Funeral Rights - a critique

    This has been on my to-do list for a while, to review 'Funeral Rights' by Robert Larkins.  It is the only book of its kind that I can find on the Australian funeral industry.

    Unfortunately it is not a good book in many ways, nor is it a good representation of the funeral industry.  So I have decided to pick out a couple of faults with it.

The Bill

    Cost is a big issue in the funeral industry.  Many outside the industry might see the undertakers as just trying to rip them off pr profiting off greif. Thus try to get a discount or to avoid paying all together.  This is an unfortunately common issue.  Several undertakers have told me stories of how mourners have made up complaints to avoid the bill.  Or outright refused to pay.

    These are two different stories about the extreme mesures funeral companies went to get paid.

Guest Post - Cemetery & Crematorium Price Guide

    These are some cemetery and crematorium price guides.  They were sent to me anonymously from someone in the funeral industry.  I don't know if they are accurate, or even how old they are.  But they are interesting.

Who is the Customer?

    The question of who is the customer at a funeral is one which I have been asked and debated a few times.  The reason this is an important question as it is asking who is really important at the funeral, who the funeral is aimed at and thus shapes our understanding of funerals and how they should proceed and where the priorities should be.

    Many debate whether the customer is (or should be) the deceased or mourner.  Basically whether the funeral is really for the dead or for the living or for both.

    So I will briefly outline how I define "the customer" in the funeral industry and why.  Some might not agree with me, but that only goes to prove how debatable this idea is.

Quality Funerals

    Quality of a funeral and a funeral home is something which does come up, especially with those in the industry or those who are interested in the industry.  What I have noticed is that many of these people use little procedures or practices to value a funeral home.  Things like which way they turn the coffin.  Yet most mourners do not notice these things, nor care when they are told about them.  The way an undertaker looks at a funeral is completely different from the way a mourner looks at it.

    From this we can learn a lot about the role of the mourner and of the undertaker and start to question what is actually important in a funeral.  How perhaps many of the practices on a funeral are more for the undertakers than the mourners.

InvoCare

    Not too long ago I wrote an article 'The InvoCare Share' about how much of the industry InvoCare really owns.  After much research, questionable numbers and a bit of guessing and discussing it with others I came to the conclusion that InvoCare does about 25% of all national funerals.  Not the giants people think them to be.  However InvoCare does about 50,000 SpY (services/funerals per year) while the next biggest company does about 6,000 SpY.  Thus while InvoCare does not own as much of the industry as people think they are by far the biggest single company.

    This then lead to a few questions from people about InvoCare, how good they are, how they treat bodies and funerals as commercial objects and so on.  So I decided to write a little post on what I think of InvoCare.

An Unregulated Industry

    One thing that shocked me about the industry was the sheer lack of rules or regulations.  There is pretty much no governing body to watch over what goes on and no real repercussions in many cases.  Talking with several undertakers they all spoke of a desire for more regulation and how others have tried over the years and failed miserably.  They said the industry has never been regulated and have depressingly resigned themselves to the thought that it never will be.

    You need no qualifications to join the industry, a drivers license is useful but not essential in certain situations.  There is also no age restriction, one undertaker now a veteran in his own ways told me how he joined the industry at 15 as part of school work experience.  His first transfer was a gruesome affair where the deceased had been cut in half in an industrial accident.  The job involved buckets and scooping, and this was one of his first days at only 15.  Now, some may think that this was quite a while ago yet it was only in the late 1980s that this happened.  I have no doubts that there is potential for this to still happen at certain companies.  Anyone can join the industry at any age if the company is willing to employ them.

    The pay for an undertaker (also known as "assistant funeral director") is little more than minimal wage. The wage is about $20 per hour for full time staff, at the entry level.  I have heard that conductors with some companies earn an extra $17 per week on top of this.  These are the people who run the funeral on the day.  When paying so little one cannot expect high quality staff as anyone who wants more than this and is able to earn it will go elsewhere.

