are there a shortage of skilled fitters in UK?

nick... · Mar 15, 2018

I think many fitters at dealers learn their trade at the dealers expense an if they leave they have to reimburse these costs which is fair enough.also after they have the job there is little prospect of climbing the ladder.a service manager often had his or her job for years so little chance of doing that in the future.id imagine some might move on to be salesmen but thats about it really if they want to stay where they are.id imagine the pay is a set rate too regardless of age.for dealers to keep staff they probably want to pay them £20 hour on the books but this will put up dealers cost which then gets passed on to the farmer.there seems to be a lot of youngsters round here who have left dealers for various reasons and have lots of work.its all a big viscous circle.if farmers were doing well it may be differant but whilst we are all up against it we need to save where we can.cant see things ever changing.i know in the car trade that dealers get their apprentices trained up and then they get poached by the prestige dealers for a bigger wage.things will hever change from what i understand
Nick...

kiwi pom · Mar 15, 2018

What sort of money are mechanics at Ag dealers on?
No idea what they get here but the local Kenworth/DAF truck workshop was advertising the other day for a qualified mechanic 70 to 85k (NZ $) a year depending on experience, so around 40k in pounds probably about normal for here, not a bad wage depending on hours. Some of the kiwi tractor dealers used to advertise for UK spanner men don't know if they can still get the visas though.

nick... · Mar 15, 2018

Think wage is in the region of £12 an hour on the books.self employed obviously dont get paid holidays,pension,sick pay or a vehicke supplied but i dont know if fitters are allowed to use vehicle outside work time
Nick...

wasted years · Mar 15, 2018

Cowabunga said:
Major shortage at the moment. One local dealer is looking for five extra people, mostly mechanics but also storemen and yardmen for three depots.
A reasonably sized multi-depot multi-brand car and pickup franchise is looking for as many people as they can find. Problem being, neither can find any good people.

What we could do is join with a major bloc of countries, some poorer than ourselves with spare labour and allow the spare labour to come in and fill the gaps.

Cowabunga · Mar 15, 2018

wasted years said:
What we could do is join with a major bloc of countries, some poorer than ourselves with spare labour and allow the spare labour to come in and fill the gaps.

Yes. Maybe i’ll Invent something called the EU and also get it to protect worker’s rights. Might get some skilled Poles, Latvians etc in to help, as long as they don’t undercut local labour rates.

wasted years · Mar 15, 2018

You should run for high office, Lord Cowabunga of Welshshire.

john432 · Mar 15, 2018

Massey Holland said:
It's not only the ag industry that is struggling to get good fitters.
It's going to get more difficult across other industries.
Money aside,manual labour is becoming frowned upon by the next generation.
What young lads are sitting on there BMX at the field gate dreaming of getting a drive of the tractor?none
How many young lads do I see call into the garage to have a look and see what's happening ,maybe even hand a few spanners?none
All the good fitters ,mechanics,that I know had a graw for it in early teenage years,be it messing about with banger cars,vintage tractors or lawn mowers ,it was for love of it.
I don't see any youngsters in my own area that have the slightest bit of interest,money won't bring that glint in the eye that a young lad has when he sparks up an old engine that hasn't ran for years.
If that interest isn't there ,they'll be no good anyway.

This sums up the situation.... and You can give a person any ammount of training and money... but if they dont have that inquisitive mind and a true intrest in how things work... and loads of common sense....their a wast of time , and will never make a good mechanic.

hally · Mar 15, 2018

johnboy 4610 said:
Manufacturers putting pressure on the dealers for warranty repair times which in turn passes to the man doing the the job in less than perfect conditions whilst getting earache from the end user.Then being charged out at £70 per hour or more and just getting £9 per hour if your lucky then expected to buy a van load of tools so in less things change it's only going to get worse.

If my local dealer is charging me £57/ hour whilst paying their fitters only £9/ hour they should be ashamed of themselves and it’s pretty self explanatory why they are short of staff.

DrDunc · Mar 15, 2018

Cowabunga said:
Yes. Maybe i’ll Invent something called the EU and also get it to protect worker’s rights. Might get some skilled Poles, Latvians etc in to help, as long as they don’t undercut local labour rates.

What a ridiculous idea.

We need to take back control of what we've never lost in order to lose everything we currently have.

Someone will be along shortly to say bollox I'm sure.

So what's the answer to keeping agricultural fitters in the trade?

john432 · Mar 15, 2018

hally said:
If my local dealer is charging me £57/ hour whilst paying their fitters only £9/ hour they should be ashamed of themselves and it’s pretty self explanatory why they are short of staff.

