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How Is Business?

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Keith Browning

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How is everybody doing for work these days? I am in a rare spell of slowness. We usually always have work even if it's all crap, but we always have work... now I am even caught up on recalls on stock units and PDI's! /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/shocked.gif With all the Ford dealers closing down we have been doing okay but we haven't picked up any noticeable difference because of it. Sign of the times? I hate to say it but maybe it's time for a new recall do bring in some business but then again, in a week from now I could be eating those words and have trucks all over the yard! Funny thing is that a lot of our customers are busy these days so I am hoping that means these will be quite a few customers in the future with broken trucks and money in the bank... They all come back eventually. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crybaby2.gif

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Keith I was just talking to my back counter guy, his phrase for how slow it is and I quote "I'm getting secretary's !@#!?$! and it's getting wider sitting on this stool". As for the front counter it has been fairly steady but I would rather be up to my !@#!?$! and elbows in customers. Makes it a little easier to make the mortgage payment, and also the day doesn't seem to be as long.

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It's been pretty slow for the last few weeks at the shop on the good side it's given us a chance to catch up on shop stuff like putting the 07 service manuals on the shelves, up dating software, waxing my tool box, sent the tough-book out to get the usb port that nobody knows how it got broken fixed, ect.

So as is usually the case as soon as I told my buddy that I'll take in his truck that needs either an EGR cooler or head gasket(don't know yet) because I have put him off for over a month till I knew that I would have the time to devote to it and it wouldn't go to the other diesel "tech" /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rolleyes.gif in the shop ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE.... got a 7.3 with a cracked oil pickup, a 19 ft motor home towed from a dealer thats closing with a blown up V10 rods stuck through the pan, two towed no start cars, one towed wont move windstar, and the list goes on . I'm glad my buddy has other trucks ...

OH the other thing is as I walked past the shop truck yesterday I thought to my self that I should get the porter/shop helper to take the plow off, chance's are we are not gonna get any more snow this year it's March 14th.............now what the weather forecast like for tomorrow

/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/hitthefan.gif

"Snow...sleet and freezing rain. Snow and sleet accumulation of 2 to 4 inches. Brisk with highs in the mid 30s. Northeast winds 20 to 25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent."

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You guys are lucky. The slow "spell" at my former Ford store has been going on for about a year and a half now. I believe a lot of their problems are brought on by backwards thinking on management's part and lack of leadership for technicians.

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I sneaked out of the shop "early".... sneaked being redundant because the only people there to see me sneak out was the janitor crew. Just a little after 8PM....

 

I will admit that I was in Edmonton for the 6.4 school and I do have to play a bit of "catch-up".... 10 hour days are more normal than 12 or more, lately.

 

Winter is having one last kick at us but I expect break-up will be here soon and we should drop back to being booked only a few days in advance - until the summer crunch.

 

In the Alberta oil patch, slack periods rarely last more than two days,,, usually because something is going on oin the field and customers need their trucks - no matter how bad they run.

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Been slow here too the past couple weeks. We just came of a really busy period and it has seemed to die out. struggling to feed 3 diesel guys here, typical turns into a race to get up to dispatch to get other job before the other guy cause it might be the only one for the day.

 

I do have 2 jobs sitting in my bay waiting for parts which wont be here til monday. oil rail on one and 3 lousy dowlpins and a front cover kit to finish my short block job. gotta love the late model replacement parts in an 04. another dealer replaced the heads a few months back with the updated 06kits and it got the stepped dowls, now I had it for a noise and found #6 hole scored(suspect broken ring) and I have a late model replacement short block that needs the bigger 20mm pins which no one has!! all I have is stepped pins! then I pulled the front cover off to find something had gone through the front cover and gerotor pump so I gotta wait for one of those! frustrating!

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I wish we would slow down ! We still have PDI's from early December that havn't been looked at ! The truck shop is logged jammed with no room, and I have been stealing bays in the car shop, 1 for my 6.4 engine job, and 1-2 bays for for quick in and outs. It really helps when the 2 primma donnas have never worked on anything electronic before starting here, but know everything about everything!!

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I sell and service a lot of collision repair shops, fleets and installer shops. We have a a decent March so far. January and February were record months. Tax time is hear and that usually presents a slow down. All the business owners must have to pay. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rolleyes.gif

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