20 May 2026 · Callum Reid
What a courtesy car does to a bay you thought was free
A spare key on the service desk is not the same as a productive ramp. Occupancy reviews keep finding courtesy cars parked in the last two bays until mid-afternoon.
A courtesy car with a customer in the waiting room is a kindness. A courtesy car occupying the last ramp until the keys come back from the shops is a missing bay. Occupancy reviews keep finding both on the same morning.
Advisors book the diary as if six ramps mean six productive slots. Valet, PDI, and loan-car storage eat the edges. By early afternoon the workshop looks busy from the office window because metal is present. The clocking file shows two technicians waiting on a parts runner who cannot reach the ramp.
On a two-day review we mark, in ordinary language, which hours a bay was under a paying job, which hours it held a loan car, and which hours it was empty while the diary claimed a service. We photograph nothing with a registration plate. The service manager gets the note before anyone else.
If you are about to buy a seventh ramp, spend two days counting the sixth. Several owners have still bought the ramp. At least they stopped calling the loan-car slot a technician hour.