What’s the point of a 3-hour shift at $9/hour?

At any given time, our job board is full of jobs waiting to be filled. Some of those jobs pay $15 or more per hour. Some require special skills like welding or bartending. And a lot of jobs serve our auto auction clients with comparatively low pay and low hours. For a lot of people, those jobs don’t make any sense.

You’re right if you think those jobs are low-paying and low-hours because they are. The job, however, is also simple and straightforward. Lane captains direct cars around a parking lot. A detailer wipes off any smudges and dirt, vacuums the upholstery, and sometimes charges a battery or two. Auction drivers get in the cars and drive them up to an auction stage.

Those auto auctions are how used car dealerships in a region pick up inventory to bring back to their home markets. In Indianapolis, for instance, it’s not uncommon for small car dealers in small towns and cities to drive across the state to purchase 4-5 cars for their lots. One dealership in a rural community is the only Subaru dealer in 100 miles and gets all of their inventory in Indianapolis. In our Tampa location, it’s not uncommon for people to drive from South Carolina or Georgia.

These auctions take place weekly, but only one day a week. Sometimes there might be multiple days a week but generally the inventory and demand just isn’t that high. The auctions are quick-moving, too, because the dealers need to get back to their dealerships. An auction can move hundreds of cars in 4-6 hours.

To staff these events, it requires temporary staffing. No one can be employed by a company for a one-day-a-week job.

So, if they don’t pay spectacularly well, the hours are low, and the work is so simple what’s the point of the job?

We’ve found the perfect people for these jobs are the young and the elderly. Students who have a free morning once or twice a week during a semester can make a little extra money. Particularly if they already have another part-time job in the evenings or weekends.

Retirees are also great for car auction work. They may only want to work a few hours a week just to get out of the house. Auto auctions give them an opportunity to get outside, meet some new people, and get paid a little extra for their time and effort.

There are dozens of other kinds of people who might be interested in auto auction work. For instance, someone with a flexed schedule that happens to have a morning off each week can fill that time.

They aren’t ideal jobs for people looking to sustain themselves simply because it isn’t full-time work. For that, there are other kinds of employment. If every job was full-time, how would those retirees or students get any extra work (or experience) for themselves?

In auto auctions staffed by On Demand pay ranges from $8-$10/hour, with a few leadership positions paying a little more. Each position comes with a minimum guarantee of 3-4 hours depending on the location and are paid the same day.