A trip charge is a flat fee added to a job to recover the cost of sending a technician and vehicle to the site: the drive time, fuel and vehicle wear. It is separate from the charge for the work itself.
Some companies call it a trip fee, travel charge or dispatch fee. It is most common alongside hourly or time and materials billing.
How to calculate a trip charge
Start from what a typical trip actually costs. With loaded labor cost per hour, C, average round-trip drive hours, D, and vehicle cost per mile, V, over average round-trip miles, M:
Trip cost ≈ C × D + V × M
Say C is $60, the average round trip is 0.6 hours and 18 miles, and the vehicle costs $0.70 a mile. Trip cost is $36 + $12.60, or $48.60. A trip charge of around $49 would recover it at cost; anything above adds margin.
Use your own averages, from job timestamps and mileage logs. The windshield time post shows how to measure drive time from the data you already have.
Why it matters
Drive time is paid labor that produces no work. If it isn't priced somewhere, jobs far from the shop or far from other work earn less than jobs nearby, and the pricing hides it. A trip charge makes that cost visible to you and to the customer.
Distance is the main variable. A flat trip charge undercharges at the edge of your service territory and overcharges next door. Many companies use two or three zones with different charges. Zone scheduling and booking jobs near other work on the same truck both shrink the real cost, which matters more than the fee itself.
The real cost of a trip also depends on where the truck is coming from. A job booked between two others nearby costs a short drive. The same job booked alone costs the full round trip. CrewLink computes travel from where the truck will actually be, the previous job, which is the number that tells you what a given trip really costs.
A common mistake
Setting the charge from the shop to the customer and back. Most trips start at another job. If the schedule is dense, your average trip is shorter than the shop-based figure. If it zig-zags, it is longer. Measure the real legs.
Related terms
- Service call fees often include the trip.
- Drive time is the main cost a trip charge recovers.
- Windshield time is all the driving across a day or week.
Common questions
Is a trip charge the same as a service call fee?
Not quite. A service call fee usually covers the visit and diagnosis. A trip charge covers travel only and is often added to hourly labor.
Should trip charges vary by distance?
Many companies use zones for that reason. Price the outer zones from their real drive times so distant jobs cover their cost.
Do customers accept trip charges?
Most accept a clearly stated fee given at booking. Surprise fees on the invoice cause complaints. State it when you book.