Oil Change Competition

Whats the first thing you need to think about when you start a mobile oil change company? Well, at this point you most likely have the van. By now, you have the most common oil filters you are going to need. Hopefully you have a professional looking uniform. Business cards are a must. Have a roll of oil change stickers ready to go. You are going to need rhino ramps if you plan to get underneath smaller vehicles. And you are going to need some type of durable mat for catching spills.

If you have all these items than you have everything you need to operate a mobile oil change business. So what next?

You are going to need customers. This is the part that many people have trouble with. And understandably so. There may not be any mobile oil change company in your area and you might think that you do not have any competition but after buying your equipment you will quickly realize that you have a lot of it. Sears, Midas, Jiffy Lube, Wal Mart, K-Mart, and Meineke Car Care are just some of the larger chains out there that you will have to compete with. They are on every corner, every major strip mall, and spend millions of dollars in advertising to get people into their bays.

And here is the other secret that you will realize about all those businesses. The majority of these chains, besides Jiffy Lube, have a model where they bait millions of unsuspecting people into their shops with cheap oil changes, and I mean cheap to the point where they actually loose money, and subsequently find tons of expensive problems (many of them unnecessary or not even there) to scare the customer.

Here are some examples of what you are up against.

Example Oil Change Competition #1

Midas starts to advertise oil changes for $10.00. Now, anyone in any oil business knows that it costs $10-$13 just with any brand name oil and filter to do an average oil change. Even if you have a national account and can get oil for a far lower price than anyone else and can do an oil change for $10 than at the minimum you are breaking even. Now what about all the overhead, insurance, utilities, and labor (biggest cost) that they have to pay. How are they going to be able to stay in business and make a profit on a $10 oil change? Impossible! But they could care less about the oil change. Truth be told Midas would loose at least $10 per customer if they just got the oil change.

Lets take a fictional person and call her Lauren and she comes to Midas to get a cheap oil change for her Honda Accord. She pulls her car in the shop and sits in the lobby sipping a cup of cheap black coffee and reads a month old magazine thinking this whole thing will take maybe 20 minutes. The service manager comes into the lobby and proceeds to tell her that while they were doing the oil change they noticed a) she needed new brakes b) her timing belt needed to be changed c) her belts were bad or d) her time circuits and flex capacitor needed to be adjusted. Keep in mind this car is just two years old so maybe the most she needed was "1.21 gigawatz" to go to the past an hour earlier to tell herself not to get duped.

She ends up leaving with a $350.00 tune-up bill or new brake pads most likely. Did she need them? Who's to say. She may have or she may not have. But the original reason she had went in was just for a $10 oil change so the system worked.

Example #2

There are some places like Wal Mart, K-Mart, Costco, or Sams Club (if these places offer oil changes) that really do not care that much about making a profit. They just want people to shop in their stores. They want people to come in for an oil change and than buy something else.

Someone comes into a Wal Mart Express for a $20.00 oil change and than they end up buying a new video game they just remembered they wanted to a new iron or $100 worth of cheap Chinese goods.

So this is what you are up against. You have an oil change business trying to make money from doing actual oil changes at a reasonable price that would allow you to make money while a lot of the top chains are using oil changes as a tool just to get customers in so they can purchase other items or more profitable high margin services.

This is the reason why you cannot build your business off price. Never sell any customer on price! You are going to need to appeal to the convenience factor and this especially works with fleets.

This is my motto "We Do Not Sell Oil Changes We Sell Convenience." That should be what you base your business model on. Drive that into fleet managers mind. You take all the guesswork from this part of their job. Every 3 months you come by in the afternoon and take care of it. They may be able to bring their truck down the road for a cheap oil change but it will never get done and they will end up paying more in the end.

Oil Change Advice For European Cars

Here is some advice for when you are doing oil changes on imported cars. This includes BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Lexus, etc. These cars are nice to do because the profit on them can be a lot better than your average vehicle and can be a pleasure to work on under the right settings. But mistakes are costly for these vehicles, parts are harder to get, and fixing a mistake can be very expensive. Keep in mind that several major quick lubes have a policy of not working on these types of vehicles just because of this.

If you do decide to do them here is what you need to do to make sure the job pays well and everything goes smooth. Keep in mind I may just have to buy one of my longtime customers since 2005, the owner of a 2003 Volkswagen Eurovan, a new oil pan because of a mistake that I may or may not have made. So I know from experience what I am talking about.

