Hi Folks, I have a question for the people who do regular PMs on warehouse forklifts. I have an opportunity to present a maintenance program to a local LTL trucking company to maintain their fleet of forklifts and chargers. They have 7 lifts; 3 Nissans, 3 Crown stand ups, and 1 ancient Toyota that will get sold soon. I've done quite a bit of random jobs fixing fork lifts (my own TCM included), but I've never written a proposal for a maintenance program. They want monthly PM visits and 7 day a week callout. I told them that I can't do 24/7 because I have a 5 year old daughter and my wife travels alot, but I could do regular business hours 7 days a week. I'm thinking the time requirements are in the area of 40 hours a month. I'm thinking 2 days a month for PMs, and 3 days a month for service calls. That's a completely random number, and that's what I'm hoping you guys will know better. What sort of time would you folks set aside for routine maintenance on 7 lifts? Thanks for your help!
If I were pricing it the only way I would include service calls is give them a set number per month for the monthly price. Any service call over that number is T&M. Other than that I know nothing about electric and warehouse forklifts.
Nothing to add but i would like to here what you do
We have a minimum "4 hour" billed to the customer for call outs after 5pm and on the weekends/holidays. That does not include travel time/time on site. This eliminates un-needed call outs for silly stuff that can wait until the next business day. If they really need the truck, they will pay the extra. Plus it makes being "on call" a little easier on the tech knowing there is something in it extra for him/her We charge 1 hour for a PM, usually can get them done in less but I think 1.5hr is more reasonable to do a thorough job.
Brilliant, just what I was looking for. Thank you SARuger! I'm going to propose a contract that pays me for 40 hours a month and see what happens. I'll post up the outcome.
Well... so far... nothin. They won't even return my call. They seemed all hot under the collar to get me out there a week ago, and now can't even be bothered to tell be to bugger off. Nice.
Just wait. In 2 months from now they will want you to come out the same day or next day.
This forklift repair business is dog eat dog. Sometimes I get dispatched to a call, and two more forklift repair companies are already there arguing who gets the job. Some of the customers think its funny to call three of us and see who shows up first......until they get a bill for travel time plus a half hour on-site time. Most of the local fork lift repair companies are doing this now to curb the stupid behavior. We cut our PM times from 2 hours to 1 hour to reduce cost and try to gain more maintenance contracts but all it does is force the tech into doing a substandard job. Then when something is missed, or half done, they threaten to pull their business. Its a viscous cycle
That's messed up right there. I got zee-roh plans of doing that