rate's 110%. you start taking out the expenses for, you know, you got Identifix. And then you've got a portion every month, I guess you could say, of your scan tool update, which is x amount of dollars for the year.
00:18:00
Aniz Lavji
You take that little bit out. And then you start taking all these other little subscriptions, you know, tech net and this and this and that. And then God forbid, you got to pay your employees still.
00:18:11
Aniz Lavji
So that's going to come out of the hour and this has got to come out of the hour. And Frank, you don't need to get paid. Right. So that's not going to come out, but people don't understand what you're sitting on millions.
00:18:20
Frank Wiebe
haven't had i'vet had a paycheck in six years.
00:18:24
Aniz Lavji
It's different, right? Frank, but exactly.
00:18:25
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, right here
00:18:28
Aniz Lavji
So,
00:18:28
Frank Wiebe
Leather couches.
00:18:29
Aniz Lavji
Exactly. But what I'm saying is everything is coming out of that hourly rate. And when we have to increase that rate from 110 to 125 or 149, there is a reason associated with that because the cost of doing business goes up every freaking year. If not, it's every year, it's every six months, something else comes up or we need to upgrade a certain scan tool to be able to work on this next car.
00:19:01
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:19:01
Aniz Lavji
Or like, remember I was telling you a few months ago, which I've never had to do. is we were working on that Volkswagen Jetta and we were doing brakes on it because the car, the other thing was sitting and he seized up all his brakes and rotors.
00:19:15
Aniz Lavji
So I had to get all the parts from Volkswagen because I don't screw with the pads from anywhere else for Volkswagen.
00:19:18
Frank Wiebe
Oh,
00:19:21
Aniz Lavji
So I got the pads there.
00:19:22
Frank Wiebe
really?
00:19:23
Aniz Lavji
Yep. Don't even get into that with me. But I got the rotors from good old CarQuest, which were bang on as usual. Got the pads from Volkswagen. We started doing the job. You know, I got, i don't know how many scan tools to push back the electronic parking brake.
00:19:38
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:19:39
Aniz Lavji
Plug that sucker in and got my tablet. And I'm like, all right, here we go. Let's get this job done. And boom, gateway access required. I'm like, the freak is this?
00:19:50
Aniz Lavji
I've never had to do this before.
00:19:52
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:19:52
Aniz Lavji
For me, that's new, but we've never had to. So I'm learning. And again, I'm not a mechanic. my My tech is saying this is all a lot of the newer things that he's heard about it. We've never had to do it.
00:20:06
Aniz Lavji
So now gateway access through Autel, it's saying you're going to buy this token and this token. So I'm like, okay, let's just do it.
00:20:16
Aniz Lavji
So, you know, I think it was like 15 bucks or or seven bucks or 10 bucks or something. So I bought like four tokens. was like, whatever, I'll use the other ones next time. But I followed the procedure, did everything, paid my dues.
00:20:30
Aniz Lavji
And again, i didn't pass it on to the customer because I didn't know. But it's fine. It was a good learning experience for me. But still, now I know if I get something like that, I'm going to pass it on to the customer.
00:20:42
Aniz Lavji
Or they're going to be a little extra charge to do that vehicle because that is an extra cost. And somebody has to pay. And the customer pays for everything.
00:20:52
Frank Wiebe
Well, I think in general, like I heard um on a podcast last week, they're talking about that particular, that kind of a thing. And like any vehicle that has electronic parking brake, it should be a different labor rate for the job.
00:21:07
Aniz Lavji
The rear. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
00:21:09
Frank Wiebe
Because like yeah like after like after the electronic part is retracted, the rest of the job is the same.
00:21:09
Aniz Lavji
I do have a different library for it.
00:21:18
Frank Wiebe
But it's that extra time that it takes to do that.
00:21:22
Aniz Lavji
For sure.
00:21:22
Frank Wiebe
electronic portion of it and like if you have something that screws up like we had a ford the other day i forget what kind of ford it was and it it it retracted just fine everything went good but when we went to go put it back together one of the connectors didn't seat all the way and then we went to apply it it applied one side but not the other side
00:21:38
Aniz Lavji
Mm-hmm.
00:21:44
Aniz Lavji
Mm-hmm.
00:21:46
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:21:47
Frank Wiebe
Holy crap. Once, once we were in that mode, we, we were like, it took me almost an hour, ah several different things. And what I ended up having to do is I had to, um, yeah, manually pull it back again.
00:22:01
Aniz Lavji
Manually do it. Yep. Mm-hmm.
00:22:05
Frank Wiebe
And then it you know It saw both them at the same and applied them. And oh my gosh, that was that was really, really frustrating.
Vehicle Diagnostics & Expertise
00:22:13
Frank Wiebe
But it was a great lesson to learn. I'd say, hey, as soon as you turn the key on read for codes.
00:22:17
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:22:19
Frank Wiebe
And if there was a code in there, and because there was right away a code for a circuit fault, then stop there.
00:22:23
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:22:24
Frank Wiebe
Fix your circuit fault first.
00:22:26
Aniz Lavji
Stop and inspect.
00:22:28
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, exactly. Stop and inspect. But had we not, had I not had, again, same thing. Had I not had service information to tell me, A, which wires and what, and be able to go through that, I probably would have been at the point where, well, I wouldn't have been, but I've seen before other shops where you get to the point where they're like, oh, you need a new caliper, you need a new actuator.
00:22:40
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:22:50
Frank Wiebe
And they sell the customer $500 actuator.
00:22:51
Aniz Lavji
easy with just to throw it in.
00:22:52
Frank Wiebe
Right. five hundred dollars actuator
00:22:55
Aniz Lavji
Yeah, like you need you need that caliper motor replaced. Those things aren't cheap.
00:23:01
Frank Wiebe
they're not i I have yet to have to replace one, but I've heard that they are not cheap.
00:23:05
Aniz Lavji
I'll get into that story in a second because I have one at the store right now.