    Some of the larger funeral companies such as InvoCare are pushing more and more casual staff to save money.  The situation with embalmers is not much better.  These casual staff have less experience and training, being casual they only work when needed where needed.  The situation is not much better for embalmers.  While there is a shortage of embalmers across Sydney they are not paid enough and companies are going for contract or casual embalmers.

    The lack of experience of staff is an issue for some companies.  As no experience or qualifications are needed some join the industry with nothing to help them.  They need to be trained from scratch in everything.  Many might think of this as a normal thing for most companies, many join jobs without experience or knowledge and leran as they go.  In itself this is not too much of an issue for the funeral industry, however there are certain things and hazards people need to know before starting.  this makes starting the job safer and easier for new staff as well as easier for further training the new staff.  I remember in retail there is an briefe induction course before starting work, with Target it was over two days and with BigW it was a more intense one day course.  These courses covered basic OH&S, security, policy, practices and so on.  Basically all the little and important things that should be gotten out of the way.  Yet in the funeral industry where there is exposure to infectious fluids, lots of manual lifting, driving, etc there is no induction course or training.  I will say InvoCare is outstanding in providing these courses to staff, but it is done after they join.  Instead it should be before they join the industry.  What good are these courses to someone who has almost a years experience?  By then they would have learnt most of what is taught and been exposed to the hazards the courses aim to warn about.

    Another issue with the delegalisation is that ordinary undertakers are the ones who transfer bodies on crime scenes.  With murders, suicides, accidents or so on it is an undertaker who will arrive with their van and move the body to the coroners for examination.  Letting just anybody move the body means that the government has no real control over how the body is moved.  Evidence could be compromised or outright destroyed with mismanaging the body as the undertakers are not trained in forensic techniques.  Many undertakers formal education stops at finishing high school and there is no training provided or needed for police transfers.

    There is also little to no protective equipment provided to the transfer crews.  On a police job they have shower-caps on their feet, but otherwise it's like any other transfer.  They have basic gloves and nothing else, and these gloves are not even sharps/puncture proof like the police gloves.  An undertaker told me of how he had to transfer a body from a murder.  There was blood and needles everywhere and the deceased had HIV and hep C.  The police refused to lend him their sharps proof gloves for the job.  Another undertaker told me of how the deceased had died on train tracks in a tunnel the city.  As they were getting the body one of the police yelled "train" and they had to squeeze against the walls as a train went past.  CityRail has extremely strickt rules and requirements about who can step on the tracks, especially active ones yet these were not applied to the transfer crew.  Nor was the track shut down.  And this was not an old story, it happened in the 80s-90s.  An undertaker also told me of another police transfer where a family member had "lost it" and killed the family violently, they had also brutally killed the family cat.  He said how everything went as usual, they removed the bodies of the people, yet the cat was different.  The police put it in a garbage bag and left it on the street for the garbage truck.  While not directly related to the lack of regulation in the industry it does speak of how things are sometimes seen or done because of this deregulation.

    There are no official governing bodies to watch over the industry and few laws or regulations directed at it.  Nor are there any real consequences for violating what rules there are.  There the Australian Funeral Directors Association (AFDA), yet membership is voluntary and from what I see they do not oversee or enforce much.  So long as certain basics are met and fees are paid membership is guaranteed.  The infamous story of 'bricky' is a good example.  I explain in detail in this post here, but basically he is an undertaker who buried a coffin of bricks because he cremated the wrong body.  So now the industry refers to him as 'bricky'.  When they exhumed the coffin the person in charge opened the lid further than allowed and this meant the health department no longer had jurisdiction.  Instead it had to fall under a commercial framework and was taken to court that the family did not get what they paid for.  Bricky was found guilty, fined a few thousand and let go.  The case was very public making national news at the time.  Yet his business actually increased, not only was he able to continue in the industry with nothing more than a light punishment but he was better for it.  He later went on to stalk a woman with a hearse at night, but that's a whole other story.  I also heard of another much older story where the owner of a funeral home opened all the windows in a nursing home in the middle of winter.  He was at the nursing home on a transfer to remove a body and while there he thought that he might try to increase his business.

