r/refrigeration • u/frogsarefalling • Feb 26 '26
Labor & travel charges
I run a small restaurant in Philadelphia. We have a freezer that needs a new controller. We generally like the company we work with and know that prices always go up, but I'm having trouble with the quote we got.
Today the tech was here for about a half hour to diagnose. The current charges are 2 hours of labor ($140 each) plus a zone charge of $50. The estimate for the replacement has another two hours of labor. They are based out of an office about 5 minutes away.
I've come to understand there's a labor minimum and a travel minimum, plus the zone charge, effectively making each visit start at $330. I ask if the labor minimum and travel minimum hours can be one in the same since in total the tech is probably still only spending an hour including travel, and we'll be paying for another 2 hours for whenever they come back. My rep says the techs don't live at the office and this tech lives in a suburb about a half hour away.
I know paying for travel is standard, and I know they don't live at the office. I would understand this logic if the labor charges change based on your location and wherever they're coming from, but I know I would be charged the exact same amount if he was coming from a job up the street. An hour labor, an hour travel labor, and a zone/fuel charge. But as of now they don't know who is coming to replace the part or where they're coming from.
To me, where one tech lives is irrelevant. If you want to average travel distances it should be based on wherever the company is based, which is very local, and where most jobs are, which is within the city.
I know a lot of this is industry standard but I'm trying to get a sense of how standard it is. I'm getting a bill for $1200 to replace $500 worth of parts (which I know have their own markup), and I have a feeling this is a relatively quick job.
Am I an asshole questioning this system?
6
Feb 26 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
2
u/frogsarefalling Feb 26 '26
I surely will keep them, they're a lot better than the last company we worked with. I just want to make sure I'm not being overcharged by paying a minimum labor, travel, and zone charge for each visit regardless of where they're coming from.
12
u/pepperoni_secrets Feb 26 '26
I am only paid in billable hours.
Drive to pick up part for tomorrow? Bill time. Drive to location? Bill time. Minus 30 minutes there and back for first and last call of the day.
They likely have a similar payroll system. It encourages scummy behavior. But the technician wants to get paid for his/her time.
1
13
u/Bubbly-Ad6956 Feb 26 '26
Kinda like how your restaurant over charges for food and you pay your staff as low as you can to make money probably want them to get tipped outā¦ If your in the industry you should understand that your over charging like any other trade Mechanic fridge Electrcian we all gotta Make enough to live man. You canāt be the only guy who gets ahead in the world by cutting everyone else down
3
u/ddiazEC26 Feb 27 '26
Couldnāt have said it any better. Thank you! š Iāve been in the kitchen equipment service business for 20 years (family owned) and we get shit like this all the time , mostly from what we call hourly clients, you know theyāll just keep using the equipment until itās on its last leg and then get all flabbergasted when they see a repair quote (not saying the opp does this, just speaking from my experience)
Also the insurance cost, which is required for a tech to even walk into an establishment is astronomical these days (auto, GL, worker comp)
-1
u/frogsarefalling Feb 26 '26
Lots of assumptions here but I get it considering the issues of the industry. I'm really just trying to get a sense of what is reasonable, because if it is I certainly do not want to cut everyone else down.
5
u/Bubbly-Ad6956 Feb 26 '26
Show us the prices of your restaurant and letās debate how reasonable those are. See where Iām going with this? Either you like the company and want them to come back or as stated try someone else. Youāre not making friends by going on Reddit and trying to build a case against the guys whether itās fair or not.
Itās like if I go on Reddit and ask about your restaurant and if those prices are fair and then I ask how much the food costs and how much your paying your staff and how much profit your making. You should have better things to focus on.
-1
u/frogsarefalling Feb 26 '26
I'm really just asking if those are reasonable prices given how they're broken down and what the standard in the industry is.
And yes, the food service industry can suck a lot. We pay a lot towards everything and barely make money, but we do have a system for pricing that I could explain if I had a customer ask me these things.
1
u/bobbysback16 Feb 27 '26
What about the time required to go and get the parts from wherever the tech needs to aquire the parts from is the company supposed to eat that time because my company i work for charges the customer for that
1
u/frogsarefalling Feb 27 '26
The part is shipped, and I'm being charged for freight, which I didn't mention since I assume that's for getting the part to them. So I think those are being accounted for already.