00:23:09
Frank Wiebe
Okay.
00:23:09
Aniz Lavji
But yeah, so you know for breaks now, if it's got electronic parking brake, I have a labor matrix that is applied right away. So my my labor rate right now is 149.
00:23:20
Frank Wiebe
Okay.
00:23:24
Aniz Lavji
And if it's got if it's got a elect electronic and parking brake, it's it gets the labor matrix gets applied and it's around 156 or So it's an extra 10, 20 bucks or so I'm tacking on there.
00:23:38
Frank Wiebe
So does it know or do you have to manually tell it that's electronic parking brake?
00:23:44
Aniz Lavji
I have to click on the labor matrix. So I'll know, I'll know that the vehicle has it before.
00:23:47
Frank Wiebe
Right.
00:23:50
Frank Wiebe
Only when you're looking at parts, right?
00:23:52
Aniz Lavji
No, I'll know because my guy is going to tell me when the vehicle, when the vehicle comes in, Yacoub or one of the guys, and he's, this has got a electronic parking brake.
00:23:55
Frank Wiebe
Okay. That's
00:24:03
Frank Wiebe
Okay. So, so, so it's not like you have not like tech metric automatically knows that it's like electronic.
00:24:03
Aniz Lavji
So I'll need,
00:24:08
Aniz Lavji
No, no, I'm never flying blind because my guys tell me right away and especially more because of that Volkswagen, because that took all that extra time.
00:24:09
Frank Wiebe
park Okay. That's what I was getting at. Yeah.
00:24:19
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:24:21
Aniz Lavji
So now they are in the mode of, if it has the EPB, they quickly call me and say, Hey, by the way, or the, or again, we have the WhatsApp chat. ah You know, there'll like a Honda Civic EPB and just, I'll know exactly what they're talking about.
00:24:37
Frank Wiebe
Okay. Yep.
00:24:39
Aniz Lavji
So right now I currently have 2023 under warranty Nissan Kicks at my shop.
00:24:39
Frank Wiebe
That makes sense.
00:24:51
Aniz Lavji
That vehicle has a rear right caliper motor, this actuator that does not work.
00:24:51
Frank Wiebe
Okay.
00:25:02
Aniz Lavji
She went to use the parking brake, which that was her fault, shouldn't have used it. It's not there to use.
00:25:07
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:25:09
Aniz Lavji
It was able to ah work. What's the right word? It was able to engage on the left side, but the right side wouldn't engage.
00:25:20
Aniz Lavji
So when she went to take it off, the left side disengaged, but all you hear on the right side was that was it.
00:25:29
Frank Wiebe
yeah
00:25:30
Aniz Lavji
So then she had a red light on the dash with the exclamation point. And then she called me and well, you know, side note is she had no brakes in the back, which I mean, you don't need them. Right.
00:25:42
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:25:42
Aniz Lavji
So we got the vehicle in and she only had 20, she has 27,000 kilometers on it.
00:25:50
Frank Wiebe
Oh, wow.
00:25:50
Aniz Lavji
Right. So it's under warranty. And I called Nissan because the first thing I said was like, okay, well, let me call Nissan and find out, you know, what's the story because, you know, if it's still under a warranty, you know, I'll just send you over there and let them do it. It won't cost you anything.
00:26:04
Aniz Lavji
So I called Nissan and they're like, oh yeah, it's under warranty. All right. There'd be no cost to get it replaced. I'm like, sweet. So, and she's like, but I'm like, what do you mean, but that actuator is not available.
00:26:14
Frank Wiebe
back order
00:26:18
Aniz Lavji
I'm like, okay. So I mean like, like a week he's like, oh no, it's just not available. I'm like, so I'm like, like what, well, like, what do you mean?
00:26:25
Frank Wiebe
indefinitely
00:26:28
Aniz Lavji
Is like, you need, you need to get it made in China. Like, or is it like coming out the States? We can't give you a date. I'm like, okay, I'll talk to the customer. So I told her, I was like, you shouldn't be paying for anything because it's under warranty, but you can call Nissan and they don't have that actuator in stock anywhere.
00:26:51
Frank Wiebe
So, hmm.
00:26:52
Aniz Lavji
So she called and she talked to the same parts guy and he said, yep, the da you know, Dalai just talked to me and we can't get you that part. Not anytime soon. So I ended up having just got delivered today. i had to get an actuator from the wreckers to put on.
00:27:08
Aniz Lavji
We opened up her actuator and it was all green and look, it was all fungus inside. It was gross. It was screwed completely.
00:27:19
Frank Wiebe
Interesting. And there's ready ones at the records. That's cool.
00:27:23
Aniz Lavji
So i ended up getting one today. so we're going to, we're going to put that on in the morning with the rear brakes.
00:27:26
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:27:30
Aniz Lavji
And unfortunately, like the used part wasn't cheap either with the brakes, rotors and a new use actuator, she'd be out like a thousand bucks.
00:27:41
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:27:42
Aniz Lavji
And it's out of that. She should only be paying for the brakes and rotors.
00:27:47
Frank Wiebe
is Is Nissan going to cough up anything to help her out with putting the U's on them?
00:27:50
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:27:52
Aniz Lavji
No, nothing. I told her she was better off having the CVT go.
00:27:59
Frank Wiebe
You know, we had a we had a Ford Fusion or something like that. And it had been to, I think, two other shops with a brake light on. It always had like that parking brake light on.
00:28:15
Aniz Lavji
oh yeah.
00:28:15
Frank Wiebe
and Brakes always, brake worked fine. Everything worked fine. Even the parking brake worked, but it always, always had this brake light on and they were getting frustrated because they couldn't get it fixed.
00:28:29
Frank Wiebe
Well, come to find out what it was is the caliper, not the electronic part, but the the physical caliper itself, the spline inside was stripped.