    Not all funeral directors are decent people, although most are.  Some are not even real funeral directors having never worked on a funeral in their lives.  They do not even have a physical business and yet they sell funerals.  They're called "briefcase funeral directors" as all they have is a briefcase and a phone.  Everything else they rent out, they rent a temporary transfer crew (as one would rent a courier), they rent a hearse and a space in a mortuary and have no ownership over anything.  As a result they have no quality control or even the ability to check the process and I have heard of serious mistakes being made.  The reason they own nothing is it is cheap, they do not have to pay for staff or facilities and save a lot of money compared to funeral homes.  However these savings are not really passed onto families, they may pay less than with other funeral places but the briefcase funeral director will still make a large profit.  Lack of quality control, room for mistakes and over charging mourners are the outcomes of this type of business.  But what of the AFDA as many would assume their job was to oversee the industry?  As I outlined membership is optional and even then not difficult to acquire.  Furthermore if a company is not a member most mourners would never know or care.  Thus there is plenty of room for just anyone to become a funeral director, even if they have nothing.

    There is a union for those in the industry, however despite my best efforts I cannot find a website for it, perhaps one does not exist.  Also few people in the industry I met were part of this union.  Thus I find it hard to look into the union.  From what I found it does help people, one undertaker told me of how it really had his back in a pay dispute with a company and if it wasn't for the union he would have lost a lot of money.  However I do not think the union has as much influence as it should.  I will briefly say that I am a capitalist through and through.  But capitalism needs unions to give companies perspective and help keeps things safe and decent for staff.  I was surprised how the union was almost hidden from staff, the boss at WNBull would deliberately not put up and remove any notices from or about the union.  I was reminded of my time in retail where all staff were told of the retail union in their initial training, in fact we were actively encouraged to join the union by the companies.  Target and BigW both advertised and encouraged membership officially and unofficially despite butting heads with the unions on several occasions.  Instead with the funeral industry the AFDA is completely optional and the union has low membership.  Thus there is little influence or power from these groups.  I saw that InvoCare monitored and protected its own staff more than these groups.

    There is a story of an ex-InvoCare employee who would make a small cut on the bodies they dressed or prepared.  Quite a 'strange' and completely immoral practice.  InvoCare fired this person on the spot as soon as they found out, walking them off the premises and making sure they never worked in another InvoCare funeral home ever again.  Unfortunately they did not take it further, I personally think that they did not want it to become public as it would give InvoCare a bad name.  Yet I think they handled it well, firing the person the very moment they became aware and making sure it would not happen again.  This shows how InvoCare regulates itself with nobody to watch over them.  While they do a decent job certain people can walk away without punishment or inquiry that is deserved in order to protect the company.

    If anyone is going to change the industry for the better it would be InvoCare.  Due to their dominance they have the power and potential to implement and effect changes.  And after my briefe time with them I honestly believe that many of the higher ups do care.  For example the head of HR was a lovely woman who gave me the impression that she did not just implement OH&S because she had to but because she thought of the welfare of her co-workers.  InvoCare has more potential than any other group to make the changes that are needed.  While I hope they do start to change things I know they wont.  Not because they do not want to but because there is no profit in it.  It is not a cruel company, it is efficient and the heart of InvoCare is 'profit' (like any other business).  There is no profit to be made (or lost) in regulating the industry and so they will not do it.  Simple and regretful as at the end it is everyone who suffers.  Staff risk their safety, the companies risk efficiency the deceased risk their dignity, mourners risk quality and the legal system risks evidence...

    I honestly believe that a license is needed to be an undertaker, that it could reduce the risks and issues.  Or in the least weed out the people not appropriate for the industry.

~~

Coffin Costs

    The coffin is an important item to any funeral, after all, when one thinks or googles funeral the first things that come up are usually of people carrying or crying over a coffin in a cemetery.  Yet it is so expensive, disproportionately so.  A mid-range coffin will have well over 100% profit on it.  What is interesting is that people pay this cost and that once they find out about the high profit margine they are offended.  We do not like the idea of a funeral home making profits, all despite it being a business like any other.  Coles sells food, Big W sells products and funeral homes sell the process of dealing with the dead.  But they all use the same models and methods to do so.  So here I intend to examine the prices of coffins, what people get for their money and why they cost so much.

