A plumbing service call fee is the price of showing up, looking, and being allowed to leave if they do not want the repair. It is not a penalty and it is not a deposit you invent at the door. The generic way to set any trip charge is on trip charges and diagnostic fees. This page is the plumbing visit: a short stop, a stocked truck, and a number that still works when they say no.
The full drain, including parts and a lead fee, is in how to job cost a plumbing service call. The fee below is the visit before anyone buys a cartridge, a flange, or a water heater.
Rates in every table here. Labor is $45 an hour unless a table says otherwise, the truck is $0.65 a mile, and overhead is $12 an hour. That $12 is a $1,920 monthly shop cost spread across 160 hours. These are the public calculator's starter numbers. On the phone, overhead is the monthly shop cost split across the hours you actually log that month, and the open month stays a draft until it closes. One labor rate covers the job. A helper's pay goes in other direct costs.
What the minimum has to pay for
Thirty minutes at the house. Thirty minutes in the van. Sixteen miles. No parts, because the useful version of this fee is the one you still collect when they decline. Overhead rides on the hour you were out of the shop, not on a wish that the call will turn into a bigger ticket.
On the phone, tap the job type that matches what you actually did. Drain, leak, water heater, bathroom, boiler, other, or callback. A look-and-leave is still one of those. What they paid is the fee. Zero is allowed when you waived it, and the screen will treat that as a cost pile, which is the honest result.
An $89 fee on a normal radius
This is the call a lot of shops advertise. Half an hour, a short drive, nothing sold.
Look and leave, $89
| Line | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| What they paid | $89.00 | |
| Onsite labor | 0.5 h × $45.00 | $22.50 |
| Travel labor | 0.5 h × $45.00 | $22.50 |
| Vehicle | 16 mi × $0.65 | $10.40 |
| Materials, your cost | $0.00 | |
| Overhead | 1 h × $12.00 | $12.00 |
| Total job cost | $67.40 | |
| Net profit | $89.00 − $67.40 | $21.60 |
| Net margin | $21.60 ÷ $89.00 | 24.3% |
| Profit per hour | $21.60 ÷ 1 h | $21.60 / h |
Open this ticket in the calculator. Change the labor rate or the miles and the fee moves with them.
The verdict is OK, not a winner. Fine if this is filler between high-margin installs. To hit 35% net with this cost stack, the invoice needed to be $103.69 (you charged $89.00). Profit is $21.60 on 1 hour, $21.60 an hour. The 35% price on this exact stack is $103.69. An $89 fee clears the cost. It does not clear the solid line.
The same visit at $125
| Line | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| What they paid | $125.00 | |
| Onsite labor | 0.5 h × $45.00 | $22.50 |
| Travel labor | 0.5 h × $45.00 | $22.50 |
| Vehicle | 16 mi × $0.65 | $10.40 |
| Materials, your cost | $0.00 | |
| Overhead | 1 h × $12.00 | $12.00 |
| Total job cost | $67.40 | |
| Net profit | $125.00 − $67.40 | $57.60 |
| Net margin | $57.60 ÷ $125.00 | 46.1% |
| Profit per hour | $57.60 ÷ 1 h | $57.60 / h |
Open this ticket in the calculator. Change the labor rate or the miles and the fee moves with them.
The verdict is solid — 35%+ net. Do more of this work. This invoice is $21.31 over the 35% price. The work did not change. The offer did. If $125 loses bookings you wanted, the answer is not to pretend the drive was free. The answer is a tighter radius, or a fee you say out loud before the truck moves.
The same $89 fee at a real burdened rate
The starter rate is $45. If the burdened cost of an hour is closer to $65, the $89 card is a different business. The calculator will multiply a paycheck wage by 1.6 if you only know the wage. The phone will not. It uses the rate in Settings. Until you change the starter, the result says "This used $45/hr labor. Tap to set your real rate."
Look and leave, $89, labor at $65
| Line | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| What they paid | $89.00 | |
| Onsite labor | 0.5 h × $65.00 | $32.50 |
| Travel labor | 0.5 h × $65.00 | $32.50 |
| Vehicle | 16 mi × $0.65 | $10.40 |
| Materials, your cost | $0.00 | |
| Overhead | 1 h × $12.00 | $12.00 |
| Total job cost | $87.40 | |
| Net profit | $89.00 − $87.40 | $1.60 |
| Net margin | $1.60 ÷ $89.00 | 1.8% |
| Profit per hour | $1.60 ÷ 1 h | $1.60 / h |
Open this ticket in the calculator. Change the labor rate or the miles and the fee moves with them.