00:28:39
Aniz Lavji
Yep. yep
00:28:40
Frank Wiebe
So it would apply the parking brake. And it would recognize the parking brake was applied, but it actually wouldn't apply it fully on the right side, the left side. So the parking brake worked. Anyways, when we finally figured that out, we ended up replacing the caliper, put the old motor on it.
00:28:58
Frank Wiebe
Everything was good. Oh, man, was that customer happy.
Methodical Troubleshooting in Auto Repairs
00:29:01
Frank Wiebe
And they're like how did no one else figure this out?
00:29:04
Aniz Lavji
But like, again, I'm not a mechanic, but what I would have done is put the vehicle up, applied the parking brake, and then you spin one side.
00:29:04
Frank Wiebe
it
00:29:15
Aniz Lavji
and if if that doesn't move and the other side moves, then that not like pretty much the right way start?
00:29:15
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:29:19
Frank Wiebe
it it The thing is, it was just enough that it it was just enough that it applied it that you wouldn't be able to tell that way.
00:29:27
Aniz Lavji
But if you applied more pressure to that wheel and really tried to move it, then I bet you would move.
00:29:30
Frank Wiebe
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:29:34
Aniz Lavji
Because it's not grabbing it fully, right?
00:29:36
Frank Wiebe
Exactly. yeah it was Yeah, it was a weird situation, but i was i was i was excited to find it and more ecstatic to fix it. And then the customer is just...
00:29:46
Aniz Lavji
Customer for life.
00:29:49
Frank Wiebe
Surprisingly, I've never seen him again. I've seen him once after that.
00:29:53
Aniz Lavji
they were They were so happy that you fixed it that you know they just don't know how to express it.
00:29:57
Frank Wiebe
No, I just fixed it so good. I never had to come back.
00:30:00
Aniz Lavji
There you go. But, you know, this is all experience and reading service manuals and actually focusing and wanting to fix the vehicle the right way and not just guessing. Right. And this, again, goes back to having the right information.
00:30:18
Aniz Lavji
If the right information is not provided to you and if you're not paying to access it
00:30:18
Frank Wiebe
and
00:30:24
Aniz Lavji
then a lot of the times it's not easy to fix these vehicles because these new vehicles, they're getting more high tech by by the day, every year. There's something new coming out where it blows my mind.
00:30:33
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:30:36
Aniz Lavji
I'm like, sorry, how many actuators are in this vehicle? Or there's,
00:30:39
Frank Wiebe
and And to be able to diagnose them properly is getting harder and harder every day.
00:30:44
Aniz Lavji
yeah, yeah. and And shops that say they're master diagnosticians, Okay. Not to knock anyone that says they are, a lot of them may not be as advanced as they say they are. And a lot of the times is there's so much that you need to know. on needs
00:31:11
Frank Wiebe
It's going to take a minute. It's 10 this day.
00:31:13
Aniz Lavji
Oh my God, Frank. Oh my God.
00:31:15
Frank Wiebe
ah
00:31:17
Aniz Lavji
A lot of the times that you may think that you're you're going down the right track and, you know, you miss one page of the service information that for some reason is not in <unk> Identifix or Mitchell or something.
00:31:30
Aniz Lavji
And you start going down a rabbit hole. You keep going, going, going, and you may end up, you know, call Joe that works at Chrysler. hey Joe, you know, I've been on this for like three hours and reading service information. He's like, oh yeah, yeah. you're where are you looking? Here?
00:31:48
Aniz Lavji
Oh yeah, page six has not been on there for a long time. Let me send it to you. It's like, well, holy crap. and I should have just called it in the first place.
00:31:54
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:31:55
Aniz Lavji
But you know, this is this is the reason that sometimes You know, I don't, but I'm sure you do have two or three different sources of service information that you can compare the same vehicle two or three spots and be like, okay, well, it's not here.
00:32:12
Aniz Lavji
But you know what? I checked on Mitchell and the damn thing is there. I should have just checked here in the first place.
00:32:17
Frank Wiebe
Oh, I'm always double checking. we have We have two different ones that we're currently using. I'm always checking between the two. And especially when it comes to wiring diagrams, because I get Fuddle and wiring diagrams so often that that I'm like, I know that this diagram this doesn't make sense.
00:32:28
Aniz Lavji
Okay. Yep.
00:32:34
Frank Wiebe
So I'll check it even against OE diagrams. And I'm like, ah, see, that's why said that one color or that one pin location is marked wrong on the aftermarket diagrams, right?
00:32:40
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:32:44
Frank Wiebe
um I remembered something on when I was diagnosing that Ram this morning, I'd watched a video by, uh, from scanner Danner and this is a shout out to scanner Danner.
00:32:49
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:32:53
Aniz Lavji
Oh, that guy's a beast.
00:32:57
Frank Wiebe
Phenomenal, phenomenal diagnostician and teacher anyways. Um, so he had said like, like when you're doing a diagnostic and you're doing the flow chart, you have to be able to ah look at that and say, do I need all of these steps? Like,
00:33:15
Frank Wiebe
This step here, he was talking about one video I watched this morning about, you know, this PCM is stuck underneath the center console. To get at that computer is going to take you four hours.
00:33:27
Frank Wiebe
Whereas if you're just a little bit smarter and you say, hey, if I test this over here, I'll be able to get the reading, the same reading as what I do over there. So when you start thinking of it that way and you can read the service information, you have the knowledge, you have the learn, you have the the information from somebody who's been down this road and and and is teaching you and training you and ah and giving you that information.
00:33:48
Frank Wiebe
And you come up with a conclusion also.
00:33:48
Aniz Lavji
Yep. Yep.
00:33:50
Frank Wiebe
and you're like, boom, I can do this. I can fix this car. I can repair this. That's what I try to teach the young people in my shop too. I'm like, you can repair this vehicle.
