Main dealers fitters

merino

Member
Location
The North East
I don't get why people need to feel valued/ wanted ? You are getting paid for the job so what's the issue? Man up , get it done, draw your pay and enjoy spending it.
Well that's the thing isn't it? Wages have been pretty flat most of the last decade, there's an argument that as a result people aren't paid, or at least won't feel paid.
 

Tubbylew

Member
Location
Herefordshire
Main dealer fitter cane to change a reaction arm on a challenger. First job in a few years from them. Was told a four hour on farm job plus mileage. Turns up at 11 with the arm that was for the wrong side. He took it apart while I went for the other side. Two hour round trip. Still working on stripping the arm out when I returned as he’d gone to town to get subways for lunch. Didn’t think to say anything as he finally got it back together by five. Got the bill and was charged from 8 in the morning until 645. Apparently unloading the arm and cleaning his truck out of special tools was part of the job. Very expensive four hours job and paying for lunch run at full service charge rates make me want to stand and watch.
I do sympathies a bit, but it's the same for all types of mechanics/fitters, the job is 60 % fitting and 40% fecking about looking for/making tools dealing with incorrect parts, fault finding, imo dealers should be realistic and account for it, but somone has to pay the bloke fecking about he isn't doing it for fun. Unless the main dealer get out of the habit of charging the farmer an exorbitant rate and giving the bloke doing the work a pittance.
 

Tubbylew

Member
Location
Herefordshire
I don't get why people need to feel valued/ wanted ? You are getting paid for the job so what's the issue? Man up , get it done, draw your pay and enjoy spending it.
Thats fine if your being paid enough, but when your watching "cheap" labour feck the machine you've just fixed, and you realise that he is on more money than you, it isn't much encouragment to buy the tools and get the training for what is, nowadays, a very skilled and complicated job.
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
We had a fitter out from a main dealer last week He has been in the job for twenty years and told me he is leaving the industry after harvest . He had many reasons , pay being one but also the fact he did not feel valued or respected . He sited on example , on the dealers web site there is a "Meet the team" page where all the directors , sales and admin have a picture and a bit about them but there is nothing about the service staff
What he said got me thinking so tonight i've been on a few dealers web sites and very few have any fitters on there web pages It may seem a trivial thing and some fitters maybe don't want their face on the web site . But it obiously made this guy feel under valued and as he said we are the only one working evenings and weekends
It seems that some of the most important jobs that society needs are looked down on. How often do you hear on the radio about working in the office or the office party as though it the only place people work
I actually noticed this the other day when trying to find a fitters number from a big dealership, no service staff on the website
 

Fendt516profi

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Yorkshire
Thats fine if your being paid enough, but when your watching "cheap" labour feck the machine you've just fixed, and you realise that he is on more money than you, it isn't much encouragment to buy the tools and get the training for what is, nowadays, a very skilled and complicated job.
Was talking to a man who recently left the trade. He was charged out at over £65/hr but paid £11/hr. He had a long torque bar in his hand and asked me how much I thought it cost him (£350) so most of a week's wage gone on one tool. Could understand the rates if they were supplying there workers with the tools
 

Hilly

Member
Was talking to a man who recently left the trade. He was charged out at over £65/hr but paid £11/hr. He had a long torque bar in his hand and asked me how much I thought it cost him (£350) so most of a week's wage gone on one tool. Could understand the rates if they were supplying there workers with the tools
Aye the boss buys the tools that’s a good one ! eBay would melt 😂
 
When buying a new machine I put back up fitters as the most important consideration, going all the way down to directors, who I couldn't give a sh1t about, because as I have experienced, they don't give one about the customer. I am talking large companies, not your small family firm, who I prefer to deal with.
 

Tubbylew

Member
Location
Herefordshire
If everyone got paid lots n lots they won’t end up any better off , put them minimum wage up to 3k a week within months their will be no more disposable than today .
Nobody is expecting to be paid like a brain surgeon, but there needs to be enough pay in the job to attract decent enough intelligence, to not turn equipment worth many thousands of pounds into expensive paperweights. It isn't really an issue of what farmers are charged tbh. because they are charged plenty as it is, it's more the fact that the dealers pay the fitters feckall in comparison.
 

Tubbylew

Member
Location
Herefordshire
I didn't say the boss should buy the tools. I said I'd understand the rate they charge better if they were buyin the tools but the man getting £11/hr is
I've worked in place where all tools were supposed to be provided, it was all good 50 years ago when quality was the only thing you could buy. Another place had a replacment policy if you broke your kit, I can see the dilema if the boss bought all the kit it would end up lost or nicked, but (for example) you wouldn't take a job as a bus driver and be expected to supply your own bus.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
I've worked in place where all tools were supposed to be provided, it was all good 50 years ago when quality was the only thing you could buy. Another place had a replacment policy if you broke your kit, I can see the dilema if the boss bought all the kit it would end up lost or nicked, but (for example) you wouldn't take a job as a bus driver and be expected to supply your own bus.