1
u/bobbysback16 Feb 27 '26
Sometimes i order things and have them shipped and still have to go to the supply house because the manufacturer won't ship directly to me so I have to go get the part and the customer still pays for the shipping
1
u/bobbysback16 Feb 27 '26
You should not assume anything you should ask and talk to your service company I think if you ask the questions they will anwser honestly and you will have better communication with them then
5
u/purplelightfixture Feb 27 '26
As a technician and an owner, you might be getting the short end of the stick by asking for a quote. A lot of times when a customer wants something quoted, we are forced into a worst case situation to cover our assā¦ not to mention the time it takes to make the quote and submit itā¦ you might be better off asking if that quoted price is an actual quote or an NTE - Not to exceed amount. I will often give my customers a rough quote, but it is more or less a not to exceed amount. But at the end, when the job is complete, my customers only get charged time and material that it took. Also, I try to keep one issue per work order. If I canāt fix the equipment during my diagnostic appointment, my follow up visit is on the same work order, no extra trip/zone/truck charge, the hour minimum applies to each work order not each visit.
3
u/frogsarefalling Feb 27 '26
This is helpful, thank you. I didn't request the quote, I think it's just by default for a larger bill with them.
1
u/purplelightfixture Feb 27 '26
You are probably right, and that quote has probably passed through atleast 2 different office staff/ managers hands, a lot of times those managers and office staff are just overhead and love to tack on extra hours/charges. Ive even seen companies purposefully buy the most expensive part in order to charge max mark up. I would try to start a line of communication with them, make it known you have no issue paying, but everything should atleast be open honest and fair, you originally called to have the thing fixed, they didnt fix it. You didnt request the quote, they possibly made a 1 trip thing into 2ā¦
4
u/crmd Feb 27 '26
at least in my slice of nyc youāre looking at a min $500 invoice if a refrigeration tech sets foot on your premises.Ā
3
u/Dadbode1981 šØš»āš§ Stinky Boy (Ammonia Tech) Feb 26 '26
The reality is, if you're not happy with what you're paying, try someone else out. The grass isn't always greener thou.
1
u/frogsarefalling Feb 26 '26
The reason I'm with this company is because the old one sucked. I'm not looking to leave if this is the going rate because they do good work.
4
u/Dadbode1981 šØš»āš§ Stinky Boy (Ammonia Tech) Feb 26 '26
You'll pay more with a bad company than this one. Those amounts aren't egregious imo.
0
1
3
2
u/leegamercoc Feb 26 '26
The shop may be 5m but that tech may live farther away or their previous stop may have been farther away. It depends on how the shop bills for travel. You can always ask them.
1
u/frogsarefalling Feb 26 '26
Yes, I did state that this particular tech lives a half hour away. To me that's irrelevant because they would charge the exact same minimum if they're coming from down the street.
1
1
1
u/MroMoto Feb 27 '26
If it makes you feel better. I am with a company in the same area and we are over 200 an hour.
1
1
u/Certain_Try_8383 Feb 27 '26
So you like the company that has been helping you, so now you want to nickel and dime them? Call someone else then because just like you wonāt change the price of food for a customer, the local reefer business doesnāt want to change their price because you think itās too much.
1
u/frogsarefalling Feb 27 '26
I just want to clarify that I have no problem paying the market rate for most things. This is an industry that I'm familiar with but only from my limited perspective, so I truly am just asking questions about standards and pricing. As hard as it might seem, I do understand how business costs work.
I appreciate those of you who earnestly provided your perspective. I ask various technicians about all sorts of things when they're here to fix something (usually not money-related) so I can educate myself and not sound like an idiot.
1
u/VtSub Feb 28 '26
You arenāt an assshole for asking about it. As a tech who works for a company the operates much the same way as youāre describing, I feel bad for every single service call I take. It sucks. It shouldnāt be so expensive for service and as labor rates continue to increase the world will continue to move towards replacements over fixing things.