00:34:01
Frank Wiebe
If you think about it, if you, if you understand how this works, like the guy i worked for, for 14 years, when I first started working for him, he gave me a job that I had never done before. And i was supposed to take an intake off of, uh,
00:34:19
Frank Wiebe
afford something or other. And, and I don't think we had service information then. So it was just a basic job. And I'm like, ah, I've never really done one before. I don't think I could do it.
00:34:27
Aniz Lavji
Yep. Yep.
00:34:28
Frank Wiebe
And he wasn't a mechanic at all, right? He's just a car salesman. And he looked at me and he says, well, Frank, it's just nuts and bolts. You can do it. And I did it. Right. I mean, it was, it was, it was a silly way of encouraging me, but it was an encouragement to do it and do, I used that line on my apprentice the other day. I said, so, you know,
00:34:49
Frank Wiebe
You can do this. It's just nuts and bolts. But in reality, when when the job is frustrating and the job is hard and and and if you're – it can be. just It's just wiring.
00:35:03
Frank Wiebe
okay It's just a diagram. It's just a series circuit, a parallel circuit. It's simple. Just break it down. it's It's just – a caliper with bolts or a rotor with bolts, just break it down.
00:35:16
Aniz Lavji
And sometimes you just need to take a second to, yep.
00:35:16
Frank Wiebe
you're You're changing a turbo. It's just bolts and gaskets, right? Just break it down. Break it down into a smaller one. and And we
00:35:23
Aniz Lavji
Sometimes you just need to take a second and stop and think and and just rest your mind for a second because you could have 6,000 things in your mind and you're right there at the solution, but you're so jumbled because depending on where you work, you could have a manager or you could have
00:35:27
Frank Wiebe
stop, think about it.
00:35:32
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
Strategic Decisions on Tools & Jobs
00:35:43
Aniz Lavji
ah you know, your wife or your partner's calling and, you know, what time you're coming home and you need to pick up the kids, you need to this, you need this. But, and you've got all this background noise when you're trying to diagnose the vehicle. And sometimes you just need to just cut out all the noise and just pause.
00:36:05
Aniz Lavji
And that fricking answer is going to come right to you once you clear out all that noise.
00:36:06
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:36:11
Frank Wiebe
And so sometimes when I have a really difficult one, I'll just, I just, you know, set it aside and then I'll go back after supper and then I'll just sit there and then I'll think about it when no one else is around.
00:36:16
Aniz Lavji
Yep. Yep.
00:36:23
Frank Wiebe
then you just like, ah, that's what I missed.
00:36:25
Aniz Lavji
I have actually done that many times.
00:36:26
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:36:28
Aniz Lavji
Again, I'm not in the shop doing this stuff, but, you know, I'll get some of my younger guys in there and they'll get a bit frustrated with the job.
00:36:29
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:36:35
Aniz Lavji
And I'm like, yeah you know what? Let, let that just make sure if you were tightening a bolt, you finished tightening your bolts. And I never, ever interrupt any of my texts when they're in the middle of tightening a bolt.
00:36:49
Aniz Lavji
I usually bug them when I can see that they're doing, you know, they're maybe lubricating a brake pad or something and then I'll bug them. But I try not to kind of talk with them when they're in the middle of doing something that looks really, really important. So I'll say, you know, hey, you could, you know, do you have a second?
00:37:06
Aniz Lavji
No. Okay, I'll be back. And I know right away that he's doing something he needs to concentrate on.
00:37:08
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:37:11
Aniz Lavji
But, you know, sometimes if I can see that they're frustrated, okay, finish up what you're doing right now. And let's go. So why? Don't worry about it. So, you know, we'll finish up what he's doing. He's okay. What's up? I'm like, okay, I got another vehicle here. Let's put it up. So I'm working on that. like, no, let it be.
00:37:29
Frank Wiebe
Or you send them across road to them Hortons.
00:37:29
Aniz Lavji
the
00:37:31
Frank Wiebe
Like when I was,
00:37:31
Aniz Lavji
or Or that. Oh yeah.
00:37:33
Frank Wiebe
when when i was there picking up When I was there picking up those wheels, I was ah parked across the road, Tim Hortons there, and then all sudden I seen Yacoub come out.
00:37:33
Aniz Lavji
Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:39
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:37:41
Frank Wiebe
Like, oh, must be break time.
00:37:41
Aniz Lavji
yeah
00:37:44
Aniz Lavji
Sometimes not even break time, but again, these, man, my people work so hard for me. And, and it's just sometimes, you know, they get to have a frustrating job and I'm like, you know what, here's a 20, here's a 20, go and grab coffee and whatever.
00:37:50
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:38:00
Aniz Lavji
If you want something to eat, get yourself something.
00:38:01
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:38:03
Aniz Lavji
Don't come back with any change. Just, just buy whatever you want you.
00:38:05
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:38:07
Aniz Lavji
And, you know, let's reset a little bit. That job's kind of kicking your butt. And it's frustrating. Like, you know, if you're doing rear drum shoes and hardwares on like a 15 Corolla, they're absolutely annoying getting those springs and then something flies off and all you want to do is scream at it. You know what I mean?
00:38:28
Aniz Lavji
So sometimes you just got to stop, pause, reset, you know, I'll give them a different job and say, Hey, okay, let's work on this for a bit. And you know, that car is not being picked up till tomorrow.
00:38:39
Aniz Lavji
We're not going to look at it for about an hour and a half.
00:38:41
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:38:42
Aniz Lavji
And just that little break, then every single time when they go back to that vehicle, everything's reset. And somehow, magically, that car gets finished quick because they've got the the patience to actually tackle it. And what they thought may be an issue or very difficult to complete seems so simple.
00:39:08
Aniz Lavji
And they'll come back after and be like, man, I went back to that car and i was able to just finish it. It was just so easy. I don't know what the hell I was doing.
00:39:16
Frank Wiebe
Well, they gave their mind a time to process it. A lot of times when I'm looking at service information and I'm reading through, and even my apprentice, right, he's reading through the, I have them read through the the steps of the job.