It could be suggested that the customer is expected to trust the fitter to fix the tractor and not cause damage in the process.....but they aren't trusted not to be a theif?

If a business doesn't trust the employees not to steal from it, then that's a pretty poor state of affairs all round. Same logic as your example - surgeons, doctors, dentists etc. All use tools in their job....how many of those businesses would think to suggest the employees would steal those tools?

Plenty of employees run the till, take cash from customers etc.

I'd be saddened as an employee if the business employing me considered me in that way.
 

Campbell

Member
Location
Herefordshire
The Ag machinery business is unique. Supplying such a vast range of expensive kit, and then to be fully conversant with all the service and repairs required. I can't think of many other businesses that would take that on. You certainly do need to have an engineers/farming instinct to be able to deal with all this kit as well as dealing with the 'customers'. From simple hay tedders to top end combines and tractors all supplied and serviced from the same company. Specialist one product manufacturers/dealers obviously have a big advantage when it comes to service, so you really can't compare the two. In previous times, new employees went around with the service engineer, hopefully learning the trade, before manufacturer service training came along. It's a funny old world when the practical type folks in overalls, that keep the world operating, aren't always well rewarded...
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
The Ag machinery business is unique. Supplying such a vast range of expensive kit, and then to be fully conversant with all the service and repairs required. I can't think of many other businesses that would take that on. You certainly do need to have an engineers/farming instinct to be able to deal with all this kit as well as dealing with the 'customers'. From simple hay tedders to top end combines and tractors all supplied and serviced from the same company. Specialist one product manufacturers/dealers obviously have a big advantage when it comes to service, so you really can't compare the two. In previous times, new employees went around with the service engineer, hopefully learning the trade, before manufacturer service training came along. It's a funny old world when the practical type folks in overalls, that keep the world operating, aren't always well rewarded...

There are still some apprentices. Had one out last week with a fitter to fix a tractor. Happy to see younger people coming into the job.....just hope I don't get billed 2x the labour for the job as a result.
 

Hilly

Member
The Ag machinery business is unique. Supplying such a vast range of expensive kit, and then to be fully conversant with all the service and repairs required. I can't think of many other businesses that would take that on. You certainly do need to have an engineers/farming instinct to be able to deal with all this kit as well as dealing with the 'customers'. From simple hay tedders to top end combines and tractors all supplied and serviced from the same company. Specialist one product manufacturers/dealers obviously have a big advantage when it comes to service, so you really can't compare the two. In previous times, new employees went around with the service engineer, hopefully learning the trade, before manufacturer service training came along. It's a funny old world when the practical type folks in overalls, that keep the world operating, aren't always well rewarded...
My son is apprentice ag engineer and he goes around with the engineer in the van , he’s very lucky lad that he has some very good lads to learn his trade off.
 

Fendt516profi

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Yorkshire
Nobody is expecting to be paid like a brain surgeon, but there needs to be enough pay in the job to attract decent enough intelligence, to not turn equipment worth many thousands of pounds into expensive paperweights. It isn't really an issue of what farmers are charged tbh. because they are charged plenty as it is, it's more the fact that the dealers pay the fitters feckall in comparison.
Do brain surgeons buy their own scalpels
 

Tubbylew

Member
Location
Herefordshire
It could be suggested that the customer is expected to trust the fitter to fix the tractor and not cause damage in the process.....but they aren't trusted not to be a theif?

If a business doesn't trust the employees not to steal from it, then that's a pretty poor state of affairs all round. Same logic as your example - surgeons, doctors, dentists etc. All use tools in their job....how many of those businesses would think to suggest the employees would steal those tools?

Plenty of employees run the till, take cash from customers etc.

I'd be saddened as an employee if the business employing me considered me in that way.
Plenty of employees have their hands in the till as well, it's a sad state of affaires but it's the way the world seems to be.
 

Flatlander

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lorette Manitoba
I actually noticed this the other day when trying to find a fitters number from a big dealership, no service staff on the website
friend had a fitter doing some jobs on his combine and was hinting about some out of hours work and was told that the company phones are monitored and msgs are also sent to another phone linked to the fitters phone. Service trucks have gps to see where they are at all times.
 

Tubbylew

Member
Location
Herefordshire
friend had a fitter doing some jobs on his combine and was hinting about some out of hours work and was told that the company phones are monitored and msgs are also sent to another phone linked to the fitters phone. Service trucks have gps to see where they are at all times.
I know a chap who wrote off the works van doing foreigners on a sunday, bet that took some explaining.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • Up to 25%

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  • 25-50%

    Votes: 27 15.7%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 3 1.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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