Originally posted by SprayTech
Bob , they all run a close second...LOL

Its what is making the job harder to do any more as they have cut every operation you do down to nothing, no feather edge and prime time , no Block time ,no mix time , no cut and buff time , they even are trying to get more of a chunk taken off for blend time.
I look at an estimate today and it goes body time , paint time , i ought to just blow color right over the bondo one of these days and have the Insurance company come sell the job , and see what the customer says when I tell them this is exactly how your Insurance company estimated your repair !!!!!
around here the insurance companys are trying to say that all that what I just mentioned is included in the paint time ..........LOL
They are making it to where you cant make any money anymore.
And they wounder where all the good tech's are going , we are leaving the business !!!!

SprayTech
Well, it could be worse. You could be getting $34 an hour like the tri-county area of Detroit. Seriously, did you ever get additional time for all that stuff? I've been an appraiser for almost 20 years and never paid any of that. And I've never had a complaint until last week (1 shop). Now, I have been paying anywhere from 1.0 to 3.0 hours to rub & nub, but nothing else. I have never paid to cover a car, hazardous waste, etc. Still no complaints.

Now having said that, I also believe in being fair with the shop. I pay to detrim all panels painted (except urethaned quarter glass on blends), replace one time use mouldings, etc. I wrote my estimates this way the year I lived in St. Louis (wrote my repair time tighter due to higher labor rates) and still no complaints. And I've never heard of any good painters to be starving (for work or otherwise). Seriously, at $40 something an hour, is life really that bad?