A simple way to price small repair jobs in Wisconsin so the trip, the parts, and your time all get paid for, not just the labor.
You drive 25 minutes to Hartland, fix a leaky valve in 20 minutes, and charge $180. Sounds fine until you do the math on gas, drive time, and the parts you had sitting in the truck. A lot of small jobs quietly cost you money.
The real cost of a small job
Most contractors price the labor and forget the rest. A $180 repair might actually cost you $220 once you add it up.
- Drive time there and back: say 45 minutes at your real hourly rate
- Gas and truck wear: a few dollars a mile adds up fast
- Time writing the invoice and taking payment
- The part sitting in your truck that you paid for weeks ago
Add those up and a $180 ticket can run you $220 in real cost. You didn't lose the job. You lost money doing it.
Set a trip charge and mean it
A trip charge covers the drive and the time before you even touch a tool. Plenty of Waukesha County contractors charge $50-$95 just to show up, then apply it to the job if the customer books.
Say it out loud when you quote: "There's a $65 trip charge, and it comes off the total if we move forward today." Most people are fine with that. The ones who aren't were never going to be good customers anyway.
Set a minimum job price
Pick a number below which you don't work. For a lot of trades, that's $150-$250 depending on the type of work. If the job is smaller than that, you still charge the minimum.
This isn't about squeezing people. It's about the fact that a 20 minute job and a 2 hour job both need you to load the truck, drive, and deal with paperwork. The overhead is close to the same either way.
Know your real hourly number
Most contractors know what they charge per hour but not what an hour actually costs them once you count insurance, truck payments, tools, and the slow weeks. Take your yearly costs (truck, insurance, tools, software, your own pay) and divide by the hours you actually bill in a year, not the hours you work.
That number is almost always higher than people expect. A guy in Oconomowoc running a one-truck plumbing outfit might think he needs $85 an hour and find out his real number is closer to $115 once everything is counted.
Build the trip charge and minimum into your quote every time
The mistake most contractors make is doing this math once and then forgetting it under pressure. A customer calls, sounds nice, and you quote low because you don't want to seem greedy. Then you do that ten times a month.
Write your trip charge and your minimum on a sticky note by the phone if you have to. Quote the same way every time. If a job estimator or cost estimator tool helps you stay consistent, use it. Consistency is what protects your margin, not any single quote.
Charge for the driving in spread-out counties
Lake Country is spread out. A job in Delafield and a job in Pewaukee both look local on a map but eat 30-40 minutes of your day in drive time. If your service area covers more than 20 minutes in any direction, build a small mileage or zone fee into jobs outside your home base.
You don't have to call it a "fee" if that word bugs you. Just fold it into the price. The customer never needs to see the math, they just need to see a number that makes sense for you.
Don't discount to compete on price alone
When a competitor quotes lower, it's tempting to match them. Before you do, ask what they're leaving out. A lot of low quotes skip permits, cleanup, or proper materials. If you're pricing correctly and they're not, you're not really competing on the same job.
It's fine to lose some jobs on price. The customers who only care about the lowest number are usually the ones who call back angry six months later. Let those go.
Review your pricing twice a year
Materials, gas, and insurance all creep up over a year, especially with a Wisconsin winter adding wear on trucks and tools. Set a reminder for spring and fall to check your numbers again. If your costs went up 8% and your prices didn't move, you just gave yourself a pay cut without meaning to.
Questions people ask
Should I tell customers about the trip charge upfront?
Yes. Say it when you book the call, not when you hand them the invoice. Surprise fees are what get you a bad review, not the fee itself.
What if a competitor never charges a trip fee?
They're either eating that cost somewhere else or not covering it at all. Either way, that's their business problem. Price for your own costs, not theirs.
How do I raise prices without losing customers?
Raise new customer pricing first, then phase in existing customers over a few months with a short notice. Most people expect prices to go up over time and won't blink at a reasonable increase.