How many oil changes per day?

No, I'm not endurance racing.

It's kind of more of a business question.

In an oil change business (like Jiffy Lube, etc), how many oil changes does a technician do per day on average?

I am wanting to say 3 per hour is a reasonable pace, but then I stop and say, "Wait, 24 per day is boring as crap and probably unsustainable".

Thoughts?

A technician will basically be working flat-out to change oil as fast as possible so 3 per hour would probably be considered a slow business day (or a nice break from the madness, for the worker).

I worked at two of those places in high school. The slow one had one bay and did 25-35 a day. The busy one had two bays and did 90-100 a day.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

So, you are suggesting they produce 30 or more changes per day per technician?

In reply to gearheadmb:

Did the one bay shop have a single technician working at a given time, or did they have more than 1 tech per bay?

I sell parts to a 2 bay oil change place and he said they'll typically do 6-8 cars an hour. Busy days they can crank out 10 or more an hour.

My friend worked in a Jiffy Lube place about a decade ago. I just asked him and he said about twenty to twenty-five cars a day is what he personally did.

In reply to SVreX: The one bay shop had two, and occasionally three guys. One in the pit (me), and one underhood. The occasional third guy ran vacuum and drove the cars in and out. We werent busy enough to justify the third guy. I think what should have been offered was a pickup and dropoff service at the big companies around us. It seems to me like that would have got a lot of business. But I dont know how the general public would feel about the typical quicky lube employee driving their car unsupervised.

And then you have to have the guy that goes in to upsell overpriced services.

Spoolpigeon wrote: I sell parts to a 2 bay oil change place and he said they'll typically do 6-8 cars an hour. Busy days they can crank out 10 or more an hour.

Is that 6-8 per bay or per tech, or 6-8 for the entire 2 bay shop?

In reply to gearheadmb:

So, you are saying the one bay shop did 25-35 per day with 2 techs, or about 15 per man per day, but they were slow, and may have been able to do a bit more.

Right?

spitfirebill wrote: And then you have to have the guy that goes in to upsell overpriced services.

Right.

Thank God for that guy, or we might be a little limited on how many construction or environmental services we could perform, right?

Every company needs him.

At the dealership level, larger Japanese brand, metro area dealer. We had two bays dedicated to "express" service, i.e. LOF, rotations, top fluids, wiper blades, quick inspection, test battery, etc. with a 30 min guarantee. Usually we had 2 hourly guys per bay, but sometimes would have 3 guys covering the two bays, and always at least one guy to greet, write an RO, discuss inspection with customer, up sell, etc. usually 2 guys did this, sometimes 4 or 5 when we were swapped.

Normal 11 hour day, we'd see ~50 cars, on Saturdays we were only open 8 hours, and would see at least 50, sometimes 70+ if we had a promo going, I think the most we did in a day was around 115, but that was pretty rare, and horrible. Corporate's stated goal to the techs (not advertised) was 15 min or less per LOF/Rotation, the service manager wanted it done in 12 min. They didn't always make that, and there's always up sells, and often major repairs or wear items to replace, customers that vanish, techs having a bad day, etc. We tried to get those customers with larger repairs into the "main shop" right away, but when the flat rate guys are treading water to keep up, it's nice to have a deal with Enterprise, and put the customer in a car for a day. Even with free loaner cars, and Enterprise, we still had to schedule come backs about half the time.

Complimentary car wash was not included in the 30 min guarantee, first nice day in the Spring, everyone wanted their car washed, 5 min wash cycle, and 10 cars in line for a wash, customers were told upfront, "we'll gladly wash your car, but you may be here a while." Most still waited.

Techs were in pairs, so one did the LOF and topped fluids, while the other did the inspection, rotation, and other stuff if needed. Mostly so they were held accountable when someone stripped the oil drain plug, or forgot to tighten a lug nut, they couldn't say, "the other guy did it."

So 25-30 per tech on an average day is about right.

At one time I worked at an oil change place. We had 3 bays and I was the only one at the bottom and I could do maybe 4 or 5 cars a hour. I remember the most I did in a day was 48 I think. Wasnt a great location otherwise id think it would be double (if we had another "tech" down below.

gearheadmb wrote: But I dont know how the general public would feel about the typical quicky lube employee driving their car unsupervised.

Even though I have used these places in the past with no problem, I would absolutely not let them pick up and drop off my car.

In reply to bigdaddylee82:

Excellent info.

Thank you.

we run 2 bays with a pit and one bay with a lift. We do full service oil changes with a courtesy vacuum and other extra's. The average oil change time is 13 minutes but diesels and some other 4wd vehicles take longer since we check all fluids including diff and t-case. i can do 35 in my bay on our 5 hour saturday no issue as long as our courtesy guy keeps up. hes shared between 2 bays.

Most of our profit margin is in extra's like air/cabin filters, transmission and coolant flushes etc though. so if your planning on going into the business be prepared to make oil changes low enough priced to stay competitive. wal mart and the like offer a sub 20 dollar oil change and while we cant match that we offer a full service And have gathered a large base of repeat customers from fixing screw ups from the local wal mart and quick lane.

Oh we also offer pick up and drop off on monday-thursdays.

I occasionally used two different oil change chains until the local Chevy dealer started with a $9.95 change. The van goes there all the time now. I can't buy the oil and filter for that.

I think you're going about this all wrong. What does a customer expect and also want? 10 min/change 15min/change or 20/min per change? Start there and that is basement service expectation you must accept from your techs. Design the process to achieve such at a minimum.

Takes a long time to get that sort of business also, you don't open to thirty cars a day.

I run a quick change for semis, three lube bays, two tire bays. Good day is 40, which is +/- 400 gallons of pumped oil, +/-80 oil filters, +/-80 fuel filters....etc..

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: I think you're going about this all wrong. What does a customer expect and also want? 10 min/change 15min/change or 20/min per change? Start there and that is basement service expectation you must accept from your techs. Design the process to achieve such at a minimum.

The process is not what you think it is.

chandlerGTi wrote: Takes a long time to get that sort of business also, you don't open to thirty cars a day. I run a quick change for semis, three lube bays, two tire bays. Good day is 40, which is +/- 400 gallons of pumped oil, +/-80 oil filters, +/-80 fuel filters....etc..

You've got mail.

In reply to chandlerGTi:

You've got more mail.

Paul, yours came through. Nothing else did,

vdblyou at yahoo

dropstep whats the deal on your pickup/dropoff that sounds like something as a customer that would be really nice.