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Oil Changes

To Count or Not to Count

When I ask Service Managers for their ELR and/or their Hours per RO, I am often asked � "Do you want me to include Oil Changes?"

My answer is always a resounding "YES!"

The reality is that we do lots of oil changes and you are only fooling yourself if you feel no need to count them into the overall mix.

If a Service Manager tells me that his department is running 3.2 hours per RO, my next question, unless they are one of the best Service Departments in the country, is always "And what is it when you include your oil changes in that number?"

Naturally, I next expect 101 reasons from the Service Manager as he/she attempts to justify to me why oil changes should not be included in the count.

My questions are "Why exclude them? Are they not part of your workload? Do they not represent a certain amount of RO�s? Do they not generate a certain amount of flat rate hours? Do you not charge a certain amount of labor for them?"

My opinion is that many Service Managers, Dealers, 20 Groups, etc. are looking for a reason to prove that they are better than they appear; therefore, why not eliminate the one factor that truly drops all of the statistics? Maybe we should exclude counting Tire Rotations - the ELR and Hrs/RO on those is also low.

Oil changes are a huge part of this industry--more so than any other individual service. Everyone does them--corner garages, used car lots, aftermarket chains and, of course, dealers. If the number one commonality between every one of the service providers in this industry is not important enough to count � what is?

Count them! When your ELR drops and your Hrs/RO drops after counting them � accept it!

If you choose not to count them, I have one word for you to think about� WEAK!