Grow Your Business
On July 1, 2026, the IRS raised the business standard mileage rate to 76 cents a mile, up from 72.5 cents in January, and tied the change to higher fuel costs (IRS Announcement 2026-11). This page measures technician drive time cost for all 50 states and the District of Columbia using BLS wage data, BLS labor burden data and the new IRS rate, so you can put a dollar figure on windshield time. Whether you route the day in dispatch software or on a whiteboard, the numbers below show what each unbilled drive hour costs.
What does an hour of technician drive time cost in 2026?
At the national median, one hour of technician drive time costs a service business about $64.64 in 2026. That figure combines two costs. The first is labor. The median installation, maintenance and repair worker earned $28.66 an hour in May 2025, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, and BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation data for June 2026 shows total compensation for these occupations running 1.46 times wages once benefits, paid leave and payroll taxes are added. That turns $28.66 into a loaded $41.84 an hour. The second cost is the truck. At the IRS business rate of 76 cents a mile and an assumed average of 30 miles per hour between jobs, the vehicle adds $22.80 for every hour on the road. Neither cost shows up on an invoice unless you put it there, which is why drive time eats margin on days that look busy and profitable.
| Drive hour cost component, U.S. median | 2026 value |
|---|---|
| Median hourly wage, installation, maintenance and repair | $28.66 |
| Labor burden multiplier | 1.46 |
| Loaded labor cost per hour | $41.84 |
| Vehicle cost per hour (30 mph at $0.76 a mile) | $22.80 |
| Total cost per drive hour | $64.64 |
Source: Bella FSM calculation from BLS OEWS May 2025 (SOC 49-0000), BLS ECEC June 2026 and IRS Announcement 2026-11. The 30 mph average speed is an illustrative assumption.
The technician drive time cost formula
Drive hour cost equals hourly wage times 1.46, plus average miles per hour times cost per mile. A 20-minute, 10-mile hop at the national median is $41.84 divided by 3, plus 10 times $0.76, or $21.55. Five hops a day comes to $107.75 before anyone opens a tool bag.
Most service scheduling software records the time between one job's check-out and the next job's check-in, which gives you real minutes per hop to replace the assumptions.
Why wage alone understates windshield time cost
Many online calculators multiply drive hours by the hourly wage and stop. That misses the 46% on top, because paid leave, insurance, retirement contributions and payroll taxes keep accruing while the truck moves. Wage alone puts the national drive hour at $51.46 instead of $64.64, about 20% too low. Price drive time from loaded labor, not the pay rate on the offer letter.
Technician drive time cost by state, 2026
Wages create most of the spread between states. The IRS rate is national, so a truck adds the same $22.80 per drive hour in Alaska and Mississippi, while loaded labor runs from $34.49 in Mississippi to $52.49 in Alaska. The table covers all 50 states and the District of Columbia, highest cost first.
