What does the field service visit calculator show?
A field technician's day has three parts: time on site with the customer, time on the road between customers, and time that is neither, such as starting at the depot, collecting parts and breaks. Only the first part is the service you sell, but you pay for all of it.
This calculator turns those three parts into visits per technician per day and a cost per visit that includes paid hours and vehicle costs. It suits maintenance contractors, installation teams, after-sales service, pest control, inspection and any team that drives from one customer site to the next.
- Visits and cost: visits per day, visits per month for the team, cost per visit and how much of it is travel.
- Less travel: how many visits the same team gains if travel time per visit falls by a share you choose.
- Team size: how many technicians a monthly visit volume needs, now and with shorter travel.
What inputs do you need?
| Input | Where to find it | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Time on site | Job cards, work orders, check-in and check-out times | Use the average over a month, by job type if they differ a lot. |
| Distance and speed between visits | Trip reports from your tracking system | Divide driving distance by the number of visits, and driving distance by driving hours. |
| Time not available for visits | Rosters, depot start times, break rules | Include the drive back to the depot at the end of the day. |
| Technician cost per hour | Payroll, Driver Cost Calculator | Monthly full cost ÷ (days × paid hours). |
| Vehicle running cost per km | Fuel cards, maintenance and tire records | A year of spend ÷ distance driven in that year. |
How are visits per day and cost per visit calculated?
Visits per technician per day
The result is an average and may include a fraction: 7.3 visits a day means 7 full visits on most days and an eighth on some. The calculator also shows the whole number.
Monthly cost and cost per visit
Shorter travel and team size
All rates and costs are your own inputs. The calculator uses no outside rates or factors.
Worked example: 10 maintenance technicians
The default values are examples in US dollars; replace them with your team's figures. 10 technicians, 26 days, a 9-hour shift with 60 minutes not available for visits, 45 minutes on site, 12 km between visits at 35 km/h, USD 12 per hour, USD 0.20 per km and USD 480 per vehicle per month.
- Available time: 9 × 60 − 60 = 480 minutes. Travel per visit: 12 ÷ 35 × 60 = 20.6 minutes. Time per visit: 65.6 minutes.
- Visits per day: 480 ÷ 65.6 = 7.3 visits per technician, or 1,903 visits a month for the team. Each technician drives about 88 km a day.
- Labor: 10 × 26 × 9 × 12 = 28,080. Vehicle running: 22,839 km × 0.20 = 4,568. Vehicle fixed: 10 × 480 = 4,800. Monthly cost: USD 37,448.
- Cost per visit: 37,448 ÷ 1,903 = USD 19.68, of which USD 6.51 is travel. Technicians spend 28% of the paid shift on the road.
- Cutting travel time and distance per visit by 20% raises visits to 7.8 a day, adds 127 visits a month with the same team and lowers the cost per visit to USD 18.11.
- For 2,200 visits a month, the team needs 12 technicians today, or 11 with the 20% travel cut.
How do you read the results?
- Visits per day is the capacity figure for planning and for agreeing response times with customers.
- Cost per visit is the figure to compare with the price in a service contract or a call-out fee.
- Travel share of the shift shows how much paid time goes to the road. When it is above a quarter of the day, routing and grouping visits by area usually matter more than working faster on site.
- Technicians needed tells you whether the current team can carry the planned volume, and how much of the gap shorter travel could close.
How can technicians complete more visits per day?
- Group visits by area: assign each technician a zone for the day instead of crossing the city. Estimate the effect with the Route Optimization Savings Calculator.
- Plan the order of stops before the shift: fixed appointment windows and a planned sequence cut empty driving between visits.
- Shorten the start of the day: prepare parts the evening before, or let technicians start from home when the first job is close.
- Check vehicle use: compare how much each vehicle is used with the Fleet Vehicle Utilization Calculator, and team size with the Fleet Size Calculator.
Assumptions and limits
Results are estimates based on the values entered, and every default is an example, not a market rate. The calculator uses averages: one time on site, one distance and one speed for every visit. It assumes each technician works alone with one vehicle and that every available minute goes to visits and travel. Waiting for customers, return visits, overtime, parts and materials are not included. Add them to time on site or to the costs if they matter for your team.