Hi, I am thinking about going on my own with a service truck. I would mostly focus on class 8 trucks and maybe some simpler heavy equipment repairs. I have not decided on the type or truck, crane capacity, etc. I am just planning it in my head and researching as much as I can at this stage. There is no rush.... The question that really bothers me is how to get paid. When you work for a shop, you don't worry about it at all. The shop is covered in the worse case scenario by the ability to put a lien on the property of the debtor. Unfortunately, when you run a mobile unit, you are on your own and these protections don't apply - could be different depending on the state/province. So far, the this question had several answers from other sources such as: 1. Take the keys from and return only when paid. 2. Preauthorize by EFS payment method - this is still a bit vague for me, I believe both parties must be setup with them. 3. Bill/preauthorize for a service call and then bill for the work when done. 4. Send the invoice and wait for the payment. - obviously, that would only work for a regular customers but would be no go for any emergency calls from unknown entities. What I am looking for is best practices that are fair for a service tech and a customer. Thanks a lot for any help on this topic.
Require a deposit..& state that it’s “PAID IN FULL” when the job is completed.. & get a cc scanner..
lots of things need to be considered when going out on your own, ive seen a few good mechanics fail on there own. along with getting paid you need to think about health insurance, business insurance, rolling costs, marketing, and a million other things. you can be the best mechanic but if you don't have the business side of things down it will lead to failure
If you do go out on your own the first year or two will be really ruff figuring out good and bad customers . I have been on my own on and off and worked for someone else . This said there is no way i would ever want to be on my own agin. There is headaches that you cant imagine . Like has been said before a good mechanic poor business man will fell but a poor mechanic good business man will make it.
Start out by only working for local companies until you get a feel for running your business. Avoid the roadside repairs (insurance for that will be extremely expensive anyway). Another option is to take credit card payments with your phone. I would try to pick up business from a couple local, reputable outfits and see where it goes. There are too many good customers out there to mess with the bad ones.
I vote pre-authorize a deposit using their credit card say $500
Welcome to the Forums WK! Glad to have you! Going to move this thread over the the Shop Talk forum for better views and discussion. All I have to add is there is a huge market for an independent mechanic with a service truck to go on site and fix anything relating to heavy equipment and heavy trucks, at least in my area anyway. You will go through the learning curves of who to work for or not, however there are thousands of small owners that pay their bills on time. The hard part is finding them. As others have said there is so much more than just being good at your trade in order to be successful in any business. There's the knowledge of the trade and then there's business - two different tigers to tame.
I asked this same question a while back. In the end I decided against it for now. The startup costs were just too high at the moment. People are wanting a fortune for their bagged out POS 20+ year old F-550's.
I’ll throw my .02 in. As far as a truck goes…..it doesn’t take much to start. Keep it lean, don’t buy stuff thinking you’ll need it. Buy as you do. Explain your payment terms up front, if they push back you don’t want them as a customer. Also, I rarely use my money to buy parts. It’s only people I know well and it’s rarely more than a couple hundred bucks or a situation where it’s just a huge time saver to grab a part and get it done. Most of my customers have charge accounts and I use them. The markup on parts isn’t worth my cash being tied up. Once you grow big enough you can branch into parts. Doing mostly truck repair and minor equipment stuff I wouldn’t worry about a crane. Even as much yellow iron as I do I’ve gotten by without it on all but one job and I used their excavator. The thing is, you have a vision of what you think they’ll want for truck and tooling when in reality they just want their stuff fixed. They don’t care. I’d go as far to say if you have a pickup and the basic tools start there. Hell when my first truck quit on me I worked out of my Jeep for a few weeks until I had the other going. Get setup with an invoicing app, I use Wave. Probably better ones but it’s what I started with. They can pay with a CC right from the emailed invoice. You pay a bit for that convenience but some people like it. Also, I bill my customers weekly regardless of project completion. If you bring me a truck on Thursday that needs three days work I’m billing you on Friday for the two days. Cash flow is king! They know it well as they’re also in business. I tell them this in advance and they all like it, saves them one giant bill on larger projects. Again, we are all working around cash flow. You need to figure out how much $ you need for personal wages, how much insurance will cost, retirement, tools etc etc and then add in your profit so you can figure out an hourly rate. Don’t just guess at it. The one thing I cannot stress enough is to grow slow and keep debt to zero or a bare minimum.
Every thing Junkyard said is very right . A pickup with one of those harbor freight cranes will do alot.
Are there situations where a person can be employed by an outfit, yet be doing the work at your home shop? Anyone ever done that?
Sure you can in many instances. I did it for years. Some places try to prevent you from that, mostly dealers. I do think there’s a bit of a moral obligation if your side work takes away from their work, I wouldn’t be soliciting customers at my place of employment.
I was not talking soliciting customers. I'm talking about not driving to a place nor packing tools to their shop. Just packing the project home. Any sort of shop I have worked in is never well equipped, some times its something as simple as a block of wood.