Yes but the skilled fitters with a bit of gumption go self employed, get a van and earn£ 35 + an hour for themselves! Maybe the £9 an hour fitters have an iq more suitable for staking shelves in a supermarket than working on complex machinery?

hally · Mar 15, 2018

hally · Mar 15, 2018

My point being there are a lot of very good ag dealers and fitters around here but if the dealers are only rewarding their staff at this level ( which I doubt ) it will always be an unsustainable business model. You couldn’t get farm labourers to give you a day for £9/ hour around here never mind a trained fitter/ technician.

Andrew · Mar 15, 2018

DrDunc said:
So what's the answer to keeping agricultural fitters in the trade?

More money. But that means either farmers have to pay more for workshop time or dealers take less cut. It also means warranty claims would be higher so new kit would be even more money.

The better solution would be to pay each fitter more without increasing the overall spend - i.e. less fitters -
Make kit massively more reliable therefore more profitable for farmers. Then each dealership only needs a couple of oil change fitters and 1-2 breakdown engineers who could be paid more.

Better solution for all or cloud cuckoo land?

stevedave · Mar 15, 2018

wasted years said:
What we could do is join with a major bloc of countries, some poorer than ourselves with spare labour and allow the spare labour to come in and fill the gaps.

We could then use that spare labor to inspect the businesses and enforce the waves of regulation that comes with this bloc of countries to ensure that we are kept in line and to make sure we are spending the money that we give to this bloc that they then give back to us after a cut in the right way. We could also give up our ability to do deals with other countries outside this bloc and best of all not have any say in how it is run or who by.

Cowabunga · Mar 15, 2018

DrDunc said:
What a ridiculous idea.

We need to take back control of what we've never lost in order to lose everything we currently have.

Someone will be along shortly to say bollox I'm sure.

So what's the answer to keeping agricultural fitters in the trade?

The answer is to have a more prosperous agriculture that can pay dealers a proper rate for the job.
Failing that, there may need to be some radical thinking where independent mechanics with low overheads would be factory trained as long as they bought genuine parts. That would herald the end of dealer’s as we know them and perhaps direct sales with part exchanges all going to auction.
Just a thought.

Gapples · Mar 15, 2018

Cowabunga said:
The answer is to have a more prosperous agriculture that can pay dealers a proper rate for the job.
Failing that, there may need to be some radical thinking where independent mechanics with low overheads would be factory trained as long as they bought genuine parts. That would herald the end of dealer’s as we know them and perhaps direct sales with part exchanges all going to auction.
Just a thought.

Claas at Saxham were using self employed techys 25 years ago. I'm not sure how the arrangement worked but the techys worked only for Claas but we're self employed, this enables them to probably double their wages at the time.
I don't know if employment laws allow this today ?

Pheasant Surprise · Mar 15, 2018

Gapples said:
Claas at Saxham were using self employed techys 25 years ago. I'm not sure how the arrangement worked but the techys worked only for Claas but we're self employed, this enables them to probably double their wages at the time.
I don't know if employment laws allow this today ?

I’d say the tax man cometh and said to them for all intents and purposes they are employees rather than self employed. In other words, sort it or we’ll be on your back from here on in. It’s a fine but definite line with employment law and HMRC

Happy · Mar 15, 2018

Cowabunga said:
The answer is to have a more prosperous agriculture that can pay dealers a proper rate for the job.
Failing that, there may need to be some radical thinking where independent mechanics with low overheads would be factory trained as long as they bought genuine parts. That would herald the end of dealer’s as we know them and perhaps direct sales with part exchanges all going to auction.
Just a thought.

Have none of you spotted Mr Gove is about 3 steps ahead of everyone on this?

Once the countryside is rewilded and all our food requirements imported there will be next to no need for farm mechanics in a few years time.

Recruitment crisis solved

DrDunc · Mar 15, 2018

Happy said:
Have none of you spotted Mr Gove is about 3 steps ahead of everyone on this?

Once the countryside is rewilded and all our food requirements imported there will be next to no need for farm mechanics in a few years time.

Recruitment crisis solved

And they said there were no benefits to brexit!

RobFZS · Mar 15, 2018

hally said:
If my local dealer is charging me £57/ hour whilst paying their fitters only £9/ hour they should be ashamed of themselves and it’s pretty self explanatory why they are short of staff.

i know of plenty of lads that were fedup of big dealers shitting on them with pay and conditions, so they setup on their own

are there a shortage of skilled fitters in UK?

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