| State | Median hourly wage | Loaded labor hour | Cost per drive hour | Cost per 20-min hop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | $35.95 | $52.49 | $75.29 | $25.10 |
| District of Columbia | $34.62 | $50.55 | $73.35 | $24.45 |
| Washington | $33.22 | $48.50 | $71.30 | $23.77 |
| Hawaii | $31.79 | $46.41 | $69.21 | $23.07 |
| Massachusetts | $31.37 | $45.80 | $68.60 | $22.87 |
| Connecticut | $31.23 | $45.60 | $68.40 | $22.80 |
| California | $31.09 | $45.39 | $68.19 | $22.73 |
| New Jersey | $30.43 | $44.43 | $67.23 | $22.41 |
| Minnesota | $30.25 | $44.16 | $66.96 | $22.32 |
| New York | $30.10 | $43.95 | $66.75 | $22.25 |
| Colorado | $30.08 | $43.92 | $66.72 | $22.24 |
| New Hampshire | $29.90 | $43.65 | $66.45 | $22.15 |
| North Dakota | $29.80 | $43.51 | $66.31 | $22.10 |
| Oregon | $29.77 | $43.46 | $66.26 | $22.09 |
| Wyoming | $29.59 | $43.20 | $66.00 | $22.00 |
| Delaware | $29.56 | $43.16 | $65.96 | $21.99 |
| Maryland | $29.45 | $43.00 | $65.80 | $21.93 |
| Rhode Island | $29.29 | $42.76 | $65.56 | $21.85 |
| Illinois | $29.16 | $42.57 | $65.37 | $21.79 |
| Nevada | $29.16 | $42.57 | $65.37 | $21.79 |
| Wisconsin | $29.16 | $42.57 | $65.37 | $21.79 |
| Vermont | $28.86 | $42.14 | $64.94 | $21.65 |
| Maine | $28.84 | $42.11 | $64.91 | $21.64 |
| Iowa | $28.82 | $42.08 | $64.88 | $21.63 |
| Ohio | $28.76 | $41.99 | $64.79 | $21.60 |
| Virginia | $28.76 | $41.99 | $64.79 | $21.60 |
| Pennsylvania | $28.61 | $41.77 | $64.57 | $21.52 |
| Utah | $28.42 | $41.49 | $64.29 | $21.43 |
| Montana | $28.40 | $41.46 | $64.26 | $21.42 |
| Nebraska | $28.36 | $41.41 | $64.21 | $21.40 |
| South Dakota | $28.31 | $41.33 | $64.13 | $21.38 |
| Indiana | $28.30 | $41.32 | $64.12 | $21.37 |
| Michigan | $28.18 | $41.14 | $63.94 | $21.31 |
| Kansas | $28.05 | $40.95 | $63.75 | $21.25 |
| Georgia | $27.81 | $40.60 | $63.40 | $21.13 |
| Missouri | $27.80 | $40.59 | $63.39 | $21.13 |
| Kentucky | $27.68 | $40.41 | $63.21 | $21.07 |
| Arizona | $27.54 | $40.21 | $63.01 | $21.00 |
| Texas | $27.26 | $39.80 | $62.60 | $20.87 |
| Idaho | $27.22 | $39.74 | $62.54 | $20.85 |
| North Carolina | $27.19 | $39.70 | $62.50 | $20.83 |
| Alabama | $27.18 | $39.68 | $62.48 | $20.83 |
| Tennessee | $27.12 | $39.60 | $62.40 | $20.80 |
| South Carolina | $26.46 | $38.63 | $61.43 | $20.48 |
| Oklahoma | $26.44 | $38.60 | $61.40 | $20.47 |
| Louisiana | $25.50 | $37.23 | $60.03 | $20.01 |
| Florida | $24.84 | $36.27 | $59.07 | $19.69 |
| New Mexico | $24.65 | $35.99 | $58.79 | $19.60 |
| West Virginia | $23.91 | $34.91 | $57.71 | $19.24 |
| Arkansas | $23.85 | $34.82 | $57.62 | $19.21 |
| Mississippi | $23.62 | $34.49 | $57.29 | $19.10 |
| United States | $28.66 | $41.84 | $64.64 | $21.55 |
Source: Bella FSM calculation from BLS OEWS May 2025 state estimates for installation, maintenance and repair occupations (SOC 49-0000), BLS ECEC June 2026 and IRS Announcement 2026-11; 30 mph average speed and the 10-mile hop are illustrative assumptions.
Where windshield time costs the most
Alaska ($75.29 per drive hour), the District of Columbia ($73.35) and Washington ($71.30) lead. Mississippi ($57.29), Arkansas ($57.62) and West Virginia ($57.71) are lowest, yet even there a tech who drives 90 minutes a day burns about $86 a day that no customer is billed for.
The state figure prices each hour, and your customer list shows where those hours go. A field service crm for small business keeps every address and visit in one record, so you can spot the towns that produce long hops before booking the next job there.
Ready to level up your business?
Try Bella FSM free and transform the way you work.
