re: Dealership Service Counters

my first job out of high school was at a dealership.
It's not the counter people, it's the shop guys.

it's been over 20 years since I was working there, but I'm pretty sure not much changed.
we got paid on commission.
as in strictly commission, no guarantees, no hourly rates, only got paid for the work we produced.

vast majority of maintenance and repairs are set times that are in a book.
whatever that book says, that's how much time you get for that repair. Even if it takes you a lot longer to perform the task.

not sure about now, but back then, you got 0.2 hours for an oil change.
that's only 12 minutes.

you have 12 minutes to get the keys, go into the lot to find that vehicle, bring it to your stall, drain oil, go get a filter and the oil from the parts department, replace the filter, fill it with oil, check for leaks, go park the vehicle, and return the keys and ticket to the service department.
it's damn near impossible to do, so in reality you're losing money.

so the mechanic looks for other shite he can do to add to his ticket.
and air filter is usually another 0.2, but doesn't really add any time to what your'e doing.
so now you get paid 24 minutes for roughly the same amount of work.
wiper blades is another quick one that can add on for another 0.3 - 0.5 hours.

tire rotations, coolant flushes, etc. are also add ons that can be knocked out rather quickly.

that's why it's always the same add-ons they find.

it's stuff you can do at same time (change air filter while oil is draining ; rotate tires while coolant flush is running, etc.) but you add up the book times to equal more time than it takes to perform the whole job.