A truck roll is a single dispatch of a technician and vehicle to a customer location. The term is used most often when counting the cost of visits, especially avoidable ones such as return trips.
How to calculate the cost of a truck roll
A simple per-visit cost uses a fully loaded hourly cost per technician, C, the round-trip drive time, D, the on-site time, S, and a per-mile vehicle cost, V, over M miles:
Truck roll cost ≈ C × (D + S) + V × M
Say C is $60, the drive is 0.75 hours, the visit is 1 hour, and the truck runs 25 miles at $0.70 a mile. That is $60 × 1.75 + $17.50, or $122.50, before any parts.
The second cost is opportunity. A truck roll fills a slot. An avoidable roll, such as a return trip for a missing part, fills a slot that a paying job could have used.
Why it matters for scheduling
Every avoidable truck roll creates scheduling work twice. Once when it is booked, taking an arrival window and a place on the board. Again in the knock-on to every job after it on that truck's day.
The largest sources of avoidable rolls are:
- Missed first fixes. Wrong part, wrong skill or not enough time booked. This is what first-time fix rate measures.
- Callbacks. The repair did not hold. Measured by callback rate.
- Failed arrivals. No one home, no access. Confirming the visit and keeping the window helps.
Truck rolls also carry drive time. A return trip to the edge of your territory costs more than one across the street, which is why it pays to book the return near other work on the same truck. The windshield time post shows how to price that drive on your own numbers.
A common mistake
Counting only labor. A return visit is often written off as "an hour of the tech's time." The drive both ways, the vehicle cost and the job that could not be booked into that slot are usually larger.
Related terms
- First-time fix rate measures how many jobs avoid a second roll.
- Callback rate counts rolls caused by work that did not hold.
- Drive time is a large part of each roll's cost.
Common questions
What is the difference between a truck roll and a job?
A job is the work. A truck roll is a visit. One job can take several truck rolls if it needs return trips.
How do you reduce truck rolls?
Gather better information at booking, stock trucks for common repairs, match technician skill to the job and book enough time to finish.
Does a remote fix count as a truck roll avoided?
Yes, if the issue would otherwise have needed a visit. It is worth tracking remote resolutions separately for that reason.