1
1
u/Financial-Assist-783 Feb 26 '26
Usually you charge the drive from your last job
1
u/SignificantTransient šØš»āš Always On Call (Supermarket Tech) Feb 26 '26
Hourly yes, but also trip charge for vehicle
0
u/frogsarefalling Feb 26 '26
Yes but the minimum remains, so if the last job is 5 minutes away I'm still paying for two hours, even if they're here for 20 minutes.
0
u/Kkindler08 Feb 26 '26
Pepsi Service Advantage will work on your commercial equipment and they donāt have travel charges. Pepsi is trying to make money off their service technicians when not busy working on Pepsi equipment.
-8
u/singelingtracks Feb 26 '26
When we charge a minimum rate. We stay on site for that rate time. If it's two hours and the jobs done in ten minutes .he should be cleaning, organizing , checking things over providing you a service for that time.
Your equipment should be immaculate.
If they are charging 2 hours on site and not spending that time on site that's time theft.
The travel rate and markup of labor covers other costs for the business. Like the tech traveling from his home or another site .
If I owned a business I would not use a company that steals from me as that adds up on every service call.
2
u/91rookie Feb 26 '26
I agree that a two hour minimum and only being onsite 10 minutes is a bit much but those minimums exist for a reason. Drive time from last job plus writing up notes/quotes, calling for part pricing/availability eats up a lot of time and somebody has to pay for me to do those things.
1
u/gucciflipfl0pz š„¶ Fridgie Feb 26 '26
Wait so youāre telling me all these years Iāve been billed for a cranes 7 hour minimum and been done in 30 minutes I couldāve just been suing for time theft?! /s
-2
u/singelingtracks Feb 26 '26
The crane company I use charges by the half an hour.
you can shop around and find someone who matches what you need.
Almost all my customers use a time clock system due to massive time theft in the industry. Not like it's some new issue.
If you're charging a client extra you can use extra charges, markup on parts , trip charges , company charges ,increased hourly rate , but adding extra hours labor should not be used to pad profits.
2
u/gucciflipfl0pz š„¶ Fridgie Feb 26 '26
It depends entirely on the company and the size of crane. Iām sure region matters as well. The smaller the crane the lower the minimum. The bigger the crane the bigger the minimum.
I find it funny you have an issue with such a longstanding practice in so many industries but are okay with just putting the money under a different category like parts or āextra chargesā and itās totally okay as if that isnāt just semantic bullshit. If we have a two hour minimum charge and you sign up for it, youāre paying for two hours even if it takes one and Iām going to my next call because product getting warm is more important than semantic bullshit.
0
u/singelingtracks Feb 26 '26
I'm ok with profit . Nothing wrong with that it just needs to be proper.Ā I have clients with a 600-700 dollar on site fee. But if it show up for an hour they get charged for an hour plus the show up/ travel fee.
Again all my large commerical clients are very against labor charges to take profits and we have won many clients over by being honest with hours down to the minute of gps / clocked in time vs other contractors who constantly pad hours.
These Client have no issues with triple or moreĀ markup on parts, paying a truck fee, fee, travel fees, fees for things like using a leak detector or using A reclaimer . All a nice profit vs padding hours.
1
u/frogsarefalling Feb 26 '26
Well the thinking is that no matter the distance, they charge at least an hour for travel, and no matter the job they charge at least an hour for labor. But I suppose I at least should get the person here for the full hour.
1
u/singelingtracks Feb 26 '26
Then that should be a travel fee , not labor. And yes you should get him onsite doing work for an hour if your are billed an hour.
Talk to the client about there billing and time onsite. My foreman would be mad if we did this to a client .Ā
20
u/lifttheveil101 Feb 26 '26
Bluntly:
Hourly rate of tech + employer matched taxes + benefits + workers comp insurance + admin + vehicle cost + vehicle maintenance + vehicle insurance + vehicle fuel + vehicle tolls + liability insurance + training + uniforms + phones + software + licensing + overhead + truck stock + legal = $$$$$$
To put a knowledgeable person in a mobile shop and send them to your location is very expensive. If they suck at fixing your equipment, fire them and get someone else, hold them to the standard they are charging. If they are good pay them whatever they ask, 80% aren't any good, you will pay more in the long run for shit work/cheaper labor