Minimum Standards for Trade Members

[Del]

Can we have some views for the minimum standards that trade members should adhear to for inclusion in this trade forum.
I really think that now is the time to lay down a few ground rules to make sure that we are promoting this site as a proffessional body of trade members.
It is already quite obvious that a great deal of interest has been shown in this site. therefore it is in our own best interest to promote ourselves as
the skilled technician’s we are.
I also feel that a personal declaration is not enough I feel that we should have a volunteer within the site prepaired to verify and check minimum requirements such as :- A) insurance B) if claiming membership of other trade bodies such as D.A.S.A. OR CORGI that their membership is current and valid C) a declaration of a minimum code of practice if not aligned to said bodies. when these few basic requirements are met only then should full access to trade forums be granted. THIS WOULD KEEP OUT THE COWBOYS ! and would promote a better sense of professional comeradery within the forum. With more members posting instead of just viewing.
I feel sure that no reputable service organisation would have any qualms with any of the above.

Opinions please !!! 😯 Sean @ Deltec

[kwatt]

From this point onwards then, yes this can be easily done.

What is done about the people already here is open to debate but I do think that anyone should be given the chance to meet any criteria set. So debate away 😉

K.

[Jonah]

Good idea Del, I have no problems in proving my credentials, I think it should be a requirement for this site as well.

Dave 😀

[sumphose]

Having been involved in trade membership vetting, it is anything but easy. It is as always a good idea, but the reality is, it is time consuming and involves a lot of phoning and letter writing, with very few replys. The responce from the trade regarding nvq’s is very poor. Every trader thinks they have enough experiance, and do not see any need to prove themselves or submit themselves for examination or assessment.
Look at the outcry from traders who have to have their skills examined, when renewing their gas certificates. this examination is only on the basic skills required, to ensure gas safety, which most of them have been doing for years. For appliances some of us have been trying to encourage various trainers,college’s etc, all have foundered, the industry talks the talk, then silence. 🙄

[kwatt]

I know what you’re saying about training here and I realise that it is an important thing to have. I also realise that, personally, I’d rather have it than not, but (there’s the “but”) the issue I have with it is quite simple: cost!

Let’s take CORGI as an example:

We have 5 days training to do CCN1, then a further 2-3 for CKR1, this gives you basic gas safety (which is too in depth for our needs, but we’ll skip that for now) and the cookers module.

So far I’ve lost 7-8 working days per engineer PLUS I have to pay them wages while they are not earning or taking a holiday and I have over a week’s worth of work not done. Total loss to the business is in the order of about £3K per engineer and then on top of that you have the CORGI fees etc.

Now, this is not so much of a problem if you are a plumber charging £65 callout and then a half-hourly labour rate, it is however a problem to the likes of ourselves on fixed price contracts, most of which pay less than £40 a call irrespective of the appliance!

Let’s put this is perspective on average an engineer, fully loaded, will do 2400 calls a year of which about 8{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}, in my experience, is gas work which means 960 gas calls in the 5 year registration period, tops. So some quick math with the registration fee thrown in and this comes out to £4.16 per gas call. Fine, then add on the extra time for gas work so you basically double that figure at least, then add a 25{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} mark up and you arrive at a premium on *every* gas call of £11.09. Do we get £11.09 extra for every gas call, no! So who pays for the training, registration and all the other costs, we do.

Oh and by the way, our results are skewed by installation work, in reality the normal amount of gas work on a manufacturers range is purported to be 5{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} or less (I didn’t work it out and with some exceptions like Stoves). Using that as a basis for figures it comes out to £17.76 extra a call to save anyone working it out but it’s probably still higher, this is why many “nationals” shy away from touching gas as it’s quite simply too expensive.

What I did work out just recently was the cost of LPG repairs. Based on the number we do per anum I’d have to be charging more than £100 a service call on an LPG appliance to recoup the costs of the training and other costs for it! So now we do not do LPG calls, if there is a need for it at some point I will train one engineer only and this could cause delays in getting service, but I can see no other viable alternative.

So it’s not that I don’t want training, it’s not that I don’t (most likely) need training it’s just simple economics and no-one wants to pay for it.

K.

[Ally]

Minimum standards…………….. Don’t make me laugh. In the south you might be able to pick and chose engineers. I’ve advertised for an engineer for over ten months without success. The best I’ve been offered is a guy that worked casual for a cowboy outfit in Glasgow….with no real training.

[eastlmark]

Thats not the case Ally, its just the same here even if you offer ££££££.
The only way to do it is to train a young one up which is both costly and risky as they are bound to either leave of set up on their own.
That doesnt mean you cannot set your own standards for your engineers to adhere to though.
Any way, how can we set minimum standards when half our members are either anonymous or dont bother to fill in their profile?

[Mark]

standards are not set by individauls but by the owners of there respective companies.no good engineer has ever started with my company who did not need some sort of training.the question must be not how or where to get engineers but how to attract engineers from other simular trades.this we can only achieve when we get the correct rate for our services.

[Author]

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