    The coffin is one of the most important items in many ways and to many people.  Coffins carry with them an emotional significance for most people, especially when they think it holds the body of their loved one.  I noticed that people will treat the coffin with reverence and significance.  Naturally this varies from culture to culture and person to  person.  For example ethnic people (such as Greeks, Lebanese, Italians, etc) will often want to 'touch' the coffin in some way or see inside it.  They touch it by either by crowding around madly and emotionally or by quietly and calmly carrying it.  Traditional Catholics on the other hand will sometimes touch the coffin by carrying it, but unless they are part of a religious order they will rarely be physically involved with the coffin and not want to see inside.  However they do gaze on it more, for them it is more visually significant than for other cultures.

Ready and waiting to be sold.

    It is also often the most expensive item at a funeral.  This is because it is all but essential for a funeral.  You have to get the body there somehow and people rarely want to see the body itself being interacted with.  People like the body to be in a box or wrapped up heavily and it is this wrapping or box that is handled.  However, while essential this is not the reason the coffin will cost so much, nor is it the reason "high end" coffins exist.  It is because of the previously mentioned significance that they are so costly.  For a low end coffin one could expect to pay $1,000.  For a midrange model one pays $2,000 to $5,000 and for the top end it would cost $6,000 or more.  

    The value for money is quite interesting.  Firstly coffins are just boxes, usually wooden, and looking at them being made this is quite clear.  Although the end product is actively deceptive of this fact, and idea I will expand in another post at another time.  But for now I will explain that they are usually chipboard, just like furniture.  Yes, until you get to the high midrange prices or higher the inside is just chipboard and it will have shiny plastic handles.  One of InvoCares favourite coffins are what people in the industry refer to as "the ikea coffins" or "the snap-together coffins.  Because they literally snak together, they arrive at the funeral home, fresh from China, as flat separate pieces in a cardboard box.  Staff then take these pieces and "whack them together", not needing any glue, nails, stapes or anything else to fix the pieces together.  Due to being made in China on mass they are very cheap for InvoCare, even after shipping they cost well under the price charged.  However they are considered to be very cheap and low quality by those I talked with in the industry.  There were often gaps of almost an inch between whole sides, exposing the contents within.  There was also an incident or two where a coffin got caught as it was lowered at the grave, quite a common affair, but on a few rare occasions they broke open, quite uncommon.  Another interesting point on the low end models is that this is where LifeArt starts and aims most of its advertising.  LifeArt are basically cardboard coffins which are said to be very cheap compared to others and also very environmental.  Luckily neither of these points are particularly true, not that the truth matters to most.  But they cost more than the basic $1,000 chipboard coffins and are made from trees as are the wooden coffins. 

    Of course this is just the low end coffins, with the midrange the quality often changes quite a bit.  For example midrange models are almost always chipboard (which is actually quite decent for a coffin) and put together in a more complex method than the 'snap together' variety.  These coffins will also sometimes feature actual metal handles rather than plastic and have more details on the body of the coffin.  But they cost $5,000 or more, so one would expect these basic changes.  Yet seeing it from the undertakers angle one wonders if this price is worth it.  People outside the industry assumed that if the coffin cost $5,000 for them then it would cost the funeral home $4,000 or more.  It was always assumed that the profit margin was low or at least modest.  When I informed them that the coffin actually cost $1,000 to $2,000 (after shipping and tax) they were quite surprised and outraged.  But why, what is wrong with a business making money?  Well, quite simply I wont answer this here, it is too long and convoluted a concept to discuss in this post.  So for now I will look at why the funeral home has such a high profit on certain coffins.

