PDA

View Full Version : On Call



Neddy
16-07-2012, 10:59 AM
Hi everyone,

Just wondering what are yere views/experiences of being an on call As a service engineer in todays world ?
How often do ye go on call?
How often do ye get called out when on call?
Do ye find with customers being more demanding you end up being sent to more comfort cooling call outs, out of hours as opposed to critical rooms/equipment?
Also what do ye think is a fair daily on call rate for a service engineer covering the London area?

Rob White
16-07-2012, 04:34 PM
.

The last few years before I came off rota (I don't do standby now :D )
It was getting increasingly more and more demanding.

4 hour and 2 hour responces.

I worked mainly in supermarkets and the customer got to know that you
could not refuse to come out (you could but genrally did'nt) and
therefore started to phone calls through after working hours.

Or the worste was the manager who sat on a fault all day and then logged
it as he left work (knowing he won't be there to deal with it).

As for "how often" we worked one in four and dependant on the time of
year we could somtimes go days without a call and then maybe one or two
on the Saturday to absolutely mental and being passed 47 calls at a time?????

The money was £100 extra for the week and the week started on the Thursday?
Based on the premis that during the week you have support and the weekend is
only just into your call period so you are still fresh???

Call outs were in overtime at time and a half or double but a lot of companies
now pay a salary which takes 13 weeks of call out into consideration.

Regards

Rob

.

Neddy
16-07-2012, 06:46 PM
Thanks for the reply Rob.

We do one in five for the standby Rota and get £120 a week plus time and a half if we get called out or double on a Sunday. If an engineer leaves the company and it goes to one in four we don't get anything extra only the £120 a week.less engineers more on call! The biggest problem with my company is they book us all in to PPM's with things are quiet . A call comes in then e.g a water leak in an office and the on call engineer has to attend it after his done his PPM on a site.But like most companies they are looking at the ££££££

jonjon
16-07-2012, 07:00 PM
we get £75 per week oncall is every other week as the older engineers cannot be bothered to do it 1.3x mon-sat sun double bank holidays treble and day off in lieu

install monkey
16-07-2012, 07:44 PM
our prison in the north west- pay a whole £50 a week which equates to £7quid a day-same set up as neddy, and we have a tracker so theres no minimum 4 hr call- u get paid from door to door- but usually u dont get call outs maybe 1 a week but when youve done 6.30 till 3pm in leeds on a saturday -booked in work then get told to go to cardiff and get home for 2 am- sunday morning-not good

Tesla
16-07-2012, 10:04 PM
In Sydney we get $180 standby allowance for a week, minimum 4 hours at double time per job. If it goes over 4 hours get paid from leaveing home to returning home. On top of that we get a ten hour break before starting work - so if we finnished a call at 2am & normally start at 8am we would start at 10am and get paid the extra 2 hours. But like mentioned above the older techs have got better things to do with their time than making little extra money.

The Viking
16-07-2012, 10:19 PM
Without knowing your company and it's customers any comments doesn't really tell you much, sorry.

At my work all out of hours calls goes to me, we get about 10-12 calls per year, of them I am able to convince the customer that they don't really need an engineer until first thing the next working day. On average we attend a call out, out of hours, once every other month.

But,
We only go out out of hours for maintenance customers.
Most of our maintenance customers has been with us for a long time.
I have personally seen/worked on about 90% of the kit we got on maintenance contract.(And can therefore tell the customer how to reset it and how important it really is)
Another thing is that few of our customers nowadays are manned on site 24/7, therefore they are less likely to place calls out of hours.

(We currently look after about 200 maintenance customers)

:cool:

.

install monkey
16-07-2012, 10:42 PM
our company require you to make safe- unfortunatly if a customers server room ac unit is dripping- isolating until next day doesnt go down too well- as for managing the call outs again last saturday i was doing programmed saturday work in leeds and at 11am i got dragged to a block of flats in salford because a plumber changed a pump to then find no power- i had to diagnose and fix,then go through 15floors down staircases knocking on doors to see if their heating was working - 3 1/2 hrs later job done. so the ac monkey gets all the good jobs

viking- can i direct all our calls via yourself so you can put em off till next day? ta

Without knowing your company and it's customers any comments doesn't really tell you much, sorry.

At my work all out of hours calls goes to me, we get about 10-12 calls per year, of them I am able to convince the customer that they don't really need an engineer until first thing the next working day. On average we attend a call out, out of hours, once every other month.

But,
We only go out out of hours for maintenance customers.
Most of our maintenance customers has been with us for a long time.
I have personally seen/worked on about 90% of the kit we got on maintenance contract.(And can therefore tell the customer how to reset it and how important it really is)
Another thing is that few of our customers nowadays are manned on site 24/7, therefore they are less likely to place calls out of hours.

(We currently look after about 200 maintenance customers)

:cool:

.

The Viking
16-07-2012, 10:51 PM
Aouch,

Domestic stuff :rolleyes:, not even with a barge pole mate, sorry.

monkey spanners
16-07-2012, 11:03 PM
On call 24/7 no standby money, no overtime.

Oh the joys of being self employed :D

Neddy
17-07-2012, 09:20 AM
Viking Your the kind of guy every company needs. Most calls can be put off except soom server rooms as Install Monkey said. Even at that most server rooms have back up. I think Some Service Mangers just think of the £££'S and their bonus instead of looking after their engineers!

WeNeedUnions
24-10-2012, 01:35 PM
Supermarket refrigeration on call...dont plan anything your up **** creek with out a paddle lmfao

air con with no server rooms or labs on call... puh the 150-200 per week money for jam

air con with server rooms and labs...i guess it just depends on how well the other techs at your company maintain things if there crap expect the worst if there good most weeks you dont get anything.

industrial refrigeration... pray they have a back up system lmao cause the chances of you finding parts for equipment of that size at midnight well lets just say you have buckleys and no hope

standard aus rates are no matter were you are air con or refrige weekly pager holding or on call status are from 150-200 bucks a week, 4hrs minimum double time or front door to return front door if over 4 hours and add an hour double time which your company or the client doesnt need to know about lol just a tip. and public holidays if they fall on the week you should get an extra day in lou or 150-200 for that day if they dont do that your getting ripped. And minimum 10 hrs break which people here call and book on there time sheet as sleep time.

jdunc2301
25-10-2012, 07:25 PM
get paid £120 for thursday-thursday, with a minimum of 4 hrs paid at 1.5x... if you get called out. If it's anything other than a/c its just make safe, if its a critical call....boilers gone down on a production line etc then just ring whatever gas man you like and he goes. Seeing as im the only dedicated AC/R Donkey and my servicing is pretty tight so breakdowns don't come in very often.

In-My-Van
01-11-2012, 09:02 PM
Volunteered myself for permanent call out 5 years ago, £80 per week. Used to get maybe two to three calls a month hence why i volunteered for it:D Now in a job with no standby