Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine January 2026

HVACR NewsMagazine January 2026

Business & Marketing Tips

supply and demand, just like any other price. We supply technically trained labor, and consumers demand it, creating a market for our trade labor. We recommend that you use this 3-steps process to determine your flat rate per hourly sell rate.

Step #1 - Determining Your Flat Rate Repair Hourly Truck and Travel Costs

Most contractors use a flat per trip charge for repair work. Some use this method while using zones for different distances from the home office (e.g., 15 miles from office (Zone A) = ½ hour round trip plus truck charge). To calculate the hourly truck and the per-mile fuel and maintenance costs, refer to the model illustration. The result from this calculator means that for every hour the technician or installer is onsite to a job with a service vehicle, they must charge $36/per hour. You want to be able to hire the best available journeyman-level technicians so you can maximize service ticket opportunities. A journeyman is a technician skilled in all aspects of the residential HVAC tradecraft. This person would be considered competent to work in residential HVAC as a fully qualified technician for repairs, system fixes, enhancements, and replacement work. Your pricing system must enable you to hire the best. Using a labor cost rate lower than a new hire journeyman would require adjusting your price guide to Step #2 - Determining Your Flat Rate Hourly Technician Costs

recover the higher technician cost. If you do not change for your higher technician labor cost, you will lose money on every call. This calculator below is used to derive your unique company and local area technician hourly pricing rate for your upfront flat-rate pricing guide. This example contractor requires $335 per on-the-jobsite billable hour. The customers do not see this hourly rate since each itemized repair price ranges from a fraction of an hour to multiple hours to complete, and add repair parts with mark-up.