Are techs allowed to?

My best friend and I are taking the CPST course next week. Her mother suggested that we talk to the auto dealerships in town, and go with the highest bidder to do carseat checks on their lot once a month. By paying us to do free checks for their customers it will potentially get a lot of people on their lot, browsing while waiting their turn for a seat check.

Is this allowed? I didn't know if there were any rules against it?

I thought all techs were volunteers

you *can* do it for pay and i believe that some of the techs here do that, or did that at one point. but keep in mind a couple of things:

1) once you are paid for your work, there are more liability concerns down the road, since you no longer have good samaritan laws on your side. that's not saying that you have to worry, since you can get liability insurance, but just food for thought.

2) you may want to get experience by volunteering at a bunch of seat checks, to really get a feel for all the different cars, seats, and configurations that come through. by working with more experienced techs, you will learn a lot. if you and your friend decide to wing it right after taking the CPS course, there's still a lot of practical hands-on that you won't know.

I've installed hundreds of seats through the years for friends, dh's co-workers, family members etc.

My friend has installed dozens.

It's not like either of us are going into the class having never touched a carseat other then our own, as many people do.

The local Safe Kids coordinator isn't too excited about doing seat checks in our area very often -- we are in a small town about an hour from the city, there has been 2 seat checks in the 5.5 years that I have lived here, and both were on base, not in town. Where does that leave all of the children here? improperly restrained, with no one to get free & easy help from. If we could do monthly seat checks for free in our community, it would be wonderful for our community. We had no way of doing it though, and my friends mom suggested this as a way to do it, and get paid at the same time.

As far as the liabilty issues go when you are being paid, wouldn't it make a difference that the dealership would be paying and not the parent? Also, wouldn't it help if you had the parent sign a waiver? You would think most parents would understanding that we live in a sue-happy world. I'd also think that the dealership would insist on a waiver considering that they would be liable too.

Gypsy said:

I've installed hundreds of seats through the years for friends, dh's co-workers, family members etc.

My friend has installed dozens.

It's not like either of us are going into the class having never touched a carseat other then our own, as many people do.

The local Safe Kids coordinator isn't too excited about doing seat checks in our area very often -- we are in a small town about an hour from the city, there has been 2 seat checks in the 5.5 years that I have lived here, and both were on base, not in town. Where does that leave all of the children here? improperly restrained, with no one to get free & easy help from. If we could do monthly seat checks for free in our community, it would be wonderful for our community. We had no way of doing it though, and my friends mom suggested this as a way to do it, and get paid at the same time.

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i'm not saying you haven't installed a lot of carseats, but that does not make one an experienced tech. i've done a ton of self-taught home contracting work-- plumbing, electrical, etc. but that does not make me a professional contractor. and even if i were licensed, if i were to do shoddy work that caused damage to someone's home, i could be sued... disclaimer or none. you would need to get insurance. if you think about it, there's several things at stake: most importantly, if the child were injured or killed in a crash, they could *attempt* to go after you for incorrect paid advice. less importantly, if you damaged a car during an installation, you could also be held liable for those damages.

i'm confused... you are proposing to do this for free or for pay? the idea is that the dealer will not charge customers for seat checks, but will be paying you? if you are getting paid by a third party (the dealer) instead of the customers whose seats you will be installing, you're still doing it for pay, and won't have the good samaritan laws on your side. yes, you can have parents sign waivers, but we all know how well those can hold up in court... waivers are one level of protection, but they do not protect you fully.

People can sue you for anything. Even if you are paid by a dealer or agency, they will probably name you on the lawsuit separately if they think they can get anything. A liability waiver is no protection, though it can help a lawyer make a case for you. A Good Samaritan law may help you in the end, but maybe not before you have a lot of legal fees.

Whether you are a volunteer or not, make sure you are covered by an insurance policy of some sort, whether it be from an employer, from your homeowner's insurance, event insurance (as is provided by Safe Kids for registered events) or a separate policy. I don't know of any lawsuits ever made against techs and I'm told it would be pretty difficult to find a good tech negligent if they have decent documentation, but again, it can still cost a lot of money before a lawsuit is dismissed.

As for doing a checkup for a fee or as part of some employment agreement, go for it! If you don't have a big program for free inspections in your area, you won't have to worry about the lower cost competition;-)

CPSDarren said:

As for doing a checkup for a fee or as part of some employment agreement, go for it! If you don't have a big program for free inspections in your area, you won't have to worry about the lower cost competition;-)

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the only challenge is to find a dealer willing to pay... period.

another thought is that dealers may be wary of liability as well... they may shy away from any deal for fear of liability. i have heard this to be the case with stores that sell carseats... some specifically *don't* do checks or keep CPS techs on staff for this exact reason... unless it is sponsored by a recognized (and legally protected), organized event like those through kidsafe.

