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Are your staff stealing from you? Controversial and I hear shouts from both the employer and employee side , If my staff stole I'd sack them and the employee's shouting " of course we don't steal" . Hear me out , Over the years I heard and seen so many examples and recently taken on 5 employee's overnight , Talking today to a parts delivery driver the conversation got onto staff and how different some people work, some just turn up and go, others actually understand what else is entailed rather than just turning up. Going back to when I was an apprentice in the late 80's I was told in my 1st few days how it works ,The service manager explained to me, " you start at 8.30 and finish at 5.15 , by start that means ready to start , not a case of clocking on putting your overalls on and then starting work, when I say finish 5.15 that means finishing the work , then washing your hands at 5.15, not driving off the premises at 5.15 " I remember those words well , and to make sure I was always at work around 8.15 latest , some of the experienced , long term mechanics pretty much stuck to the rules too, so it wasn't just 'us apprentices' and if someone was 5 minutes late they would lose quarter of an hour's pay. I was explaining to my staff how this was when I was a lad and I'm reasonably flexible , however the give and take has to be on both sides up to a point. So am I wrong when I tell them that they are stealing from me .... Last week 3 of them come into the kitchen to make a drink at 8.30, ... then them wonder into the workshop chatting away ..eventually at about 8.50 they decide to open the workshop doors and move a couple of cars , by the time they start to bring cars in for work its 9.00am. At the end of the day come 5.00pm they start to clear up and are ready to go at about 5.05 and on the dot 5.15 they are off. To me I've lost at least 20 mins each in the morning and 10 each in the evening , that's 30 minutes per day per person , that in a week is nearly a day's worth of work - wasted . My time I asked how would they feel if I deducted the wages at the end of each month for the hours not worked ? They didn't seem to understand that they were actually stealing from me! Thoughts ?

Workshop Heating I Know before you all tell me it summer ! Need to sort out heating the workshop I've recently acquired, it has a waste oil heater which I cannot use anymore due to environmental issues [ Have to pay £3500 per annum if I wish to continue using it ] what does everyone else use ? don't have gas , Just ordered new uniform for them told them I'd get extras fleece's but they don't like that idea. Any help /suggestions appreciated. Thanks Umesh

Just read this article , not sure if everyone has see it by Glass's Guide -AM interesting Reading , but what do you think? By Dr Richard Parkin It’s a competitive world in the used car sector, but despite the more positive news that the industry is predicted to grow this year, many dealers are still too focused on used car margins and aren’t paying enough attention to stock turn. Richard Parkin, Glass's Dr Richard Parkin is director of valuations & analysis at Glass’s, where he coordinates the editorial and analysis team. Prior to joining Glass’s in 2012, he spent six years as a strategy consultant at Ernst & Young, with a focus on the automotive industry. To maximise profitability, dealers should be focused on the profit made per forecourt space each week rather than on the margin made on a vehicle. Glass’s studied a basket of vehicles over the course of 2013, monitoring the trade and retail prices in each month for a three-year-old/36,000-mile example, along with the average selling days. Astonishingly, the typical difference between trade and retail prices in any given month varied by as much as 25%, or about £500 for a typical B segment car. However, once the average time elapsed between trade purchase and retail sale was allowed for, the actual achieved gross margin showed a more consistent picture. Such findings reinforce our view that trade and retail guide prices need to be derived from independently moving sources of data, otherwise this true behaviour is not captured. Why used car margins do not give dealers the full picture The chart, below, shows the trend in both the actual achieved gross margin and the profit per forecourt space per week for typical B and D segment cars. Glass's stock turn graph Notably, despite a broadly flat gross margin, the financial return on the B segment car to the dealer appears to have declined by about 40% over the course of 2013, from a rate of over £500 to just under £300 per forecourt space per week for a Ford Fiesta Zetec petrol as a consequence of a steady lengthening in the time needed to secure a buyer for such a car, most likely caused by the plethora of great new car deals for private buyers in that segment. By contrast and despite greater volatility, a typical D segment vehicle did not show the same level of decline, with a gross margin potential for a Vauxhall Insignia Exclusiv remaining around £600-£700 per week throughout 2013. However, “hidden discounting†through retail PCP deals has been less aggressive in this segment. It appears that dealers are unaware that the level of profits from certain vehicle segments has been in decline, and many have not adapted. This really brings into question what a dealer should be stocking; however, it will be necessary to stay ahead of the game as once enough dealers make the connection, prices and selling days will become less attractive as retail supply increases and consumer demand shifts elsewhere. Without the right data and systems, there is a real chance that the less informed dealer will be left with only the weaker opportunities.