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Work out what to charge for a service call — build the fee from mileage, paid drive time, on-site diagnostic time and a markup, and see the full breakdown.
The IRS standard mileage rate is a handy figure for cost per mile. The recommended fee = mileage + drive-time labor + diagnostic labor, plus your markup.
A service call fee — sometimes called a trip charge, diagnostic fee or call-out fee — covers the real cost of showing up before any repair is quoted. Set it too low and you lose money on every drive; set it too high and you scare off callers. This calculator builds the fee from the ground up: the mileage to get there and back, your paid drive time, the on-site time it takes to diagnose the problem, and a markup that covers overhead and profit.
Enter the round-trip distance and your vehicle cost per mile, the round-trip drive time in minutes, the on-site diagnostic time, your labor rate, and the markup you want on the call. The tool adds the mileage and both blocks of labor, applies your markup, and shows a recommended service call fee plus the full breakdown — so you can see exactly which part of the trip is driving the number.
Worked example: a 20-mile round trip at $0.67 a mile is $13.40 in mileage. Forty minutes of drive time plus thirty minutes on site is 70 minutes at a $75 hourly rate, or $87.50 of labor. That is a $100.90 subtotal; add a 25% markup for overhead and profit and you get a recommended service call fee of about $126. Cut the drive time or raise your rate and watch the number move — the breakdown shows why.
Many shops credit the service call fee toward the final bill if the customer hires them, which turns the fee into a no-risk deposit rather than a barrier. Whatever you decide, charge it consistently. StandupCRM can attach a standard service-call fee to every booking and roll it into the invoice automatically, so it never gets forgotten. This free calculator is the quick way to set that number in the first place.
Add up your real cost to show up — round-trip mileage, paid drive time and on-site diagnostic time at your labor rate — then add a markup for overhead and profit. For most local trades that lands between $75 and $150. Enter your numbers above and this tool gives you a figure.
A service call fee (also called a trip charge or call-out fee) is a flat charge for coming to a customer’s location to assess or diagnose a problem, separate from the cost of any repair. It covers travel and diagnostic time whether or not the job goes ahead.
A diagnostic fee specifically covers the time spent finding the fault, while a service call fee usually bundles travel plus diagnosis. In this calculator the on-site time field is your diagnostic portion; the mileage and drive-time fields cover the trip.
Many shops do — if the customer approves the repair, the fee comes off the final bill. It makes the fee feel risk-free to the caller while still protecting you when a job does not go ahead. It is a pricing choice, not a rule.
Yes — it is free, needs no signup, and runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded or stored anywhere.
StandupCRM gives repair shops Google Ads landing pages, lead capture, and a CRM dashboard — plus free tools like this to bring customers in.
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