00:39:19
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:39:29
Frank Wiebe
You're doing this job you've never done before. Let's go look this up. Let's read all the steps. Boom, boom, boom. And then he is sometimes he'll get through halfway and he'll get so frustrated. I'm like, okay, well, now let's break this down.
00:39:41
Frank Wiebe
Read these steps. Let's go do this much. then we Then when you get to that part, then do this much. Or read through all of it and then think about it. Like, how can I compress this?
00:39:52
Frank Wiebe
How can I make this job smaller? Or do we need to expand it into, hey, we're taking a heater core out and we got to take the dash out and it says to do this and this and this.
00:40:02
Aniz Lavji
Look at the precautions.
00:40:03
Frank Wiebe
Look at the precautions. Look at the tools that it's going to have to take. Look at that. um If you've never done that job before, having that information is vitally important because then you're not taking stuff apart that doesn't need to be. you're You're like, oh, you know what?
00:40:18
Frank Wiebe
We don't have the equipment to do this job. I think that we need to reconsider whether we're going to be doing this or not.
00:40:21
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:40:24
Aniz Lavji
Yes.
00:40:24
Frank Wiebe
right I've done run that before. Somebody calls up says, hey, can you do a job on such and such?
00:40:27
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:40:29
Frank Wiebe
And I'm like, let me look. I'm like, you know what? I don't have the equipment for that. Very often it's like a timing job or something like that.
00:40:37
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:40:37
Frank Wiebe
I don't have either I can go buy it or I can't do the job, right? So a lot of times then you go buy new tools and you buy new equipment because it's like I bought one time I bought a timing kit for a Fiat 1.4 liter or five or whatever it was.
00:40:53
Aniz Lavji
Oh, geez.
00:40:55
Frank Wiebe
and And I bought the special kit to do that timing job. Now, like you said with your with your AC job, you made enough profit on that to justify buying that.
00:41:04
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:41:08
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:41:09
Frank Wiebe
I, I said to this lady, I said, listen, I will do this job for you. She really wanted me to do the job. I'm like, I will do it for you, but I have to buy this tool.
00:41:15
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:41:19
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:41:19
Frank Wiebe
I'm going to charge you what it's going to cost me to buy this tool. She says, I am totally okay with that. As long as you will do it for me.
00:41:26
Aniz Lavji
and they Most of them are. Yep.
00:41:28
Frank Wiebe
And so I did. So and essentially, that that job paid for that tool, but I might never use it again.
00:41:33
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:41:37
Aniz Lavji
Probably not.
00:41:37
Frank Wiebe
But it's sitting on my shelf there marked as Fiat. So if anyone out there has a Fiat and you do need timing chains, happy to do it for you because I have the tools now.
00:41:48
Aniz Lavji
I got a Fiat coming for oil change tomorrow. i'll actually check that.
00:41:51
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, well, ask them if they want timing chains done. And if they do, send them down my way. But like it's just, it's one of those things that's like, do you do the job, buy the tools and invest that money and have it sit there?
00:42:07
Frank Wiebe
Or do you say, hey, I can't do it, lose the profit and lose any future potential jobs that you could get off of that?
00:42:11
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:42:16
Aniz Lavji
Because that customer, you deny that job. Again, only do that job if you're comfortable
00:42:23
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:42:23
Aniz Lavji
tackling that job but if you don't do that job then she may think the next time you know what i need to get this fixed but you know what frank wasn't able to do that i'll just i'll take it to this guy because he says he can do it you know what mean so just get little bit ah which is fine if it's not something you wanted to do then it is what it is but
00:42:25
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:42:36
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:42:39
Frank Wiebe
And i yeah
00:42:46
Aniz Lavji
you know if it's If it comes down to because of a tool that you know it's not an obscene amount of money, you didn't do it, then you know that's that's your own prerogative. Yeah.
00:42:56
Frank Wiebe
i've and I've done some jobs where I'm like, I did it. i had the service information. Like ah timing. it I did a timing job on ah on a Volkswagen. And, and I had, I had the tools for it.
00:43:10
Frank Wiebe
I had the service information. I did the job and I was able to complete the job, but I made a rule. I said, I will never do that job again because it was, it was one of those jobs that no matter, even if you, unless you're going to do it daily,
00:43:26
Frank Wiebe
every day or or regularly, it it did not pay for itself.
00:43:27
Aniz Lavji
Yes.
00:43:32
Frank Wiebe
It was such ah such an involved job that like that's so specialized that I better just not do it.
00:43:37
Aniz Lavji
yes
00:43:40
Frank Wiebe
It's not fair to me. It's not fair to my tech.
00:43:42
Aniz Lavji
yep
00:43:43
Frank Wiebe
It's not fair to my customers because I had to... What it basically boiled down to is that I went through and I'm like, I know I need these and these and these and these parts.
00:43:57
Frank Wiebe
When I got in there and said, oh crap, I also need such and such.
00:43:58
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:44:00
Aniz Lavji
Yes.
00:44:01
Frank Wiebe
Now you have to order it.
00:44:01
Aniz Lavji
That's, yeah.
00:44:02
Frank Wiebe
Wait another day. Now it's tying up my bay.
00:44:05
Aniz Lavji
And you have to tell the customer that, by the way, you need this, this, and it's going be more money.
00:44:05
Frank Wiebe
Right. And I got it. Sorry, it's going to be another day. Sorry, it's going to be another day. And you know what?
00:44:13
Aniz Lavji
And they're like, oh, oh, yeah.
00:44:14
Frank Wiebe
And that's not fair to them. Right. So then I'm like, you know what? I know that if, if I do it, I could probably do it for this kind of a money. And if you go take it to the dealer, it's probably going to be this much.
00:44:26
Frank Wiebe
But if you pay this much, you take it there and get it done. You know it'll be done. You know that they'll have all the parts and all that stuff. Just go and take there and let them do it.