There's a decent facebook service truck group, don't make a new post just read one of the 800 on the same subject. Are you planning on over the road class 8 truck field service type stuff? Driver's of particular nationalities will attempt to negotiate/ low ball before and after you start the repair, not want to pay, and dispute charges. A sliding rate scale for level of BS isn't a bad idea. Repeat local customers should be less BS than the guy with a POS volvo passing through who will never do business with you again. There's many stories of disabling trucks and calling troopers for theft of services if guys don't want to pay. The class 8 road side stuff is a bit of a race to the bottom. Let the bottom feeder customers bankrupt someone else, some times saying no will save you tons of $$ in the long run. I have a buddy who's a wiz with diesels and currently not taking new customers. Some of the text messages he's gotten from people who want him to do work for them are down right entertaining and at the same time shocking how low people will sink. If you are mainly thinking roadside class 8 service stuff where a carne isn't mandatory full size vans are a cheap option.
I worked for a guy that did this he did work for a company that had tank wagon trucks hauling fuel to farmers . They had alot of them but not very many shops of there own. I guess it was ok but there are some headaches. One was in that you needed a big parking lot and keep good track of every thing when he retired he had about 2 acres of used parts . You also get into its close to your home can you fix something any time of the day or day of the week ?
I know a guy that worked at a fuel shop for 25 + years and rebuilt them “on the side”.. It was seriously frowned upon.. But what r they gonna do.?? There was no paperwork signed AND all they can do is talk to you.. cuz if u got fired, u have a “wrongful termination” suit. Just keep it quiet and don’t kick the guy that feeds u.. until your settled and can walk away.. One problem I see is.. r u packing up your tools every night.?? THATS A BIG RED FLAG TO THE BOSS.. Good luck
There is a service guy on YT, western truck and tractor, he mentioned his start with an F350 and how he started modestly and built up, had a few costly customers who refused to pay but learned and earned a solid customer base. He is a hard working **
I’ve watched him for a long time. Brings me shame to see how much he works compared to me lol.
You're probably close, on my best day I could keep up with maybe his thumb and pinky.
I often throw the tool bag in the back of the half ton and do some easy calls. Yeah it gets the job done and keeps the customer happy but life is so much nicer when you have your full arsenal of tools and supplies with you.
I wonder how hard it would be to get some kind of software. Maybe something HVAC people use because they run a lot of service calls with parts. When you get a new customer or job the software will text or email them an estimate/approval and do not roll out until they have a card on file and maybe even preauthorized.
I wonder how many thought if i go out on my own it will be easier or i will make a lot more money day one?
I am more than 45 years at working as a "Man with a Few Spanners" so here is a few tips to keeping your head held high, you might not know it but the Parts Man that you speak to at CAT, Volvo or whoever can be Golden, so always treat these people with total respect and thank them for anything they do for you, they know the bad payers its on their screen, even if they completely stuff up for you keep your bad mouth to yourself and still kiss their backside and things will get sorted a lot smoother, speak to all the other Mechanics in your area and be solid and helpful to them without blowing smoke out of your backside, to stay above water you need every help you can get this also extends to always telling the truth to everyone, its no good to say I will be there tomorrow when you know its fantasy, your word has to be your Bond always, forget all the crap about getting paid as you need to get off your backside and go and do the work and work hard at it and the coins will roll in, I am in a different bit of Mother Earth to you but if I pulled out a Card swipe to be paid my Customers would Bin me, you need to earn the Customers faith in your workmanship and respect for the way you go forward, once you have good Customers that pay their bills you are flying, the man that services my house boiler pulls out a Card Swipe, I see him 1 time a year and his Bill is just a few ££ and the phone book has plenty of choices, look in the phone book for someone to come and fix your Dump Truck or Dozer the list is very short, the answer to your getting paid thing is reflected by your ability to do the job chap.
Prime example: Today I had to diagnose a hydraulic fault. Spent 15 minutes messing around with a little #6 line because my wrench wouldn't fit. Crowfoot or an offset open end wrench would have been perfect for the job but they were an hour away at the shop. Ended up having to screw around with pliers to get the fitting moved enough to grab with a wrench. Just silly little things like that will waste time but where do you draw the line on how much to bring on a call?
I think the original poster wants to work on over the road trucks. On this side of the pond we have a lot of truck drivers who will break down and start calling every road side guy till one answers, once the guy gets out of bed at 2am and shows up they will try and negotiate down the bill before he even starts, threaten bad google reviews if he doesn't give them a deal, and refuse to pay once the truck is fixed. If you don't run a card before the truck moves you'll never get paid and never see the guy again. If he's working with local customers it's another story.
I agree on the throwing a few tools in being a bad idea most times. I have done that with just taking a pickup and a few tool so you save fuel but it often costs you more in lost time of not having that one special wrench. I am bad for being late getting bills out but I only work for a the good customers that are ok with that and pay me anyway.