FireNet Community
FIRE SERVICE AND GENERAL FIRE SAFETY TOPICS => General Interest => Topic started by: carter1978 on July 28, 2008, 05:05:35 PM
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I'm probably posting this in the wrong area so don't shoot me as I'm new to this forum.
I'm currently working as a Fire Extinguisher Engineer for reputable company in the Midlands which I have been doing for 2 years. I am BAFE qualified and I am currently due a pay rise.
My questions is what do users of this forum think is a reasonable wage for someone of my level of experience?
Cheers.
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My opinion for the stresses and strains that maintaining extinguishers produces on your body is that a service technician should be paid a minimum £30,000 a year. I don't think that £50,000 a year is too much but some here say they are being paid as little as £15,000. For me that is way too low.
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My opinion for the stresses and strains that maintaining extinguishers produces on your body is that a service technician should be paid a minimum £30,000 a year. I don't think that £50,000 a year is too much but some here say they are being paid as little as £15,000. For me that is way too low.
I agree but market forces are the bottom line. We mustn't overlook the economics from a business point of view in what is a highly competitive market. I dont know because its not my line but it all comes back down to
-How many extinguishers can a competent engineer service per day,
- How much you can charge per unit in the market place
-Cost of marketing- there has to be a salesperson as well as an engineer
-Provision of transport
-Provision of training and cost of employment
-Cost of accreditation
-overheads, spares and equipment, testing and maintenance of bulk co2 vessels
-environmental disposal of effluent
The only sure way to find out is to apply for a few jobs :)
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My opinion for the stresses and strains that maintaining extinguishers produces on your body is that a service technician should be paid a minimum £30,000 a year. I don't think that £50,000 a year is too much but some here say they are being paid as little as £15,000. For me that is way too low.
50K are you being serious?
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My opinion for the stresses and strains that maintaining extinguishers produces on your body is that a service technician should be paid a minimum £30,000 a year. I don't think that £50,000 a year is too much but some here say they are being paid as little as £15,000. For me that is way too low.
15k is low... especially if you live in London .... don't know about the cost of living in the midlands.....
But 50k ????!!!!!
Think a tad of realism is required........!!
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I've tried looking for job adverts but they never seem to show the salary on offer so I can't really make any comparison.
I think if I were to ask for 50K I probably wouldn't get it, but who knows they might meet me somewhere in the middle (though I doubt it).
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I've tried looking for job adverts but they never seem to show the salary on offer so I can't really make any comparison.
I think if I were to ask for 50K I probably wouldn't get it, but who knows they might meet me somewhere in the middle (though I doubt it).
They may also offer you a job entertaining children.......!!
Have you tried ringing the local job centres / agencies and see what they suggest??
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i think i should be paid £100k but i don't think i will ever get it.
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i think i should be paid £100k but i don't think i will ever get it.
I agree you should not have to take a pay cut.
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another grand is not too much to ask..
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Tell you what, ask for £100K, after turning down the measly offered £50K, then just before you get potted, ring me up and I will take up their measly offer. p.s. lets just keep that bit between ourselves though eh? ;)
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But 50k ????!!!!!
Think a tad of realism is required........!!
50K are you being serious?
Yes. I am being realistic and serious.
I am guessing that the pair of you are Alarm Technicians (just a guess by reading your posts).
I am sure that both of you are qualified and competent, so what do you get paid a year?
How physical is your job? When I have spoken to Alarm Technicians who are also competent to maintain fire extinguishers (only two mind you) they said they weren't interested in maintaining extinguishers. The last one I spoke to turned down maintaining the extinguishers on a job that he was maintaining the alarms on because as far as he was concerned it was "too much like hard work"
Physically the job is very demanding. Day in day out lifting, carrying 30 to 100 extinguishers each weighing 14 to 15 kgs. Parking is a pain for all of us but in Central London it is common to have to park half a mile plus away from the job. Then if you have to return to your vehicle with a couple of extinguishers, trust me you will end up with arms like a orangutang, dragging the ground. Bad back. Dodgy knees.
I would hazard a guess that there are more Alarm Technicians maintaining alarms for 20 years plus than there are Extinguisher Service Technicians maintaining extinguishers for 20 years plus.
In London there are plenty of Service Technicians being paid 50k or there abouts. Not enough in my opinion.
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In the UK I don't think there is a realationship between physical effort and high pay. If anything, I would suggest it is jobs that have very little physical effort that are paid the best.
If you can get £50,000 as a fire extinguisher technician, well done, but I would suggest that most are paid much less.
As explained earlier, it tends to be market forces that drive pay up or down.
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But 50k ????!!!!!
Think a tad of realism is required........!!
50K are you being serious?
Yes. I am being realistic and serious.
I am guessing that the pair of you are Alarm Technicians (just a guess by reading your posts).
I am sure that both of you are qualified and competent, so what do you get paid a year?
Never enough for the tosh I have to put up with from elecricians, customers and the engineers that work for me !
How physical is your job?
Well when I was on the tools humping a reel of pyro on each shoulder or a bundle of tube up 11 stories of tower block each morning it was very physical... but if we followed your example to the extreme dustmen and road diggers would be driving to work in new Mercs...
Truth is we all think we deserve more... I know I'm worth it.... its just convincing the customer !
The extinguisher firms I know charge circa £30 to attend and around £1.50 ish per extinguisher to service.... then make their money up on selling the consumables. An engineer can only physically test "X" extinguishers a day if doing them properly.... therefore for an engineer to earn £50k the company needs to earn over £100k to pay the tax, employers NI, insurances, overheads, van, petrol, parking, congestion, secretary and make a small profit.... that's an awful lot of extinguisher services....
