disposal of hazardous waste.

Jun 27, 2005 5 Replies
R

next time your garage charges you a " environmental charge " here's why


** Thousands of businesses in the retail motor industry have been urged to ensure they meet stringent new regulations that govern the disposal of hazardous waste. Dealers, repairers and garage owners must be fully compliant with the regulations as of 16 July, the government has warned. If businesses fail to meet the new directives they could be hit by heavy fines. Ben Bradshaw, Minister for local environmental quality, said: "It is essential that businesses act now." **

we've been charging customers it for quite a while now, its listed as a separate item instead of being built into the invoice as customers like to see what they have been spending their money on , only had a couple of complaints over the years, but an explanation soon puts them right. we have to sort out all hazardous waste now, which includes all the fluids, brake, coolant, oil filters ect ect, separate bins for oily rags ect & pay for it to be taken away, nothing new but its being clamped down on now.


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A

Can't you just incorporate it into the hourly labour rate?

It does my head in to see "brake cleaner, sundries" and "environmental charge" as separate items on garage invoices. I mean, fair enough, these are real costs, but so are rent, rates, electricity bills, phone bills. Why not go the whole hog and charge "pro rata premises charge" on the invoice as well. When a garage works out how much to charge per hour, these costs should all be taken into account when arriving on the figure of £45/£50/whateve per hour. I mean, not much of that hourly rate goes to the mechanic (stating the obvious just a tad here) - the rest is profit - so why not take all these new charges into account and, if neccessary, raise the labour rate slightly.

Peter

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A

AstraVanMan ( snipped-for-privacy@Whataloadofforeskinbollocks.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

But why? It'll vary from job to job.

A one hour oil and filter change is going to incorporate FAR more "hazardous waste" than eight hours of farting about with interior trim to get to and play multiple choice with electronics swapping.

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R

aye what Adrian said ^^^^^^^

you deffo would have un-happy customers if they found out they were paying for someone elses rubbish to be binned.

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G

The message from "AstraVanMan" contains these words:

Some people prefer it. I can't say it'd bother me one way or the other, but I know people who would grumble if it wasn't itemised.

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G

The message from "reg" contains these words:

Though of course in any business the overheads will be shared between customers, it won't always be evenly. It's always been like that.

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