Gypsy said:

My best friend and I are taking the CPST course next week. Her mother suggested that we talk to the auto dealerships in town, and go with the highest bidder to do carseat checks on their lot once a month. By paying us to do free checks for their customers it will potentially get a lot of people on their lot, browsing while waiting their turn for a seat check.

Is this allowed? I didn't know if there were any rules against it?

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Seems like a no-brainer, but you'd be in really new territory. I say go for it, write up a proposal, see if you can get health educator insurance from www.hpso.com as a backup, and hit them up. Be prepared for failure, though.

ThreeBeans...yeah, we are a bunch of good hearted martyrs, and so far tech education, which is very expensive!, has been covered by public funds, but why NOT make it a profession, really? It's very specialized knowledge and skills and our time is worth something, so we should get paid if we can, IMO (I did...at a baby store, they charged $20 per seat and paid me $20 per hour... parents were happy to pay for a dedicated scheduled appointment with me, the store made more sales, and I got a nice paycheck, so it was win-win for everyone...compared to waiting for hours at a checkpoint to have a rushed and unpaid volunteer or cop do it, it was heaven )

Well, I've always wanted to get certified, and this is certainly interesting information


Right now I just work as a know-it-all for free

ThreeBeans said:

Right now I just work as a know-it-all for free

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like a lot of us

honestly, i was in the same boat as you. i wanted to get certified so that i could perform seat checks at my daughter's co-op pre-school. there is a real lack of seat check events in new england, for some reason... so i thought it would be a great contribution. i posed a similar question here a few month ago, and basically the take home message was that by the time i clocked in enough experience (by volunteering at organized seat checks) to take things solo with confidence at the pre-school, my DD would already by in kindergarten

Indeed. I've even been brushed off by a Volkswagen initiative that was promoting CPS activities. Go figure.

Maybe your local SafeKids coordinator isn't doing checks in your area because of a lack of techs.

We have check stations set up in our area at local dealerships. We do them during the winter and inclement weather in the maintenence bays after hours (they generally close service down early in the day) and in the summer outside... it works out great. The dealership doesn't pay anything, but provides the space. They are honored every year at our annual tech luncheon.

Maybe you can get your coordinator to get a senior tech out to help you for a period of time and then you and your friend can continue on afterwards by yourselves?

Just an idea.

Wow I can't believe all the liability issues you guys have to worry about! We can practically install car seats whenever, wherever we want here! Lucky I guess.

CRS said:

Wow I can't believe all the liability issues you guys have to worry about! We can practically install car seats whenever, wherever we want here! Lucky I guess.

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One of the 'joys' of living in a sue happy society. I definitely reccomend getting a few checks under your belt first if at all possible. It's different doing one-on-one checks as opposed to a whole event. There is a lot to coordinate for a check, including having a Sr checker there etc. It sounds like you don't have a lot of tech help in your area so finding a Sr checker at this point may be hard to do. I'm working on mine this summer and it'll take a while as we only have 2 instructors here in town and they are never at checks it seems. I'm also not sure a dealership will pay for the check, I'm pretty sure they just donate their lots here. We use dealerships mainly in the winter so we can keep checking all year, but we're having a safety fair at one in 2 wks and I'm pretty sure it's all volunteer. I don't get paid for anything I do and won't until I become a Sr checker and someone offers $ to try and get a Sr checker at their event or I become a CPST-I and possibly get paid for that. Good luck and I'm sure you'll do great in your class!

I'd recommend doing some checks as a volunteer until you have much more experience. Get a senior checker to hang out with. I'm sure you've installed lots of seats, but that isn't all what being a tech is about. As you may be aware, CPS is moving away from techs as installers to techs as educators. That kind of interaction with parents comes only from experience in educating parents.

There are dealerships with techs on staff (some good, some not so good), but they usually have other roles in the dealership. My experience with dealerships is it is hard to convince them that what you are doing will actually help their business. Yeah, they're all for child safety, but laying out money to do it is another issue altogether.

That being said, I am currently coordinating a pilot program with a local dealership. Even though we are there at least once a week, many there have really no idea what we're doing or why. Everyone is very nice, but a lot of the staff and management just don't "get it." The dealerships in this pilot were chosen by the car manufacturer. We had a lot of support from the lead corporation, but still the information is slow to trickle down to the actual staff. They are all wonderful and helpful, but remember the dealership is about selling cars. Of course, being known as a dealership that cares about CPS will probably get them business, but to most of them the link is pretty tenuous.

Start small. Do some checks with senior checkers and instructors. Get real tech experience before trying to set up a check. In the new CPS curriculum, there is no longer a section for students on how to set up a seat check. The board really felt that was really more than brand new techs (even students who have installed carseats before) should ever attempt to take on.

I'm not trying to be discouraging. I'd just suggest taking much smaller steps at first.