Gross Profit per Truck Calculator
By BRIX Editorial Team · Updated
Gross profit per truck is the gross profit (revenue minus materials, field labor and other direct job costs) divided by the number of revenue-producing trucks. Divide again by working days for a daily number. A 5-truck shop with $93,000 of monthly gross profit makes $18,600 per truck, or $886 per truck per day.
- Gross profit per truck, this month
- $18,600
- Gross profit per truck, annualized
- $223,200
- Revenue per truck, this month
- $42,000
- Gross margin
- 44.3%
- Overhead each truck carries
- $12,000
- Daily gross profit needed to cover overhead
- $571
- Net profit per truck, this month
- $6,600
Each truck makes $886 of gross profit a day and needs $571 to cover its share of overhead, so it clears about $6,600 a month. Adding a truck only pays if the new one can reach that daily number too.
Key takeaways
- Gross profit per truck = (revenue − direct job costs) ÷ revenue-producing trucks.
- Per truck per day is the number to manage: it shows on today's schedule, not next quarter's P&L.
- Compare it to overhead per truck per day. The gap is what each truck really earns.
- Add a truck only when the new one can cover its own added cost and its share of overhead.
What is gross profit per truck?
Gross profit per truck measures how much money each service truck or crew brings in after paying for the parts, materials and labor on its jobs. Service companies use it because the truck is the unit of capacity: every truck on the road carries a tech's wages, a vehicle payment, insurance and stock, so each one has to earn its keep.
GP per truck per day = (R − M − L − D) ÷ T ÷ W
- R
- revenue for the period
- M
- materials and parts
- L
- burdened field labor
- D
- other direct costs: subs, permits, equipment rental
- T
- revenue-producing trucks or crews
- W
- working days in the period
How to calculate gross profit per truck
- 1
Pick a period and pull revenue.
A month is easiest. Use revenue from completed jobs, not deposits on future work.
- 2
Subtract direct job costs.
Materials, parts, burdened field labor, subs and permits: your cost of goods sold. What's left is gross margin in dollars.
- 3
Count only trucks that make money.
Service vans and crew trucks that run jobs. Leave out the owner's truck, the sales or estimator vehicle, and a spare.
- 4
Divide by trucks, then by working days.
Gross profit ÷ trucks = per truck per month. Divide by working days for per truck per day.
- 5
Compare to overhead per truck per day.
Monthly overhead ÷ trucks ÷ working days is the daily gross profit each truck needs just to break even.
Gross profit per truck by trade
Route trades make money on volume; repair trades make it on ticket size. The examples below are illustrative truck-days, not benchmarks. Plug in your own stops, ticket and margin.
| Trade | Work | Stops per day | Avg ticket | Gross margin | GP per truck per day | GP per year (250 days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HVAC service | Repair and maintenance calls | 3 | $520 | 55% | $858 | $214,500 |
| Plumbing service | Repair and drain calls | 4 | $450 | 55% | $990 | $247,500 |
| Electrical service | Residential service calls | 3 | $600 | 50% | $900 | $225,000 |
| Garage door | Spring, opener and repair calls | 4 | $380 | 60% | $912 | $228,000 |
| Pest control | Recurring route stops | 10 | $120 | 60% | $720 | $180,000 |
| Lawn care | Mowing route stops, 2-person crew | 14 | $60 | 45% | $378 | $94,500 |
How to raise gross profit per truck
- Fill the schedule. An empty slot is pure lost gross profit; the truck, tech and insurance cost the same. Answer every call and follow up every estimate.
- Cut drive time. Tighter routing and zoning put more paid stops in a day. See route optimization.
- Raise the ticket. Present options, sell maintenance plans, and fix it right the first time. See first-time fix rate.
- Stock the truck right. Supply-house runs eat hours you can't bill. See truck stock.
- Price for your real costs. If gross margin is thin, the job pricing calculator shows what the price needs to be.
Common mistakes
- Counting every vehicle. The owner's pickup doesn't produce revenue. Including it makes every truck look worse.
- Using revenue per truck instead of gross profit. A truck selling $50,000 of equipment at a thin margin can earn less than one doing $30,000 of repairs.
- Ignoring the season. Look at slow months too. A truck that only works in July still costs money in March.
- Mixing truck costs. Put vehicle costs in overhead or in job costs, not both. Be consistent so months compare.
Track the underlying driver with the technician utilization calculator, and check the whole business with the break-even calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate gross profit per truck?
Subtract direct job costs (materials, burdened field labor, subs, permits) from revenue to get gross profit. Divide by the number of revenue-producing trucks for a monthly figure, then by working days for a daily figure.
What is a good gross profit per truck?
Good means it comfortably beats your overhead per truck. Divide monthly overhead by trucks and working days to get the daily break-even; every truck needs to clear it with room for profit. Compare trucks to each other and to your own history rather than a national number.
Should I use gross profit or revenue per truck?
Gross profit. Revenue per truck rewards selling expensive equipment at thin margins. Gross profit per truck shows what's actually left to pay overhead and profit.
When should I add another truck?
When your current trucks are booked out, you're turning down or delaying work, and the added truck's cost plus any extra overhead is covered by the gross profit it can realistically make in its first months. Run the numbers at half-full before you buy.
Is gross profit per truck the same as gross profit per tech?
They match when each truck has one tech. For crews, divide by crews (trucks) for capacity planning and by people to judge labor productivity. Pick one and track it the same way every month.
Related
- What Is Gross Margin?Gross margin is the share of revenue left after direct job costs. The formula, what counts as COGS for trades, and why service and install margins differ.
- What Is Gross Profit per Hour?Gross profit per hour shows what each labor hour earns after direct costs. See the formula, compare it to overhead per hour, and spot jobs that lose money.
- What Is Route Optimization?What route optimization is, how to plan routes for service crews, what wasted miles really cost per truck, and when route software pays for itself.
- What Is Truck Stock?What truck stock is, how to build a stock list from real usage, min/max restocking, what a supply-house run really costs, and truck stock tips by trade.
- Technician Utilization CalculatorMeasure technician utilization, efficiency and productivity, and see how much revenue a few more job hours per tech per week would add each year.
- Break-Even Calculator for Service BusinessesFind how many jobs and how much revenue your service business needs each month to break even, and what it takes to hit your profit target.
- Overhead Rate CalculatorCalculate your overhead rate as a % of revenue, % of direct labor and $ per billable hour. See what to count as overhead and how to price it into jobs.
- Scheduling and Dispatch Software That Puts the Right Crew on Every JobScheduling and dispatch that puts the right crew on the right job by skills, location and availability, with jobs booked straight from the phone.
- Maintenance Agreement Pricing CalculatorPrice HVAC, plumbing, pest control and lawn care maintenance agreements from your real costs. Get yearly and monthly prices, margin and tech hours needed.
- Markup and Margin CalculatorConvert markup to margin and margin to markup, or find both from cost and price. Free calculator with a markup-to-margin chart and trade examples.