Corbelworks · Field-Service Pricing

Service Call Minimum & Trip Charge Calculator

Find the smallest ticket that still covers drive time, dispatch, truck cost and profit — then set a trip charge that stops free diagnostic giveaways from eating your day.

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Part of the contractor service call pricing guide — trip charge, diagnostic minimum, and waived-fee bleed.

1 · Crew & trip costs

Use your burdened billable shop rate (wage + taxes/comp + overhead recovered per sold hour). If you only know base wage, start ~2.5–3.5× wage for a typical trades van tech.

Fully loaded cost per hour for the tech(s) on the truck, including overhead recovery. Not just wage.
$/hr
1 for solo service calls; 2 for pair installs / safety-required two-person jobs.
Shop → site → next stop (or back to shop). Unbillable clock time you still pay for.
min
Time you will spend even if the customer declines the repair (look, test, explain).
min
CSR time, scheduling, invoicing, parts pull. Often 10–20 minutes of office labor.
min
Burdened CSR/dispatcher cost. Use tech rate if the tech does their own scheduling.
$/hr
Fuel + wear. IRS standard mileage × miles is a floor; van + tools + insurance often runs higher.
$
Your cost, not retail. Use 0 for a pure diagnostic call; average ticket parts for a typical repair.
$
Retail over your cost. 40–100% is common in residential service; this is markup, not margin.
%
Profit left after all costs above. Service shops often target 15–25% net on the ticket.
%

2 · Check a quoted ticket

Paste what you actually charge today. See whether it clears the minimum — or how far under water free “estimates” put you.

What the customer pays if they decline further work (trip charge, diagnostic fee, or “free estimate” = $0).
$
“We’ll credit the diagnostic if you repair” still costs you when they say no — count those noes.
Method, formulas & sources

The trip is the product

On small tickets, drive time and dispatch often cost more than the wrench-turning. Pricing only the on-site hour is how shops stay “busy” and broke. The minimum ticket must recover all clock time the call consumes, plus truck and office cost, then leave a real margin.

Cost stack

  • Field labor hours = techs × (drive minutes + on-site minutes) / 60.
  • Field labor cost = field labor hours × burdened crew rate.
  • Dispatch cost = (dispatch minutes / 60) × office labor rate.
  • Direct cost = field labor + dispatch + vehicle/fuel + parts cost.
  • Parts sell price = parts cost × (1 + markup%). Markup here is over cost; it is not the ticket’s net margin.

Minimum ticket (margin formula)

To keep a net margin of m on the whole ticket:

minimum price = direct cost ÷ (1 − m)

Not direct cost × (1 + m). That markup shortcut underprices every call (a 20% markup on cost is only a 16.7% margin).

  • Trip / diagnostic charge (no parts sold) = (field labor + dispatch + vehicle) ÷ (1 − m).
  • Minimum repair ticket includes parts cost in the direct-cost stack, then applies the same margin formula. Parts markup revenue is shown separately so you can see contribution, but the minimum still uses cost-based margin so you do not double-count.

Waived-fee bleed

Weekly cash left on the table ≈ waived calls × (minimum diagnostic − what you collected, often $0). “Credit the diagnostic toward the repair” is fine when they buy; the loss is the declined calls where you still paid drive and CSR time.

Sources & assumptions

  • Margin vs. markup and cost-plus pricing are standard managerial-accounting definitions (e.g. Horngren, Cost Accounting; SBA small-business pricing guidance).
  • Burdened shop rate = wage × (1 + burden) / utilization + overhead per billable hour — see also the companion Corbelworks job-profit break-even calculator for building that rate from payroll and overhead.
  • IRS optional standard mileage rate is a published floor for vehicle cost (updated annually by the U.S. IRS); van-based trades with tools and higher insurance often exceed it — treat the mileage rate as a lower bound, not a target.
  • Service-industry practice of separate trip/diagnostic fees vs. bundled minimums is widespread in residential HVAC, plumbing and electrical; the math here is cost-recovery, not a claim about any one trade association’s recommended price list.
  • Defaults are illustrative placeholders. Confirm your burdened rate, workers’ comp class and real drive times. This tool is an estimator, not tax or accounting advice.

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