European cars call for synthetic. Its in all of their owner's manual if you check. The proper oil to put in 95% of these cars is 5W-40. These engines cram a lot of power into a small amount of engine and sludge can easily build up if you use regular oil. Europe makes their cars, unlike the US for some reason, to run on synthetic oil and if the customer does not want to pay the extra amount for this type of oil than do not do the job. They are cheap and if they cannot afford the proper oil change they should never have gotten that type of vehicle. I've only had that problem once though.

Almost all European cars come with a cartridge filter. Rarely, besides some Lexus' and Saabs, do these vehicles have your typical spin on filters. This is good and bad. Its good because you can charge extra for these special filters. Some people mark these filters up 50%. Its also good because you do not have to crawl under the vehicle to mess with the oil filter. The cartridge or canister filter is located on the top of the engine and as long as you have the right tools its easy.

These canister filters were an absolute pain until I bought the right tools to take the filter cap off. You need to go to NAPA and purchase their 3 pc Oil Filter and Canister Socket Set. Its a little kit that gives you three oil filter cap wrenches 27mm, 32mm, and 36mm that make changing the oil filter on any European car an absolute breeze (unless the canister oil filter is upside down under the vehicle like a Volkswagen Toureg).
I should warn you that although Pennzoil and Fram do make canister filters they do not always fit. In fact I have found that half the time they do not fit. They are either too big or too small no matter what the book says. Go to the dealer and buy the filter if you can. It will be more expensive but its worth it. Just charge more to cover your time and cost. I have found this to be especially true on Volkswagen vehicles.

Now here is some more crucial information about doing these vehicles. Extract the oil whenever you can. I will say it again: when doing these vehicles always, if you have the system, extract the waste oil from these vehicles to avoid messing with the drain pan plug. The plugs on these vehicles and the pan are highly sensitive. The slightest over torquing can causing stripping either to the plug or the pan. The oil pan on a lot of these vehicles are aluminum and this even compounds the problem more if something were to go wrong. You really need a torque wrench if you are going to mess with the plug, and extra cooper washers, but they are expensive and you would need many of them. The dealer has them because they work on hundreds of these cars everyday but its not worth it for an oil change business who may do 5 of these vehicles per month to buy them. So do not even mess with the drain pan plug! Do not touch it! Get the vehicle nice and hot and extract the oil.

The oil change lights on some of these vehicles are almost impossible to re set. They make them like this on purpose I believe. I have a manual that tells me how to do each one, have followed the directions to the letter, and have still found myself unable to re set some oil lights. Go figure???

I can't blame you if you do want to do these cars and I cannot blame you if you do not. Do not do these cars for cheap though. If you do not net $50-60 on these cars in your market than you are opening yourself up to a lot of liability for nothing. Doing oil changes are easy on these cars with the right tools but there are a lot of little things that can go wrong and cost you.

Oil Change Specials from Lance

I have often thought of Lance Winslow being an "authority" when it came to advice dealing with the mobile oil change business. He rarely gets it wrong. I feel that one of his most recent articles he wrote several months back hit the nail right on the head. Most people should not start this business. They are going to be in for a rude awakening when they do. There are some markets where this just will not pay. Too much competition and too many $9.99 oil change specials on every block. Do the math first! I am sorry but if you think you are going to be making money from $20 or less profit per oil change without doing 100s of them you are mistaken.
What is the Best Advice For Starting a Mobile Oil Change Business?

What is the Best Advice For Starting a Mobile Oil Change Business?
By Lance Winslow

Most people who start a mobile oil change business have a lot of misconceptions about how things actually work. They see the need and know that people want the oil change business to come to them, but what they may not understand is that logistically the mobile oil change business can be quite a nightmare for a whole lot of reasons such as:

• Stocking Filters for Different Types of Cars
• Finding Qualified Workers
• City Ordinances Against Car Maintenance on the Street
• Traffic Congestion Zapping Time
• Used Waste Oil Disposal Costs
• Long Time Between Intervals for Repeat Business
• Persnickety Customers
• Customers that Ask Too Many Question Taking Time
• Big Box Store Oil Change Discounters
• Competition Sending Out Direct Mail Lost Leaders

With all this considered and all the issues debated, the best advice might be to NOT start a mobile oil change business at all, yes, I am serious about that. However, if you are dead set on starting such a business then my best advice to you is to concentrate on the fleet vehicle customers first and foremost. These commercial accounts will save time, energy and stress and lead to better productivity and thus, higher profits.

