Independent labour rates

4 May 2012  

A REPORT detailing the labour rates charged by garages across the UK has been published by the RMI’s Independent Garage Association (IGA)

The survey questioned over 2000 IGA members. When reviewing labour costs by region Northern Ireland was the cheapest with an average rate of £32 while London was the most expensive at £51. In both regions, the average price was around half of comparable franchise dealers.

Stuart James, Director of the RMI’s Independent Garage Association, commented: “This report removes any doubt that the independent garage sector is providing consumers outstanding value for money with a high level of service provision. Out of more than 2000 garages questioned only two were charging more than £90 per hour with the vast majority charging less than £50 per hour.”

Industry expert Mike Owen noted that the currently low rates cannot be held indefinitely: “The rate reflects the investment that a garage has made and as they make more investment the labour rate has to be going up. In the present situation you can say that while the labour rate might be wrong at the minute, as technology increases it will go up.” However, he added that most garages did not calculate their labour rate, preferring to find the average for their area and take a wild guess at what it should be.