    As one conductor said "the expensive coffins are the bread and butter of the industry".  He went on to say that this large profit allows the company to survive, to pay the employee wages and cover unforeseen costs.  One would think that the "service fee" families pay for funeral would cover the cost of the funeral.  But it only covers most of it and for that funeral.  There are others where the service fee did not cover everything.  For example I waited for over an hour at RPA for the body to be released (due to the shocking attitudes and management at RPA).  So who paid for the time we spent there, for two people to just sit around for an hour or so?  Well the coffin did.  It would be wrong and inappropriate to pass this cost directly onto the family, whether they can afford it or not.  But it would be just as wrong not to pay the transfer crew for their time.  Thus instead the cost is taken off the cost of the high profit coffins.  So now you might be thinking that undertakers are basically taking the costs of funerals from those who pay for a high profit coffin.  This is essentially correct; the funeral home is doing a funeral yet charing another family for the costs that the original family would refuse.  Nothing is wrong with this practice, the costs have to be covered and it would be wrong or impossible for the funeral home to pass on these costs.  So if they want to stay in business then they have to find the money somewhere.  This somewhere is high profit coffins, if people are willing to pay this price then the funeral home has every right to charge the price.  A suit salesman once told me that he would charge over 180% profit in some suburbs for his suits to cover the costs of selling suits at a slight loss in other places.  It is simply the same process at work with coffins.

    Actually the whole coffin sale process is quite refined.  Tom Jokinen explains the American coffin sale process in 'Curtains: Adventures if an undertaker in training' (an amusing and true book).  Here he illustrates how where coffins are placed in the "show room" is strictly dictated.  And not just their hight, but their lateral location (as in which is on the right and which is on the left).  They even specifically design the pathway people will walk, working out the direction and pace of travel.  All very American and related to McDonaldization, yet in Australia we do not do things quite the same way.  The sale of coffins is often more relaxed here, although showrooms exist and are thought about they are not thought of in the same detail as in America.  In fact WNBull (a top funeral home in Sydney and one of the most expensive) did not even have a show room of any sort.  One existed in the past but they found it was not used very much or well and as such turned it into a meeting room.  This is interesting in and of itself.  That in America the show room is considered important if not essential for most funeral homes according to Jokinen.  Yet in Australia even a top funeral home did not see a need for a show room and instead thought a staff meeting room would be more effective.  Actually, not many funeral homes in Australia have show rooms.

    Many undertakers who are involved with organising a funeral for a loved one, or themselves, will tend to buy the midrange coffins.  These people will also either inspect the coffin in the trim shop, not in the show room or simply pick it from a book (like most Australians).  However they will always have a pre-determined preference for the coffin.  They know what they want, what they will pay and what they will get and they got for that.  Talking with undertakers who had organised funerals for relatives it was clear they were never sold a coffin so much as bought the coffin.  Yet more interestingly, knowing the value and markup, people with industry experience will either got for the very cheapest of the cheap of upper midrange.  From talking with them I think it is because they know the value of the cheap coffin is decent and they do not see the reasoning for paying more.  After all, these are people who have been to several funerals every day for the past few years which has made it a mundane and common affair.  When they got for the upper midrange it appears to usually be because of the "value" or "quality" that they see in these coffins.  They know what they are getting, know the high profits and yet think of these coffins as quite worth it for themselves and their loved ones. 

    If one wanted to buy and provide a coffin themselves without going through a funeral home then this is quite possible.  Simply contact a coffin manufacturer and see which one will sell a single coffin.  Almost all Australian coffin manufactures would be quite happy and willing to sell one coffin to someone (and have done so in the past, even taking custom orders).  I would recommend 'Beta Caskets' for this as they have good service, are good quality and well priced.  You might pay a lot more than it cost to make, but it would still be cheaper than buying it from a funeral home.  Again, despite knowing this and having contacts with coffin manufacturers funeral directors are still most likely to buy the coffin through the funeral home.  I have never heard of someone with industry experience buying the coffin from the manufacturer.

    Value is an complicated idea when talking about coffins.  One dimension is that they have an emotional value, playing an important role in the funeral service.  On another side they have a financial value, people want quality for paying thousands.  Yet this value decreases as price increases with top range coffins having over 100% profit for the funeral home.  At first many people find this profit avaricious, to be taking advantage of the dead and the grieving to make money.  Upon closer inspection this becomes transparently false as the money does go to covering valid unspoken costs.  Without the top end coffins there would be far fewer funeral homes and far fewer options for families.

~~