Most of the draw backs of the mobile oil change service business model will go away if you concentrate on the fleet side of the business. Plus, the productivity and efficiency of operations will go through the roof because you can line up all the vehicles in a row and most of them will have the same motors, thus, the same type of filters. So, that is my best advice to someone who cannot be convinced to ditch the idea of starting a mobile oil change business. Please consider all this carefully and think on it.

Lance Winslow - Lance Winslow's Bio. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow
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Common Oil Filters

When you get started with your mobile oil change business one of the hardest parts is knowing which oil filters to have on board your truck. There are tons of oil filter sizes and trying to figure out which ones you will need will seem very daunting.

One of the most frustrating parts of this whole "mobile lube" idea is having the correct oil filter you need for jobs. It drives me crazy when I have to pack everything up and go to the auto parts store several miles away because I either a) did not have the right filter I needed or b) brought the wrong filter. You will find that this is going to happen quite often.

If you do not already you are

going to need some type of shelving units in your oil change van. Mine already came with them and so do several others if you get yours already pre-made.

Here are the filters you need to have in your vehicle. If you get the following oil filters you will be prepared to do 92% of the passenger vehicles you come across. I put them in order of popularity.

Have 8-12 of the following

PZ-42
PZ-48
PZ-45
PO-167
PZ-21
PZ-34
PZ-19
PZ-28
PZ-27
PZ-12
PZ-37
PZ-39
PZ-109
PZ-9A
PZ-58 (Only keep two of these)

Have two of each of the following

PZ-49 Powerstroke Diesel 7.3
PO-156 Powestroke Diesel 6.0
PZ-59 Duramax Diesel
PZ-47 Cummins 5.7 Diesel

If you keep your mobile oil change vans stocked with these Pennzoil filters than you will be ready for almost anything. When you upgrade to the huge diesels than that's a whole other story. There are 100s of choices when you get into that. But as far as average gas engines these numbers will work just fine. I suggest you also keep a filter book in your van at all times. I take mine out to look at it and forget to put it in sometimes.

I also suggest Pennzoil oil filters for two reasons: their yellowish color looks really nice and they have excellent brand recognition. Everyone is comfortable with that brand and they have over half the market share as far as oil and oil filters go.

The other 8% of the vehicles are imports that take canister oil filters and you will have to buy them on a case by case basis.

Your Oil Change Prices

I have heard this question a lot: "How Much Should I Charge for An Oil Change?"

There are two ways to answer that question. You have to consider two things. First whatever you do charge you need to be making $100 an hour. Second, what is the price of an oil change at Jiffy Lube.

I will attack the second consideration because I have already talked about the first one at length. I would like to say, if I have not already, that I like Jiffy Lube model. I have spoken to the owner of the Jiffy Lubes were I live, have been in them, and I love their system. They have created a great assembly line type system for oil changes. I have learned a lot by watching and copying their model and applying that to a mobile operation. Obviously it works. I figure they have to know what they are doing. If they didn't than they would not be in every city and on every block.

So what does what I just said have to do about pricing? Well, what I just said about watching Jiffy Lube applies to a lot of facets in this business but setting your prices for a typical oil change is one of them. Think about it! They know the market better than anyone. Jiffy Lube will always charge what they market will bear. They are never too low or too high. Where I live they charge $54.99 for a regular oil change. They charge $57.99 for an AWD or 4WD vehicle. I know many of you gasp when you hear that but I promise you customers were lined up, some bays 5 deep, yesterday. What does that tell me? Why should I be any lower? If anything my price for an oil change should be at least $56.99 because I am bringing the service to them!

Where you live I can promise you that Jiffy Lube will have already researched the market for you. Set your prices right where they are. Not their seasonal or at times special discounted price but there standard prices. They do the $19.99 oil changes too but only on certain days and for certain times of the day for most places.

No matter where you live I can guarantee that your prices should not be less than $35.00 for a basic oil change. If your market cannot or will not bear at least that I would suggest buying a Taco Bell or KFC franchise. I rarely see a place those two stores cannot make money in.

Do not worry about Wal Mart's prices. They cater to the people who would not use your service anyway. They do terrible service and make the customers wait for a long time on purpose. They want people to shop more. Thats the only reason they have it.

So you have the answer now. For your average price of an oil change your prices needs to be A) at Jiffy Lube's rate or higher and B) high enough where 4-5 vehicles can net your $100 per hour. Its that simple.