I have been a mechanic in Michigan most of my life,but being an avid fisherman and hunter I have often wondered if moving,say somewhere approx 50mi outside of a major city in Canada,would be a wise thing to do.In Michigan,you are paid only on a commision basis and are required to be at the Dealership even if there is no work,I have sat on my tuff many aday in January and Febuary,due to the fact that people are trying to pay off their christmas debts and waiting to get their cars repaired until later on in the spring(also spring is when most of the retired people migrate back from Florida).If I wanted a job that was seasonal pay I would have gone into construction!I cant really blame the dealers for no work coming in the door,but requiring me to sit there all day twiddling my thumbs and not making a dime,just kills me.especially when it is a 100mi roundtrip to work and back!Any Canadian mechanics out there?How about you Mil1ion?You seem to be a guy with above average smarts(must be,being the administrator of the worlds greatest forum)!

 

FTE's Old Thumper, owns an auto repair shop in Red Deer(pop.100,000)
It gets quite expensive trying to keep up with the industry.
Analyzer's are not cheap ,he went with Snap-on's system.

Me ,I got 3rd year in 1971 and then cut out for something I loved to do instead, that decision ended up, costing me my health.

I do know lots of people thart work on their own trucks & cars in their own garages beside the house.

 

Well, you could easily move to someplace 50 miles away from a big city. I guess you would have to get used to the commute. I'll use my "city" for an example.

Vancouver. 50 miles away going east is Mission. Approximately an hour and a half drive in rush hour. But you don't necessarily have to work in Vancouver. There is Abbotsford, which is about 10 minutes south of Mission, or Sumas, just across the border from Abbotsford. There are a bunch of suburbs around Vancouver that have smaller local economies you could get a job in. Greater Vancouver encompasses about 20 different cities.

It just depends on where you want to work. There are "strips" of mechanic shops all over the place. Take my field of work for example. Port Kells is truck central. Caterpiller, Cummins, Detroit Diesel are there. As is Peterbilt, Freightliner, Volvo, a satellite Mack, as well as a bunch of mom and pops. Pac-Brake is there too.

There are auto-malls all over the place. Dealerships I mean. They all (for the most part) have service departments. Most of them are flat rate. And most are decent enough to tell you not to come in the next day if it's going to be slow.

I guess I'm saying yeah, it could be done. Don't just limit yourself to working IN a big city when you live in the 'burbs. You can work in the 'burbs too.

 

Why would you want to live close to a big city when you could live a bit further out away from all the hustle and bustle?
I live in a town of about 20,000 people. I'm about 850 miles from Vancouver or Edmonton. Sometimes it would be nice to be closer to them but then going there wouldn't be as special.
In the shop I work at we have about 12 techs. We are on straight time, not flat rate. A lot of dealer techs are on flat rate but it's not hard to find a place to work that isn't. Right now it's slow so we have 2 guys laid off and a couple others that aren't getting all their hours in but they are all on EI (Employment Insurance) while they aren't working. They get told the day before if there is no work. We are a union shop. If we punch on in the morning we get a minimum 4 hours pay. Sometimes guys get sent home after their 4 hours if it's dead but at least they got that much in.

 

Racerguy

You are teasing me right?first that is what I meant about a 50mi distance,so I could live in the country and work in the city.As far as flat rate, the only ones who offer that are the little independent shops that cant really afford to pay good money.What is (employment Ins)Here we have unenployment but that only takes affect after you lose your job entirely.And the only way to get any type of pay if you are not working on cars is,If you want to play janitor and clean the bathrooms and scrub the floors,you can make up to a whole 1hr worth of pay!I got real good at it,could even get it done in the hour they were willing to pay!And this being the motor city,the big three wont allow us to have a union.The last time we tried to get the union to come in,we were turned into a bargaining chip between Ford and the union,who at the time were trying to get more gravy for the factory workers.

 

I'd still rather not work in a big city. I get all upset if I have to stop for 2 traffic lights during my 7 minute commute to work every day
EI is the same as unemployment. That's what it used to be called here too but some gov't type with nothing better to do decided the name needed to be changed. There are a few different EI rules but generally after you've worked full time for 6 months ( I think) you can collect EI if you're laid off.
Do you ever go to www.flatratetech.com and check out the union talk there? It gets pretty interesting.

 

Thanks Racerguy!

Waitin on my conformation right now,never heard of them before,course that aint sayin much,I have only been using this surfin the web dohicky for about six months.