Technician Utilization Calculator

What is technician utilization?

Utilization = billable hours ÷ paid hours. If your tech is paid for 40 hours but only billable for 28 of them, you're at 70% utilization — and the other 12 hours are pure cost.

Industry rough benchmarks for service trades:

• Below 60% — there's a structural problem: too many gaps between jobs, too much travel, or not enough booked work.
• 60-75% — most well-run small shops live here.
• 75-85% — strong; usually requires tight dispatching and a steady book of recurring work.
• Above 85% — rare; likely under-counting non-billable time (don't fool yourself).

Where billable hours actually go

For a 40-hour week, the typical leakage:

• Travel between jobs — 5-10 hours/week unless you cluster jobs by zip code
• Parts runs — 1-3 hours/week per tech who isn't carrying a stocked truck
• Shop time — checking in, picking up materials, debriefs — usually 2-4 hours/week
• Slow days / cancellations — gaps in the schedule the dispatcher couldn't fill
• Admin — paperwork, callbacks, customer calls

The fastest utilization wins are usually fewer-but-stocked truck inventory (eliminates parts runs) and clustering jobs geographically (reduces travel).

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CrewConductor tracks job time and billable hours per tech, so utilization reports are built from real data — not from your guess at the end of the quarter. Start a free 14-day trial.