HVAC
HVAC Dispatch Efficiency Calculator
See how much of a technician's day reaches a customer's invoice once travel and gaps are counted.
Result
The 15% figure is an illustration, not a promise. What tighter dispatching can actually recover depends on your service area, how clustered your customers are, your appointment windows and how much of the driving is genuinely unavoidable. A rural territory has a floor no software can get under. Use this to size the prize, then measure your own before-and-after.
Open the HVAC dispatch demoWhat moves the number
- Drive time between calls, which is paid and unbillable.
- Gaps between appointments created by wide or badly sequenced windows.
- First time fix rate, since a return visit consumes a slot twice.
Where this one goes wrong
Optimising routes while ignoring skills and parts. A short drive to a job the technician cannot complete costs more than a longer drive to one they can.
Questions
About this calculator
What is a realistic billable share of the day?
Lower than most owners assume once travel, gaps and paperwork are counted. Measure your own before setting a target, because the industry figures people quote rarely define what they include.
Does tighter scheduling help?
Up to a point. A day booked with no slack cannot absorb an emergency or an overrun, and the resulting disruption usually costs more than the gap it removed.
What improves dispatch efficiency most?
Clustering by area, assigning from current position rather than from the depot, and making sure the right parts are on the van. Routing alone addresses only one of the three.
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How to use this calculator
- Field technicians. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 6.
- Paid hours per technician per day. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 8.
- Jobs completed per technician per day. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 4.
- Average travel time between jobs (minutes). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 26.
- Average time on site per job (minutes). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 75.
- Admin, paperwork and depot time per day (minutes). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 45.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to time on site, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Field technicians | 6 |
| Paid hours per technician per day | 8 |
| Jobs completed per technician per day | 4 |
| Average travel time between jobs (minutes) | 26 |
| Average time on site per job (minutes) | 75 |
| Admin, paperwork and depot time per day (minutes) | 45 |
| Working days per year | 250 |
| Burdened labour cost per hour | $38 |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Time on site main result | 62.50% |
| Travel hours per day, whole team | 10.4 |
| Annual cost of travel time | $98,800 |
| Unaccounted minutes per technician per day | 31 |
Your technicians spend 62.50% of the paid day in front of equipment and 21.67% of it driving. Across 6 technicians that is 2,600 hours a year behind the wheel, costing $98,800 in burdened labour. Trimming just 15% off the average trip, roughly 4 minutes. Would be worth about $14,820 a year.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only burdened labour cost per hour, this is what happens to time on site. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Burdened labour cost per hour ($) | Time on site |
|---|---|
| $19 | 62.50% |
| $29 | 62.50% |
| $38 example above | 62.50% |
| $57 | 62.50% |
| $76 | 62.50% |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Field technicians
- A number, between 0 and 200, starting at 6.
- Paid hours per technician per day
- A number, between 0 and 24, starting at 8.
- Jobs completed per technician per day
- A number, between 0 and 30, starting at 4.
- Average travel time between jobs (minutes)
- A number, between 0 and 300, starting at 26.
- Average time on site per job (minutes)
- A number, between 0 and 600, starting at 75.
- Admin, paperwork and depot time per day (minutes)
- A number, between 0 and 480, starting at 45.
- Working days per year
- A number, between 0 and 366, starting at 250.
- Burdened labour cost per hour ($)
- A money amount, starting at $38.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Time on site | The headline result. A percentage. |
| Travel hours per day, whole team | A number. |
| Annual cost of travel time | A money figure. |
| Unaccounted minutes per technician per day | A number. |
Before you rely on this number
Sizing, capacity and load figures here are planning estimates. A real installation depends on the manufacturer's data for the specific equipment, the duct system it is going into, and a proper load calculation for the building. Use this to sanity-check a number or price a job, not to select equipment.
Keep going
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Open calculatorSee dispatching that works this way
The interactive demo runs a full day for a fictional contractor: assignment by skill and proximity, a live dispatch board, and a route comparison you can apply.