How is crew utilization calculated?

Divide billable on-site hours by total paid hours for the same crew over the same period. Most operators run it weekly per crew. Billable hours include the time the crew is performing work at the customer's address. Paid hours include drive time, breaks, and shop time at start and end of day.

What is a healthy crew utilization rate?

Most healthy service crews land between 55 and 75 percent. Below 50 percent the crew is spending more than half the paid day not generating revenue, usually due to long drive times, large gaps, or scope undersized for the planned window. Above 80 percent is hard to sustain because the day has no slack for the small things that always happen.

Is crew utilization the same as jobs per hour?

Close but not identical. Crew utilization measures how much of the paid hour is billable. Jobs per hour measures how many billable jobs the crew completes in that paid hour. Crew utilization can climb while jobs per hour stays flat, if visit lengths are growing without longer drive times. Operators usually track both.

What is the fastest lever on crew utilization?

Route density. A crew with stops 4 minutes apart vs 14 minutes apart will run dramatically different utilization. Recurring routes that cluster customers geographically over time compound the effect. The second-fastest lever is scope discipline, keeping visit lengths inside the planned window.

Should I count paperwork time as utilized or unutilized?

Most operators count it as unutilized because the customer does not pay for paperwork. The exception is when paperwork happens on-site as part of the visit (job summary, photo upload, signature collection); in that case it is part of the billable scope. The principle is consistent across periods, whichever rule you adopt.

How is crew utilization calculated?

Divide billable on-site hours by total paid hours for the same crew over the same period. Most operators run it weekly per crew. Billable hours include the time the crew is performing work at the customer's address. Paid hours include drive time, breaks, and shop time at start and end of day.

What is a healthy crew utilization rate?

Most healthy service crews land between 55 and 75 percent. Below 50 percent the crew is spending more than half the paid day not generating revenue, usually due to long drive times, large gaps, or scope undersized for the planned window. Above 80 percent is hard to sustain because the day has no slack for the small things that always happen.

Is crew utilization the same as jobs per hour?

Close but not identical. Crew utilization measures how much of the paid hour is billable. Jobs per hour measures how many billable jobs the crew completes in that paid hour. Crew utilization can climb while jobs per hour stays flat, if visit lengths are growing without longer drive times. Operators usually track both.

What is the fastest lever on crew utilization?

Route density. A crew with stops 4 minutes apart vs 14 minutes apart will run dramatically different utilization. Recurring routes that cluster customers geographically over time compound the effect. The second-fastest lever is scope discipline, keeping visit lengths inside the planned window.

Should I count paperwork time as utilized or unutilized?

Most operators count it as unutilized because the customer does not pay for paperwork. The exception is when paperwork happens on-site as part of the visit (job summary, photo upload, signature collection); in that case it is part of the billable scope. The principle is consistent across periods, whichever rule you adopt.

Glossary entry

What is crew utilization?

Why crew utilization is the operator's truth metric

Service businesses talk about labor cost in dollars per hour, but the more honest unit is dollars per billable hour. A crew at $40 per hour fully loaded who is utilized 60 percent of the day is really costing $66 per billable hour. The same crew at 75 percent utilization is costing $53. Move the metric six points and the company's labor margin moves measurably in the same direction without anyone raising prices or pushing the team harder.

Crew utilization is also the cleanest comparison between crews and between weeks. Revenue per crew can be skewed by customer mix. Crew utilization is the share of paid time the customer is actually paying for, no matter what the customer paid. Operators who look at the number weekly know within a quarter whether they are getting better or worse at running the day.

What drains crew utilization

Six categories account for almost all of the gap between paid hours and billable hours. The first two are the biggest in nearly every service business.

Drive time

The biggest idle category in almost every service business. Each extra 5-minute leg between stops compounds across 8 to 12 visits a day.

Gaps between stops

Buffers that turn into stand-around time. A 20-minute buffer that becomes a 35-minute stop because the previous visit finished early is utilization loss.

Customer no-shows

Crew rolled to the address, did not work, and rolled to the next. The whole window plus drive time gets charged to overhead.

Re-routing on the fly

When the office reshuffles the day mid-morning, crews spend minutes waiting for confirmation or driving back to a stop they passed.

Paperwork at shop

End-of-day paperwork done at the shop instead of on the device adds 20 to 45 minutes of paid-but-unbillable time.

Equipment and parts runs

Trips back to the shop or to the supply house mid-day eat utilization fast. A well-stocked truck eliminates most of them.

Typical bands by trade

Healthy ranges depend on the trade because the share of reactive vs recurring work shifts the ceiling.

Cleaning

Typical band: 55 to 70 percent. Drive time and gap discipline are the dominant levers.

Lawn care

Typical band: 60 to 78 percent. Dense routes drive the upper end.

HVAC

Typical band: 50 to 65 percent. Reactive call mix lowers the ceiling vs pure maintenance work.

Plumbing

Typical band: 45 to 60 percent. Emergency dispatch carries the most unbillable drive time of any trade.

Pool maintenance

Typical band: 65 to 80 percent. Short visits and dense routes keep utilization high.

Pest control

Typical band: 60 to 75 percent. Quarterly routes group customers tightly by zip code.

Related concepts

Frequently asked questions

: Divide billable on-site hours by total paid hours for the same crew over the same period. Most operators run it weekly per crew. Billable hours include the time the crew is performing work at the customer's address. Paid hours include drive time, breaks, and shop time at start and end of day.

Start today

See utilization land in week one.

Route-aware scheduling pushes utilization up the moment the calendar starts filling in real customers.

Get started See route optimization