JDBurton,

Sometimes the customer needs to be educated on service labor. How often have you encounterd on conventional lift trucks a service labor rate of $50/hour when yours might be $80/hour (or something similar)? Often that's all the customer see is the $ difference. When in actuality, he may pay more for a repair because your techs can do the same service in 1/2 the time - do to training, etc.

Other issues that enters into the final bill - is travel time (aka service call charges - how do you treat them, etc. - lay it out to your customer(s) & force your competitors to to do the same.

For certain - service labors on forklifts is not standardardized in the US - NY, California etc are vastly different than here in the Atlanta area.

Major companies like Home Depot, Wal Mart, Lowes etc like to force the issue on standardized rates, stndard reantal charges, central billing, etc. (some of which is controlled/subsidised in various forms by the lift truck manufacture. manufactuer.)