http://www.canadiantechnician.com/forum/index.cfm?forumid=1 FuseTalk Standard Edition http://www.canadiantechnician.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=2380 2010-04-30T14:22:41 -05.00 msog 4
What does everyone else do? And what seems to work and why. My best is still word of mouth. ]]> http://www.canadiantechnician.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=2355 2010-03-02T14:41:51 -05.00 saltech 13 I am looking for an oil supplier to get the cost of oil purchasing down.Considering going bulk but have very limited space and as a new shop start up, don't have the volume yet to warrant large oil tanks.
Any suggestion in southern Ontario who has good pricing on engine oil and other lubricants?Would consider 208L drums or any other option.
Thanx in advance for your input. ]]> http://www.canadiantechnician.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=2342 2010-02-09T14:24:40 -05.00 caliber 11 I am hoping to find a good shop for one of my good clients who has just moved to Vancouver. If you can please post your shop contact information here (or PM me) that would be great! He currenly drives an Acura TL and has always maintained all of his vehicles. Sad to see him go.

Thanks. ]]> http://www.canadiantechnician.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=2341 2010-02-08T22:13:33 -05.00 caliber 1 I have been away from CT for a while, mostly due to the fact that we decided to switch to Protractor management and accounting software (months of training). It has been one of the best things we could have done for our company.

More importantly we have hooked up with a book keeper who spetializes in the protractor software. She offers complete remote office administration. This has removed an enormous amount of stress from our business, and has afforded me the time to build relationships!
We are a small 5 employee shop including myself and my wife who used to do the books. We both had a hard time letting go but the books were eating up ALL of our spare time (we also have three small children) Needless to say it was hard to catch up. Then... we went from our "loose" management software, which allowed us to shortcut the system which then created more work later. (a visious cycle) Fast forward to the present... We are now current we went live with "protractor" in October. We are now held accountable at the front counter, this came with some shortfalls. I was no longer available to spend the time required with each client and I felt like I was letting them down. From a referral we found "Julie Vale, office administration" ALL of our book keeping stress is GONE! It is brilliant! we courier our weekly statements along with the closed signed invoices and POS statements, they are resposible for all of our GL entries They do payrole,payables, recievables they do it all. All we have to do is recieve parts onto the work orders post them to payables and manage our returned goods bin. DONE, now when I get home there is no paperwork to do None.

If your business uses Protractor or Mitchel manager enterprise and you can relate and struggle with keeping on top of your books it would be in good interest to contact this company. I can assure you you will not be dissapointed!

Located in Penhold Alberta (just outside of Red Deer)
Julie Vale, business manager/office administrator.
julievale@shaw.ca
1-403-396-6509 ]]> http://www.canadiantechnician.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=2333 2010-01-24T09:02:55 -05.00 Bilmac 5 http://www.canadiantechnician.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=2318 2010-01-09T13:40:28 -05.00 Rick 5 I am currently having a lot of troubles with Royal Bank and am thinking of switching banks.
My priorities for a bank are
1. service
2. accessability
3. rates
What are your experiences and thoughts?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Rick. ]]> http://www.canadiantechnician.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=2310 2009-12-28T21:22:46 -05.00 rocketscientist 8 I was asked by the boss today to check the suspension on a Toyota
Tercel that was on the apprentices' hoist for loose parts.
The tie rods, ball joints, and bushings were all good, but the
left front wheel bearing was veryloose.
I made up a quote to remove the knuckle, press in a new bearing,
and wheel align. The boss cleared it with customer, and I started
taking it apart.
When I tried to remove the ball joint nut the nut did not come off
the taper! The nut and taper spun in the knuckle, rocking the
knuckle back and forth as it did so! When I went to tell the boss
about this hidden damage, he did not seem to happy.
My question is:
Is it reasonable to expect this kind of damage to be found when
checking a suspension for worn parts? The taper did not move in the
knuckle when I checked it out, when I tried to remove it it alternates between tight and loose as I attempt to turn it.
]]> http://www.canadiantechnician.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=2296 2009-12-08T18:36:39 -05.00 msog 3
Who is charging for test drives and do you charge your normal rate or your diagnostic rate?

Do you charge a diagnostic time for when your Techs access your info program or go on line to CT, IATN or Identafix and if so is it time spent or do you have a standard charge?

How many shops send each Tech for minimum 40hrs training each year and management end does 40hrs of training each year as well. Next is the budget for this training, I figured out that it would be around $22,000.00 a year minimum for top notch not a waste of time courses. I know that this year I have not trained as much as I should or normally do for both myself and my Techs. But the top notch courses have not been readily available in our field this year either.

When some one asks you how long that job takes, do you answer in Hrs or say that we charge X-amount for that job?

Just a few things that would be interesting to discuss.

]]> http://www.canadiantechnician.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=2285 2009-11-21T11:01:52 -05.00 warpedredneck 4 are there course' that are acceptable?
when i first got into the trade most of my sm's were old tech's,
the last few sm's had no actual mechanical experience,
thanks folks
jeff ]]> http://www.canadiantechnician.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=2281 2009-11-17T00:58:37 -05.00 chad 15 Chad ]]>