Question if you charge each customer a standard travel time from the depot as if the tech always sets off from their to go to his site regardless where he comes from is that not the easy and fair way to do it then ever one knows exactly what is going on. The customer cannot be expected to pay for travel from another site because it could be quarter of an hour one week and two hours the week after depending where the tech is traveling from.
Also don`t know if this is a can of worms or not but who should pay for travel back!!

We have a policy of billing travel hours to a job from shop to shop. Our techs are expected to be on duty at 7:30am. If they live an hour from the shop and thir first call is an hour from their house then the travel aligns with the actual billed time. The discrepencies start when a tech lives close to a bunch of customers and he makes 3 stops in the morning. Technically he can charge each customer for 2 hours of travel. We tell our techs to split the travel time up amongst the customers to make it fair. If there is a breakdown that causes a tech to drop what he is doing and travel an hour to the breakdown then the customer pays all the travel. Basically it boils down to fairness.We ask our techs to work 42.5 hours a week and be on duty 8.5 hours a day.
A dishonest tech will not last long because the customers will complain if they feel they are being cheated. Most techs we have do more than is asked of them and appreciate the perks they get i.e. vehicle and fuel. Sometimes we get complaints about excessive time but usually we resolve them after the tech gives his report and explains that the customer requested that he drive back to the shop to pick up a part or was called off a job to fix a breakdown. I do agree that billing 10 and working 8 is theft. Any respectable establishment would not do this for fear of losing a customer. I was a tech for many years both on the road and in the shop. Customer / tech trust is something that is earned. Stealing time would break that trust.

As an answer to your question, if your techs are working 6 and billing 8, they are **** over their customers. Put yourself in the customers shoes. Would you accept this if it was a repair to your car maybe? I would'nt.

Its called ghost time and everybody tries to get away with it on road service repairs. When I say everybody I mean the service managers and the shady techs. Heck, most companies I have worked for encourage their guys to overbill customers, some even giving out monthly incentives for it. Some thing customers can do is if they know their service provider has GPS on the vans, ask for the print-outs for their repair, demand it.

I think you find that most medium size to large Dealer will try to control everthing in this Day and age. With the electronics of today IE the computer, the Cell Phone, and the GPS systems. the Dealer are collecting there share. They charge Travel to and from the customer every chance they get. They know where the tech is all the time. If there work order system is Tied to the computer and a GPS theres not Much a Tech can change. As for hours billed travel to one area and work at 3 or 4 differnt customer does make the Tech any more money in most cases. But the dealer does bill all 3 or 4 customer the same Travel. An if you ask them that's their Right. Some Even charge a computer hook up charge of a $25.00 to $35.00 So if you think that Tech are getting benifits what is the Dealer Getting. He save uses less gas, and sometime the computer they are charging the hookup for is owned by the Tech. So who is the winner.!!!

If it could be proven without a shadow of a doubt the tech was stealing time fire him. What goes on in the office is beyond me and the best I can do is make it up to the customer.

How about a standard call out charge for all customers? On some you will gain and some you will lose, but average breaks even. Just a thought.

How about the tech that puts noon to 3 on wo including travel and service manager ads 1 hour because the tech did the job too quick, in his mind anyway. Or he knows that the tech was accross the street the call before and it is a 1 hour travel to this customer. Only the dealer makes out then. Techs that bust their tail get nothing in return for hard work, except the rath of the customer and the bull from the office.

Well I must point out that that auto repair places bill by the job...
It may only take a mechanic 20 minutes, but the book says 4 hrs. Thats what they bill.
I do know that some large forklift customers have negotiated rates off fo the warranty labor codes.. and it's possible for a tech to bill more hours than they worked... The dealer makes out thats for sure.

gotcha, sorry I am so dense sometimes... I will blame this one on a lack of coffee so far this morning.

edward, I was being sarcastic. I meant the mechanic is there for 2 hours and they get the invoice and it says 3 hours labor. Most customers don't have any idea how or what the forklift needs to get fixed but they sure can look at the clock and watch how long you're there, and watch how hard you are working. I know some of my customers do that. If I "goof off" on the job, as in talking to workers or even the management, that time is not billed. Some dealers around here have been easlily caught with this over billing labor hours, or worse, and it doesn't go over too big at all.

mrfixit, I am not sure I understand your logic or math or message, (one of them anyway) between 1pm and 3 pm is only 2 hours. are you sarcastically saying that the customer should not mind paying an hour when no one was there? or is it that you meant to type a 12 noon and missed the second number for an actual 3 hours on site?

The tech walks in at 1:00, walks out at 3:00, and you get a bill for 3 hours labor. Excellent way to keep customers.

Crown has a policy where they bill the custmer on the half hour and use the gps on the van to hold the technican to on five minutes this allows for them stealing from the customer as well as the tech. example finish job at 8:35 call in and close that order then the customer pays one hour for 35 minutes work the tech has to clock time at 8:40 crown gets 20 min free money. 6 calls in a day = paying tech 8 hours billing custooers 10

I think if you work 8 hours then you bill 8 hours. If you work 6 hours, and go home, then you bill 6 hours. If the job is 2 hours drive each way from the office and you have to pass the shop to go home, and you work 4 billing hours, then the 4 hours traveled get billed to whomever the customer is.
I have no question that billing for 8 hours and working 6 equals theft of what ever 2 hours labor costs, from whomever it is billed to,
I also have no question that it is theft if 2 customers get billed for for the exact same techs exact same time frame, so you can not bill 2 different customers for the same travel time, even if your billing is "portal to portal" but instead of returning to your shop you go on to the next customer, only 1 customer can be expected to pay for that time.
Just because time is an "intangible item" does not mean that it can be expected to be somehow different than a tangible item, as far as how it is sold. (you can only sell 1 lamp to 1 customer, and you can only sell that 1 time block to 1 customer)