Managing Shop Expenses
00:44:35
Aniz Lavji
This is
00:44:35
Frank Wiebe
Or somebody who specializes, especially in Volkswagen, right? but certain So so so i've I've learned over the years, there are just certain things.
00:44:40
Aniz Lavji
this is why I...
00:44:44
Frank Wiebe
Regardless, even if I have the tools, even to have the service information, I'm better off saying no for the sake of the customer, right?
00:44:46
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:44:52
Aniz Lavji
That's the hardest thing, Frank, is saying no to, and you know, there's a lot of coaching companies out there that will say, will say, nope, say yes to everything.
00:44:53
Frank Wiebe
It's so hard to do.
00:44:59
Frank Wiebe
Never say no, right?
00:45:02
Aniz Lavji
Say yes to everybody. You can't say yes to everything because you're going to end up looking like a jackass.
00:45:04
Frank Wiebe
It's...
00:45:08
Aniz Lavji
How you getting a vehicle that comes in that, you know, you're saying, you're saying yes.
00:45:08
Frank Wiebe
Yep. Mm-hmm.
00:45:13
Aniz Lavji
Oh, is now a good time? Bring it right over. And the person brings the damn thing over and you look at and you're like, oh I don't know what to do with this. Then you're well, why the hell did you tell me to bring it over? You can't say yes to every car.
00:45:23
Frank Wiebe
No, it's...
00:45:26
Aniz Lavji
You can, you can tell them to drop it off and we'll have a look when we get a moment.
00:45:31
Frank Wiebe
And see what we can do with it, yeah.
00:45:32
Aniz Lavji
That's different. We will see if this is something we can tackle. But as soon as you say, yes, we can fix it. They're expecting to bring that vehicle in for you to fix the damn thing.
00:45:45
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:45:46
Aniz Lavji
You know, and And going back to what you were saying, well, your apprentice or your coworker was saying, you know, we look at all the steps and make sure that we have this, we have this, we have this.
00:45:47
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, we had...
00:45:57
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:46:00
Aniz Lavji
But if that service information was not available and you weren't paying the pretty penny for that, they're going be depending on Frank to tell them what to do.
00:46:09
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:46:09
Aniz Lavji
And if Frank... doesn't know, i don't want to talk about you in third person, but if fred if you didn't know about all these different steps, then what are you gonna You miss one step, you're screwed.
00:46:20
Frank Wiebe
ye
00:46:21
Aniz Lavji
Right. So a lot of people don't understand that these labor rates cannot stay, you know, even i oh i've always, I'm still telling you, Frank, you're going to raise it. I'm sure you are, but even where you are right now, you have an awesome labor rate, but that's got to go up because there's so many costs insurance.
00:46:42
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:46:42
Aniz Lavji
There's,
00:46:43
Frank Wiebe
Which goes up almost like every six months we get a renewal or review and the insurance is like, oh, you know what?
00:46:43
Aniz Lavji
you know
00:46:46
Aniz Lavji
yeah, I've heard it.
00:46:50
Frank Wiebe
We're just going to go up 10%. Like, perfect. Let's go up 10%.
00:46:52
Aniz Lavji
i have two I have two dealer plates.
00:46:53
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:46:54
Aniz Lavji
So we've got, and then we've got the apartments in our properties. We have insurance for that. And then, you know, you know, you got insurance for the garage and then you've got this liability insurance and then 2 million here. And then it's it's never ending.
00:47:13
Aniz Lavji
You get pest control and you've got like, the amount of The amount of different subscriptions, you have Identifix, and then, you know, you've got all, like, we've got Techmetric, which, again, I'm not going to complain about that because that's done me well.
00:47:31
Aniz Lavji
That's a whole other story. But, you know, yeah.
00:47:33
Frank Wiebe
control can be can be fairly cheap. Just get a couple of cats. We have...
00:47:38
Aniz Lavji
or Or you do that, you get a couple of cats,
00:47:41
Frank Wiebe
We had a problem with mice and now there's cats around the shop. All we have to do is feed them, which, don't know, what is maybe 30 bucks a month? Feed the cats. So it's pretty cheap way of getting rid of mice.
00:47:52
Aniz Lavji
Hmm.
00:47:55
Aniz Lavji
It's not a bad idea.
00:47:57
Frank Wiebe
It's a great, ah and if you want some, I've got a couple for you. I've got a trap. I can load them up. I'll bring them to you. Well, whatever you want, but probably the cats.
00:48:04
Aniz Lavji
The rats or the cats?
00:48:08
Frank Wiebe
I don't know if I can trap the rats.
00:48:11
Aniz Lavji
Oh, man.
00:48:12
Frank Wiebe
But everything costs money, man. everything everything is Everything is compiled, compounded, and it just it just all... all it It works, but it's hard, right?
00:48:24
Frank Wiebe
Like like you have to consider we have we had now, we're we're talking about our advertising budget, right? but what What should our advertising budget be or should we increase it?
00:48:31
Aniz Lavji
Yep. Yep.
00:48:34
Frank Wiebe
Like where do we go with that? and And if we advertise too much, then we're going to get too busy maybe if we don't advertise enough and all of that costs do we even advertise some people say oh i never advertise right and i i don't advertise much very little but you still gotta count all that in there if
00:48:59
Aniz Lavji
Well, I started on the radio. Remember, I sent you the radio ad.
00:49:02
Frank Wiebe
yeah yeah i heard that yeah i've got
00:49:04
Aniz Lavji
So there's a, I think that's costing me $1,500, $2,000 a month.
00:49:13
Frank Wiebe
Oh wow!
Enhancing Customer Experience with Added Services
00:49:14
Aniz Lavji
like But i'm on I'm on there a lot. And I get customers telling me, I've got friends that are calling me, oh, i just heard you on the radio. Or dad's friends, or my techs, when he goes to church,
00:49:22
Frank Wiebe
Yep, that's cool. Yep.
