Robinson Servicing
 

I have titled this Robinson servicing but its not restricted to Robinsons. I wondered if anyone could shed some light on the ridiculous way we pay for servicing in the UK or in my case Scotland. We seem to be charged a "fixed" price for a 50 or 100hr service BUT this fixed price is more than if we just paid the time at £x per hour plus parts. I have just bought an R44 from Belgium and the dealer over there simply charge the time and parts making the overall price much cheaper than here.

Normally when a "fixed" price is introduced it tends to be cheaper than if you were to pay by the hour but not in this case. I fully appreciate that we have to pay for servicing but surely this is a bit of a cartel?

Comments?

What counts is the maintenance standard. You can cost the work anyway you want.
What difference in price for a check are you talking about?
Years ago I quoted £950 for an annual on a Piper Saratoga.
I lost the work to another outfit that quoted £900.
Final bill to the owner £9,000, laughed fit to bust!!!!!!!!!!!

If you're not happy change your maintenance org, in my limited experience I've found it the otherway round, set cost checks often were lower than the actual rate we could have billed.

As an aside what do you pay to have your car maintained per hour, at a rough guess it's probably more than you pay for your 44. Puts things into perspective doesn't it.:=

It is actually more expensive to service a Jeep than an R44 if you follow the service schedule on both (except for the float bottle, which does not exist on a Jeep).

h-r:suspect:

This is interesting. How did you come up with that number? What year/model Jeep is that for, and in what region of the world? I assume that you're assuming that the dealership is paid to do all the service, is that right?

Thanks.

Watched Noel Edmonds on the box a number of years ago telling all his viewers that he paid less to have his helicopter serviced than his car.

At the time I was working on his helicopter and wasn't impresssed.

However it turned out that the labour rate at Air Hanson was less than the BMW dealerships in London.

I pay £430 (fixed price) plus the oil and filter £56.00, making a total of £486.00 exc VAT. My Toyota Landcruiser has just been serviced 40,000 miles £286.00 inc VAT. I think the point has been missed, a 50 hour service on an R44 should take no longer than 5 hours MAX. My maintenance company charge £50.00 per hour so why isn't it £250.00 plus the parts. As you go up to the 100 hour it obviously gets worse. Would be interesting to know what people are paying around the UK. I'm sure this will have been done in the past but an up to date list might be useful. Redeye I wish you were right!

I have a survey that is a bit out of date as I tendered an R44 maintenance contract a couple of years ago. There are some widely differing quoted rates (and actual rates) around the UK. Some companies quote 10 times the cost of doing a job that another equally well qualified (and licensed) engineer does.


h-r:suspect:


PS on the Jeep thing, I'm comparing the plated service rates 50/100 on a R44 -v- a Jeep dealers plated service rates for standard services. I know where I get most value ...



(ans: the heli service)

Redeye

I would be interested in a rerun of your survey if you ever do it again. I seem to remember who was the cheapest at the time but I suspect that it may be totally different now.

No plans to redo for now as my (our?) current maintenance providers do a good job on the work allocated to them and have a strong experienced team (12 mins from base).

I think there are people who come in lower on cost and those that come in higher on cost and lower on .... but there is a happy balance between cost, trust and quality.

h-r;)

So redeye how does my 50 hr price compare to what you pay?Or anyone else for that matter

I'd say it was within £10 of what I pay, and probably at the low end o the scale.

It's the things that are not in the FP that push the costs up.

My problem is not so much the cost but finding the manpower !
My maintenance centre has such a backlog I despair of ever flying again.

Australia is probably a lot different but when I was flying R22's I had a maintenance authority organised by the chief engineer of the maintenance provider to do my own 50 hrlys (Oil, filter, AD inspections) doesn't get any cheaper.

The point that I am trying to make here is this. If you get a guy in to decorate 1 of your 2 identical lounges and he tells you that he charges £20.00 per hour and it takes him 8 hours and charges you £160.00 then thats fine. If he comes back and says that he will give you a "fixed price" of £240.00 for doing the other lounge you would have something to say surely and this is my point.....is it just me:ugh:

If he has to estimate every job the price goes up because of the higher cost base. That is the basis of the unit of work pricing system. But if nobody is selling at variable pricing then you have nowhere to go.

Just out of interest you say the servicing cost is more than the hours spent on it. Is this quoted time or how long the machine was in the hangar?

I can only speak from the world of fixed wing servicing but we have to do paperwork (before and after the servicing) as well as time spent actually on the machine and there isn't just one person working on the aircraft.

Normally our hourly rate is well below on scheduled servicing. As others have said, how much would you pay to have a car serviced of a similar value - and it isn't a case of plugging it into a big black box and saying 'computer says no!'.

It should take around 5 hours max to do a 50hr on an R44. Some would say less. In the Heli servicing world they seem to quote "fixed prices" but these don't relate to the actual time spent working on the machine. ie 5 hours! I suspect that when these were introduced whenever it was, that tehy perhaps included repairing other things that were seen at the time, obviously up to a point, like perhaps replacing a bulb or tightening a belt, but now all these things are over and above the fixed price. Just seems a bit mad really!

Most establishments (certainly fixed wing) have a standard basic rate for scheduled servicing. In our world: 50hr, 150hr, Annual and Star Annual.

The cost quoted is for the inspections in accordance with the CAA Light Aircraft Maintenance Schedule (which exists for rotary stuff as well as fixed wing) CAP 411.

Any defect rectification, parts and labour for said defect rectification are charged on top of that. Pretty much as car servicing is done normally.

Totally understand, but why quote £50 per hour then charge £400 for a fixed 5 hour service( 50 hour)????:=