The verdict is thin — under 20% net. Travel, burdened labor, or the lead fee is eating this. A busy week of these still feels broke. To hit 35% net with this cost stack, the invoice needed to be $134.46 (you charged $89.00). This is why a fee copied from a Facebook group fails. Their hour and your hour are not the same hour. Set the rate once, then set the fee.
The drive that breaks the fee
Forty-five minutes and 28 miles, still half an hour on site, still $89. You said yes because the phone rang and the afternoon had a hole.
$89 fee, longer drive
| Line | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| What they paid | $89.00 | |
| Onsite labor | 0.5 h × $45.00 | $22.50 |
| Travel labor | 0.75 h × $45.00 | $33.75 |
| Vehicle | 28 mi × $0.65 | $18.20 |
| Materials, your cost | $0.00 | |
| Overhead | 1.25 h × $12.00 | $15.00 |
| Total job cost | $89.45 | |
| Net profit | $89.00 − $89.45 | -$0.45 |
| Net margin | -$0.45 ÷ $89.00 | -0.5% |
| Profit per hour | -$0.45 ÷ 1.25 h | -$0.36 / h |
Open this ticket in the calculator. Change the labor rate or the miles and the fee moves with them.
The verdict is that this ticket lost money. Raise the price, add a trip charge, cut the drive, or stop taking this job type from expensive leads. To hit 35% net with this cost stack, the invoice needed to be $137.62 (you charged $89.00). A service call fee is a radius with a price attached. Outside that radius the fee has to move, or the job has to be worth the repair you expect to sell. Hoping is not a price.
When they buy the repair
You told them the fee applies toward the work. Then the invoice is the repair, once. It already contains the roll. Adding $89 on top of a $280 repair is a second promise. Crediting it means you enter $280, the extra time, and the parts at your cost.
Repair with the fee credited, not added again
| Line | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| What they paid | $280.00 | |
| Onsite labor | 1.25 h × $45.00 | $56.25 |
| Travel labor | 0.5 h × $45.00 | $22.50 |
| Vehicle | 16 mi × $0.65 | $10.40 |
| Materials, your cost | $45.00 | |
| Overhead | 1.75 h × $12.00 | $21.00 |
| Total job cost | $155.15 | |
| Net profit | $280.00 − $155.15 | $124.85 |
| Net margin | $124.85 ÷ $280.00 | 44.6% |
| Profit per hour | $124.85 ÷ 1.75 h | $71.34 / h |
Open this ticket in the calculator. Change the labor rate or the miles and the fee moves with them.
The verdict is solid — 35%+ net. Do more of this work. This invoice is $41.31 over the 35% price. Gross margin before overhead is 52.1%. Direct cost excluding overhead is $134.15. The fee did its job on the way in. The repair is a separate margin. Both can be healthy. Entering the fee as revenue and the repair as revenue for the same hour will make Thursday look richer than the bank account.
How to say it before the truck rolls
- On the phone: the fee, what it includes, and that it comes off the repair if they go ahead today.
- In the booking text, if you send one: the same sentence, with the window. The costing app does not send that text. Your phone or the tool that holds the schedule does.
- At the door, repeat it only if the person who booked is not the person who answers. Do not invent a new number in the driveway.
- If you waive it, log what they paid as zero, or as whatever you actually collected. A waived fee with no row is how the week looks fine.
Price shoppers who hang up on a number you said clearly were going to argue with the repair price too. The plumbing jobs that pay still have to survive this first hour. The plumbing page is the product around the log. The fee is a price you can check before you print it on the van.
Frequently asked questions
What should a plumbing service call fee cover?
Burdened labor for the time on site and the drive, the truck cost for the miles, and overhead for those hours. Parts stay off this fee. If they buy a repair, the parts go on that invoice.
Should the plumbing service call fee apply toward the repair?
Yes, if you said it would. Crediting it means the repair invoice already includes the roll. Adding it again on top is a different promise than the one you made on the phone.
Is $89 enough for a plumber trip charge?
On a half hour at the house, a half hour of driving, 16 miles, and a $45 labor rate, $89 clears the cost and lands in the OK band, under 35% net. At a $65 burdened rate the same visit is thin. A 28-mile drive on the $89 fee loses money.
Where do I put the fee in the job log?
If they only paid the fee, that amount is what they paid. If they went ahead with a repair and you credited the fee, enter the repair invoice once. Do not enter the fee and the repair as two revenues for one visit.
Price the look-and-leave
Same drive, same half hour on site. Change the fee and see the margin.