00:49:27
Aniz Lavji
People at church, oh, man, Dave, we heard your shop was on the radio. We heard your shop's on the radio.
00:49:33
Frank Wiebe
really
00:49:33
Aniz Lavji
So, again, even if ah two or three of those customers come in, just two or three a month, that pays for it.
00:49:41
Frank Wiebe
yep Yeah, we're just we're just starting with the social media ah advertising. I've hired someone. um They were down today getting everything set up. So in the next week or so, it should be a bunch of social media content, video content floating out, flooding out, blogs, that kind of stuff.
00:50:03
Frank Wiebe
and And just poof. So we'll see how that does. I don't know if that doesn't root anything, then we won't do it. But if all sudden it's like, hey, that's that's generating revenue and that's whatever, then let's continue.
00:50:16
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:50:16
Frank Wiebe
Let's go with it.
00:50:16
Aniz Lavji
If you can track and know that this customer came from that and you see what that work order brought in and then you see the gross profit on that compared to what you paid for
00:50:22
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:50:29
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
00:50:29
Aniz Lavji
doing that, then you can justify it. But, you know, like the subscriptions, like, you know, i got MotoVisuals and that's 50 bucks a month on top of my subscription for tech.
00:50:36
Frank Wiebe
Yep. Yep.
00:50:40
Aniz Lavji
And then, you know, there's all these other companies that call you that, you you know, we can do this, we can do this. And it's only 50, it's only 80, it's only 90, but you add all this stuff together, 90 bucks a month, that's 1200 bucks a year, you know, and then when you get hooked onto it.
00:50:58
Aniz Lavji
and then you know maybe you don't use it as proper function, it's $1,200 bucks gone. you know I've got a subscription to Circle K car automatic car wash.
00:51:07
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:51:11
Aniz Lavji
I can wash my car every single day. It's 80 bucks a month.
00:51:16
Frank Wiebe
Oh, really?
00:51:16
Aniz Lavji
Okay. Oh yeah, it's really good actually. So I'll wash my car, Dad will wash his car, but if I don't end up washing it, let's say for two or three weeks, because I don't have time,
00:51:22
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:51:27
Aniz Lavji
That 80 bucks was a waste.
00:51:29
Frank Wiebe
Mm-hmm.
00:51:30
Aniz Lavji
But again, that is all baked into every dollar that we're trying to make every month. Because sometimes if I get a good customer in, I might take their car and we'll get it washed and I won't even tell them.
00:51:45
Aniz Lavji
And they'll come pick up the and like, man, my car looks clean. was like, yeah, went and washed it for you.
00:51:49
Frank Wiebe
Man, you could wash every customer's car then.
00:51:52
Aniz Lavji
I could.
00:51:52
Frank Wiebe
So I know there was there was a shop in...
00:51:53
Aniz Lavji
It's warm today though, you can use it.
00:51:55
Frank Wiebe
What's that?
00:51:56
Aniz Lavji
Once a day you can use it.
00:51:57
Frank Wiebe
Oh, once a day, yeah.
00:51:58
Aniz Lavji
Once a day, yeah.
00:51:58
Frank Wiebe
Okay, yeah. There was a shop in town. That's what they did. Every every car that like got a wash, but every car that came in got washed, right?
00:52:05
Aniz Lavji
Yeah. And we could definitely do it, but that would all get baked into that labor rate.
00:52:06
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:52:11
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:52:12
Aniz Lavji
So if I'm i'm at 149, if i charge or bucks an hour, sure i can do it ah hire another guy
00:52:21
Frank Wiebe
jean
00:52:22
Aniz Lavji
i can build an enclosed area off the side of the building, make it a wash bay, and have a guy, every single car goes in washes it. But I have to justify that increase in the labor rate for that.
00:52:39
Aniz Lavji
So is it worth me doing that? And can I justify to the customer, the reason we're 189 an hour now is now we're going to washing your car. Every time it comes in, we'll do a light vacuum.
00:52:54
Aniz Lavji
You know, we're going to give you a loaner car to go home and come like all these things will be baked into it. We're not washing the cars.
Ethical Profit Margins & Continuous Learning
00:53:03
Aniz Lavji
We're not giving loaner cars.
00:53:05
Aniz Lavji
So we're sticking with our current labor rate, but for some customers that are doing, you know, if they're doing breaks or doing, you know, a couple thousand bucks worth of work or even a thousand bucks or whatever, I'll send them home in an Uber at least.
00:53:18
Aniz Lavji
And they appreciate that because for the 15 or 20 bucks, they get to go home and relax while we take care of their vehicle.
00:53:18
Frank Wiebe
Yeah.
00:53:26
Aniz Lavji
And then sometimes I'll tell them, okay, it'll be ready around two o'clock. So I'm prepared to, you know, so call an Uber and get them back. And sometimes they'll just be like, Oh, don't worry about it. I'm getting dropped off or I'll just call an Uber because they're not expecting you to get them back.
00:53:42
Aniz Lavji
You know? So it's these little things you do for customers that again, a cost of doing business that,
00:53:49
Frank Wiebe
cost of doing business. It, it
00:53:51
Aniz Lavji
I have to constantly explain to some customers, like, why is your labor rate this much? And like, unfortunately, and fortunately, I pay my people well. And I have three kids and I need to pay for this and I got to pay for this and insurance and this and this. So I'll start listing off a whole bunch of things. And that conversation just goes backwards and like, oh yeah, that kind of makes sense. Yeah.
00:54:14
Frank Wiebe
friend A friend of mine, him and I were talking business one time, and he said he said that their business was operating at a 3% net profit.
00:54:26
Aniz Lavji
Three. Okay. Yeah.
00:54:28
Frank Wiebe
3%. But now, mind you, it was a multi-million dollar company, but it was 3%.
