{
  "slug": "service-technician-utilization",
  "title": "Service Technician Utilization Calculator",
  "heading": "Service Technician Utilization Rate Calculator",
  "category": "financial",
  "url": "https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/service-technician-utilization",
  "summary": "See what share of paid hours are actually billable and where the gap goes.",
  "description": "Utilization rate is the percentage of a technician's paid hours that are actually billed to customers, and it's the single number that best explains why two crews with identical wages produce very different profit. This calculator takes paid hours, billable hours, and a breakdown of non-billable time (drive, training, admin, no-shows) to show utilization rate and the revenue left on the table from unbillable time.",
  "formula": "Utilization = billable hours ÷ paid hours. Revenue gap = (paid hours − billable hours) × effective billing rate.",
  "dateModified": "2026-09-30",
  "run_url": "https://www.revenuelab.fyi/api/public/calc?tool=service-technician-utilization",
  "inputs": [
    {
      "id": "paidHours",
      "label": "Paid hours per week",
      "kind": "number",
      "hint": null,
      "default": 40,
      "unit": null,
      "min": 1,
      "max": null
    },
    {
      "id": "billableHours",
      "label": "Billable hours per week",
      "kind": "number",
      "hint": null,
      "default": 27,
      "unit": null,
      "min": 0,
      "max": null
    },
    {
      "id": "billingRate",
      "label": "Effective billing rate per hour",
      "kind": "number",
      "hint": null,
      "default": 75,
      "unit": "$",
      "min": 10,
      "max": null
    },
    {
      "id": "techCostHour",
      "label": "Loaded tech cost per hour",
      "kind": "number",
      "hint": null,
      "default": 28,
      "unit": "$",
      "min": 5,
      "max": null
    }
  ],
  "outputs": [
    {
      "id": "utilization",
      "label": "Utilization rate",
      "format": "percent",
      "hint": null,
      "primary": true
    },
    {
      "id": "actualRevenue",
      "label": "Weekly billable revenue",
      "format": "currency",
      "hint": null,
      "primary": false
    },
    {
      "id": "revenueGap",
      "label": "Revenue lost to non-billable time",
      "format": "currency",
      "hint": null,
      "primary": false
    },
    {
      "id": "profit",
      "label": "Weekly profit (billed − paid labor)",
      "format": "currency",
      "hint": null,
      "primary": false
    }
  ],
  "worked_example": {
    "inputs": [
      "Paid hours per week: 40",
      "Billable hours per week: 27",
      "Effective billing rate per hour: 75 $",
      "Loaded tech cost per hour: 28 $"
    ],
    "outputs": [
      "Utilization rate: 68%",
      "Weekly billable revenue: $2,025",
      "Revenue lost to non-billable time: $975",
      "Weekly profit (billed − paid labor): $905"
    ]
  },
  "how_to": {
    "title": "How to use this",
    "steps": [
      "Enter paid hours per week.",
      "Enter billable hours per week.",
      "Enter effective billing rate per hour ($).",
      "Enter loaded tech cost per hour ($).",
      "Read your utilization rate on the right — it updates as you type.",
      "Hit Share to keep the scenario or send it to someone."
    ]
  },
  "scenarios": [
    {
      "name": "Conservative",
      "description": "Lower-end numbers — what if things land soft?",
      "values": {
        "paidHours": 24,
        "billableHours": 16,
        "billingRate": 45,
        "techCostHour": 17
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "Typical",
      "description": "Defaults — the most common real-world setup.",
      "values": {
        "paidHours": 40,
        "billableHours": 27,
        "billingRate": 75,
        "techCostHour": 28
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "Ambitious",
      "description": "Higher-end numbers — what if things really pop?",
      "values": {
        "paidHours": 64,
        "billableHours": 43,
        "billingRate": 120,
        "techCostHour": 45
      }
    }
  ],
  "limitations": [
    "Results are estimates before tax, fees, and inflation unless an input explicitly covers them.",
    "Rates are treated as fixed for the whole period — variable-rate products will drift from this projection.",
    "This is educational maths, not financial advice. Check anything contractual with the lender or your accountant."
  ],
  "faq": [
    {
      "q": "What's a good utilization rate for field service technicians?",
      "a": "Top-performing route-based service techs (pest control, lawn care, HVAC maintenance) hit 70-80% utilization. Techs doing more complex diagnostic or install work with heavy drive time between jobs often run 55-70%. Below 50% usually means routing, scheduling, or dispatch inefficiency is costing significant revenue every single week."
    },
    {
      "q": "What typically eats non-billable hours?",
      "a": "Drive time between jobs is usually the largest chunk, followed by no-shows/cancellations that leave a hole in the schedule, warehouse/shop time restocking the truck, training, and admin work like filling out paperwork or calling customers. Track these categories separately since each has a different fix: routing software helps drive time, better cancellation policies help no-shows."
    },
    {
      "q": "How much does raising utilization by 10 points matter financially?",
      "a": "On a $75/hour effective billing rate and 40 paid hours a week, moving utilization from 65% to 75% adds 4 billable hours a week, roughly $300 in additional weekly revenue per technician with no increase in payroll cost, since the tech is already being paid for that time either way. Across a 10-tech operation that's over $150,000 a year in recovered revenue."
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    "https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/crew-loaded-labor-cost",
    "https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/route-density-profit"
  ],
  "license": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "citation": "RevenueLab — Service Technician Utilization Calculator (https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/service-technician-utilization)"
}