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Nim
has your employer carried out manual handling risk assessments and given you training in the safe handling of loads? From your posts it seems probably not.
The whole principal of H&S Legislation - yes this is Law- is that the employer has a duty to minimise the risk of you being made ill or injured through your work.
It is not possible for anyone to carry a load of 30kg as you describe on a regular basis without suffering long term harm. Fact. It also is in breach of the Manual Handling Regulations.
Nobody should be paid extra money in compensation for ruining their health. Thats not how its supposed to work. Your 50K seems possible now. In a few years when you have wrecked your back you need to go and see a no win no fee solicitor.
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Nim
Dave and i are both fire alarm engineers. Now and again we find ourselves having to crawl under floors,in attics and generally unpleasant enviroments. You don't see many extinguisher engineers caked in dust.
I know blokes who are as thick as mince working for minimum wage in far more exhaustive work than yourself. Thse guys failed everyting at School (if they ever turned up) so i would feel somewhat cheated for all my cousres i have sat over the years to have the guy who humps about fish crates get paid more because his job is more physical than mine.
I may end up deaf with all the fault buzzers i have to listen to or alarm sounders amplified over the phone by an irate customer standing right next to one when trying to call me.I have dodgy knees for my few years as an electrician,kneeling down to wire socket after socket..
£50k sorry but your having a laugh.
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I remember once many years ago (over 15 I think) I saw an an advert for Nu Swift Sales Engineers with an annual of £40k advertised. Easy to get the necessary sales for this based on their prices and servicing criteria
I though that several engineers pay was advertised as OTE, i.e. small basic with commission based top up, like Thorn Securities 'points' system - different service actions and component/equipment sales were worth different points which were converted to pay.
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I remember once many years ago (over 15 I think) I saw an an advert for Nu Swift Sales Engineers with an annual of £40k advertised. Easy to get the necessary sales for this based on their prices and servicing criteria
I though that several engineers pay was advertised as OTE, i.e. small basic with commission based top up, like Thorn Securities 'points' system - different service actions and component/equipment sales were worth different points which were converted to pay.
I remember going for a job in portables around 10 - 12 years ago (Walker I think) and the base salary was around 12K but 22K was attainable by changing seals,triggers etc.Sounded too much like ripping customers off to me so stuck with the smokies!
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I remember once many years ago (over 15 I think) I saw an an advert for Nu Swift Sales Engineers with an annual of £40k advertised. Easy to get the necessary sales for this based on their prices and servicing criteria
I though that several engineers pay was advertised as OTE, i.e. small basic with commission based top up, like Thorn Securities 'points' system - different service actions and component/equipment sales were worth different points which were converted to pay.
But didn't the most famous extinguisher national get pulled many years ago because their engineers were on a bonus scheme and some were allegedly claiming to have serviced several hundred extinguishers in a day when it was proven that doing the job properly an engineer could only service so many (don't know the figure).....
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An engineer at the pre Kidde takeover FPS got caught out for this after an extinguisher he had recently serviced blew out when used - he'd supposedly serviced 88 over 4 sites on the day it was serviced.
Still several jobs in the industry seem to be based on OTE not inclusive pay
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Still several jobs in the industry seem to be based on OTE not inclusive pay
Unfortunately there are very few who aren't Anthony. There are few firms who pay a decent salary plus o/t and travel.
This provides the engineer with a satisfactory wage and provides the client with a fire firm who have no reason to rip them off and give impartial advice. Trust is earned and OTE's not a pressure.
It can and does work, but the ethics need to be in place from top to bottom. However, it only takes one bad apple to ruin the barrel and that leaves years' of trust and effort lost.
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Can't believe what I'm reading I'm only on a FF's salary!!!
Why don't they just buy a collapsible sack truck so you don't have to carry your extinguishers 'upto half a mile??'
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On extinguishers if you are doing well and at a reasonable company the most you will earn will be about £25-29k.
Quite a few companies I know pay around £12500 plus commission of around 8% to 15%.
I agree with the others here, I would love to be able to charge our customers a lot more so I could pay our engineers more, but with more and more Ex Firemen etc setting up and charging as little as £24.50 for a new extinguisher (this is happenng in my area, before anyone starts moaning at me) the arse is falling out of fire extinguishers.
I have recently seen a leaflet from a company called Lightning Fire from Doncaster offering to service upto 4 extinguishers including all spares and refills for £17. Charging that sort of money I think £50k is not going to happen
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I wonder if they actually fit any spares or carry out the correct service procedures beyond shine & sign. What if the customer had all powder extinguishers and used two (or they required extended service) - you're into a loss right there.
The way things are going there is little point having servicing done unless by a select few firms as a lot are just cutting corners, it's hard to make an honest living as even new equipment margins have plummeted and you can buy some makes of extinguisher on the open retail market at the same price other manufacturers charge to the trade.
Buying British and kite marked to sell isn't cost effective these days and the Chinese CE marked (& also now kite marked stuff) rules.
I'm glad I took the route I did by staying in employed consultancy now and didn't take the chance I had many years ago to go full time into sales & servicing with my own company.
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I literally just chocked on my Tea. 50K? 40K? even 30K seems like a chuffing lot to service and check extinguishers. Driving instructors only get about 30K. They have to get qualified. Hairdressers earn 15K they have to train for 2 - 3 years. Firefighters get sub 30K. They train constantly.
I used to service hundreds in the RAF. As did a few on this forum.
It isn't tough at all, dull, but not tough. Why should you get more money cos parking is hard work? I have to park a lot when I am surveying. MAybe I need a pay rise.
If you can get 50K give me a bell, i'm on my way. I'd Bin this stress in a heartbeat.