00:54:32
Aniz Lavji
yeah
00:54:35
Frank Wiebe
Like he said, with the cost of whatever, it was a ah trucking company, and with the cost of what they were doing, they were like a million dollars a week in fuel. So what there was, so all of these costs that they had, and at the end of the year, it was 3% was their net profit.
00:54:52
Frank Wiebe
And I'm like, damn, like that only 3%. But there's a lot of work.
00:54:56
Aniz Lavji
It's a lot of work.
00:54:59
Frank Wiebe
Now it was a big money. So, so there was, it was, it was money, right? Like it was worth it.
00:55:04
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:55:05
Frank Wiebe
But When you think of only 3%, so if you think of like, let's say you're in my business, let's say we do for round number, let's say 100,000 a year. And if we only did 3% net profit, that's $3,000, right?
00:55:19
Aniz Lavji
Yeah. Yeah.
00:55:21
Frank Wiebe
So we got it we got to make money somewhere. We're not in this just for the fun. We do love our jobs, but we still got to make money. As everybody does with everyone, every job, it's there to make money, right?
00:55:35
Frank Wiebe
and and
00:55:36
Aniz Lavji
100%. Profit is not a dirty word. Put that on a damn t-shirt.
00:55:39
Frank Wiebe
Profit's not a dirty word.
00:55:40
Aniz Lavji
Profit is not a dirty word.
00:55:40
Frank Wiebe
making Making money. Now, being being um a crook and being and being ripping someone off,
00:55:51
Aniz Lavji
I'll say ethical profit is not a dirty word.
00:55:53
Frank Wiebe
ethical profit. There you go. that's That's the right term.
00:55:56
Aniz Lavji
Yeah.
00:55:58
Frank Wiebe
if you're if you're If you're doing things in the right manner and and and properly, hey, We should all be making a profit.
00:56:06
Aniz Lavji
You know what? Have a heart.
00:56:07
Frank Wiebe
We should all be making money.
00:56:08
Aniz Lavji
Yep.
00:56:10
Frank Wiebe
Everyone's making money somewhere, whether it's you're working for someone and you're getting paid to do the job or whether you're the one offering the job and someone's paying you to do it. Everyone is out making money is literally how this world works and how this world turns.
00:56:21
Frank Wiebe
So if we can't go and make money and and pay our pay our employees so they're making money, then
00:56:30
Aniz Lavji
You take care of your techs, you take care of your writers, you take care of your customers, and hopefully at the end, you know you you're turning a profit, you pay your mortgage or whatever it is, and know just do it with a be be do with a code of ethics.
00:56:41
Frank Wiebe
Exactly. Yep.
00:56:48
Frank Wiebe
Yep. Yep.
00:56:49
Aniz Lavji
right One thing more I just want to bring up really quick, if if anyone hasn't seen, But Frank is coming to ASTA this year.
00:56:51
Frank Wiebe
Yep, exactly.
00:57:02
Aniz Lavji
He made a bet with Buckaroo Bob.
00:57:05
Frank Wiebe
Hey. Buckaroo Bob. Don't make a bet with him.
00:57:08
Aniz Lavji
And the bet basically consisted, it was there, basically, if you come to Canada, I'll register for ASTA.
00:57:10
Frank Wiebe
Give me a warning.
00:57:18
Aniz Lavji
And, well, John came. He conquered. He ate some wings. And Frank had to pay up.
00:57:24
Frank Wiebe
But, you know, he did say that the best thing wasn't wasn't the wings. It was the burrito the next morning at Menomex. So if you all like breakfast burrito, come down to Elmer, have a breakfast burrito.
00:57:39
Frank Wiebe
It'll be my treat if you come and see me. It's well worth the drive. And, yeah, so I'm going to ASTA. Anise is going.
00:57:50
Aniz Lavji
Yep, I just registered yesterday.
00:57:51
Frank Wiebe
Jeff's going.
00:57:52
Aniz Lavji
So we got Jada Mechanic. Jeff is going to be there for sure.
00:57:55
Frank Wiebe
Yeah. Yeah. So and anyone else interested in, in, in ASTA hit us up.
00:57:57
Aniz Lavji
well
00:58:02
Frank Wiebe
We'd we'd love to talk to you about it, point you in the right direction. And Hey, maybe we can even travel together if, if you're from our area and, uh, we're just going to make us all Canadian convoy going down to training out in North Carolina.
00:58:17
Aniz Lavji
Definitely. If you go to ASTA USA.org, you can register online. The hotels, the Marriott, which both of us are booked there.
00:58:27
Aniz Lavji
It's a beautiful hotel and love to see everyone there and more Canadians better.
00:58:28
Frank Wiebe
Yep.
Conclusion & Gratitude
00:58:34
Aniz Lavji
I think it'd be great. um I think we'll, we'll wrap it up, Frank. I know it's getting late here for you. You got to get your beauty rest.
00:58:41
Frank Wiebe
That's right. Yep.
00:58:43
Aniz Lavji
But I just want to thank, on a side note, all the listeners. you know we We really appreciate everyone that listens to this. Again, Frank and I, we really do this for fun. It's it's free therapy for both of us. So we we really enjoy it. you know In all honesty, it's 10.30 at night right now. We're both tired. But we do this because it it really, to me, I'm sure it does for you, Frank, as well. It really does mean a lot.
00:59:10
Frank Wiebe
Yeah, it does.
00:59:10
Aniz Lavji
And, you know, even if we help one person in a year and change the way they look at the industry or maybe change the way that they think about the way the industry is treating them, or maybe they make a change in their job. I mean, just one person on my end, Frank, that that would be enough for me to keep doing this.
00:59:33
Frank Wiebe
Exactly. ye I agree with you 100%.
00:59:37
Aniz Lavji
But thank you, everyone. And please follow us on Facebook, Shop and Tread Talk Podcast. Until next time, we'll talk to you later.
00:59:47
Frank Wiebe
Take care.