Service pricing calculator
Most route pricing is a number someone said out loud in 2019 and nobody has re-checked since. This builds the price from the bottom: the minutes, the chemicals, the overhead they carry, and the margin you want left over.
Price a stop from what it actually costs you. The wage default is the US median for general maintenance and repair workers — $23.84/hour, BLS, May 2025.
Price this stop at
$36.95per visit
| Line | Per stop | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Labour (37 min) | $14.7 | $63.66 |
| Chemicals | $6.5 | $28.15 |
| Overhead | $4.66 | $20.2 |
| Total cost | $25.87 | $112 |
| Profit at target margin | $11.09 | $48 |
| Billed | $36.95 | $160 |
A full day at this price bills
$517
Drive time is the job
A stop that takes twenty-five minutes on site and twelve minutes to reach is a thirty-seven minute job. Route businesses that price only the on-site time are donating roughly a third of their labour, every stop, all season. Put the drive in and the number changes shape immediately.
How to use it
- Time a typical visit: minutes on site, and minutes of driving to reach it from the previous stop.
- Enter the loaded hourly cost of the tech — wage plus the employer side of tax and insurance. The technician pay guide covers what goes into that number.
- Enter the chemicals a typical stop uses, your overhead as a percentage of labour plus chemicals, and the margin you want.
- Read the price per visit, the monthly figure at 4.33 visits, and what a full day bills at your stops per day.
Worked example
A stop with 30 minutes on site and a 15-minute drive, a tech costing $28 an hour loaded, $8 of chemicals, 22% overhead, a 30% margin and 12 stops a day:
| Step | Working | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Paid time | 30 + 15 min | 45 min |
| Labour | 45 ÷ 60 × $28 | $21.00 |
| Overhead | ($21.00 + $8.00) × 22% | $6.38 |
| Total cost | $21.00 + $8.00 + $6.38 | $35.38 |
| Price per visit | $35.38 ÷ (1 − 0.30) | $50.54 |
| Profit per visit | $50.54 − $35.38 | $15.16 |
| Per month | price × 4.33 | $218.85 |
| A full day | price × 12 stops | $607 |
Bill it on the service invoice template with the chemicals on their own line, so the customer sees what the visit carries.
The wage default, and why it is there
The calculator starts at $23.84 an hour because that is the US median hourly wage for general maintenance and repair workers in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 — the closest published occupation to a route tech. It is a starting point, not your payroll. Type your real loaded cost in, including the employer side of tax and insurance, and the price moves accordingly.
Margin is not markup
A 30% margin means 30% of the price, not 30% added to cost. The calculator divides by (1 − margin) rather than multiplying, which is why the number is a little higher than the one most people expect — and why most people are under-charging.
What to do with the answer
Compare it against what the market near you charges — the cost guide walks the ranges owners see. If your honest price sits above the local going rate, the fix is usually density, not discounting: tighter routes cut drive time, and drive time is the biggest single line in this calculation.