How much does the service vehicle add per mile?
The service vehicle adds 76 cents a mile in the second half of 2026 if you use the IRS business standard mileage rate, which rose from 72.5 cents to 76 cents for miles driven on or after July 1, 2026. The IRS tied the increase to fuel, and the Journal of Accountancy, citing AAA data, reported that regular gasoline rose from $2.819 a gallon on January 8 to $3.890 on July 15. The IRS rate is an average across vehicle types, so it understates trucks. AAA's 2025 Your Driving Costs study puts a midsize pickup at 79.11 cents a mile and a half-ton pickup at 98.54 cents, the most expensive of the nine categories it measures. A shop that runs half-ton pickups should use the higher figure, which raises the vehicle share of a 30 mph drive hour from $22.80 to $29.56.
| Vehicle cost benchmark | Cost per mile | Vehicle cost per drive hour at 30 mph |
|---|---|---|
| IRS business rate, January 1 to June 30, 2026 | $0.725 | $21.75 |
| IRS business rate, from July 1, 2026 | $0.76 | $22.80 |
| AAA midsize pickup, 2025 | $0.7911 | $23.73 |
| AAA medium SUV, 2025 | $0.8389 | $25.17 |
| AAA half-ton pickup, 2025 | $0.9854 | $29.56 |
Source: IRS Notice 2026-10 and Announcement 2026-11; AAA Your Driving Costs 2025.
IRS rate or your own cost per mile?
AAA's per-mile figures cover depreciation, finance, fuel, insurance, registration and maintenance over five years and 75,000 miles of personal use. Upfitted cargo vans sit outside that study, so price a loaded work van from its own records: a year of fuel, insurance, repairs, tires, registration and depreciation, divided by the miles on its log.
The labor rate calculator then shows how vehicle and overhead costs flow into the hourly rate you charge.
Recovering vehicle cost on the invoice
Most shops recover part of the drive through a trip charge, and a fee the tech can waive at the door tends to get waived.
Field service invoicing software that adds the trip charge as a standard line item keeps it on every ticket. Review the fee yearly, since vehicle costs moved twice in 2026.
Chart: Cost per technician drive hour in 2026, highest and lowest states versus the U.S. median. Source: Bella FSM calculation from BLS OEWS May 2025, BLS ECEC June 2026 and IRS Announcement 2026-11. Chart may be embedded with attribution to Bella FSM and a link to this page.
Drive time cost by trade
Plumbers carry the highest drive time cost of the common service trades, at $67.58 per drive hour using the same method. Their median wage was $30.67 an hour in May 2025 according to BLS, slightly above electricians at $30.38 and HVAC mechanics and installers at $29.33. At the other end, pest control workers, with a $21.75 median, cost $54.55 per drive hour, and general maintenance and repair workers, the BLS category that covers most handymen, cost $57.61. The gap between trades is mostly labor, since every truck in this model costs the same 76 cents a mile. That makes each minute of route density worth more to a plumbing or electrical shop than to a pest control route. Route-based trades drive many more hops per day, though, so their total daily exposure can still be the largest of any trade on this list.
| Occupation (BLS SOC code) | Median hourly wage | Loaded labor hour | Cost per drive hour | Cost per 20-min hop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters (47-2152) | $30.67 | $44.78 | $67.58 | $22.53 |
| Electricians (47-2111) | $30.38 | $44.35 | $67.15 | $22.38 |
| HVAC mechanics and installers (49-9021) | $29.33 | $42.82 | $65.62 | $21.87 |
| All installation, maintenance and repair (49-0000) | $28.66 | $41.84 | $64.64 | $21.55 |
| Home appliance repairers (49-9031) | $24.51 | $35.78 | $58.58 | $19.53 |
| General maintenance and repair workers (49-9071) | $23.84 | $34.81 | $57.61 | $19.20 |
| Pest control workers (37-2021) | $21.75 | $31.75 | $54.55 | $18.18 |
Source: Bella FSM calculation from BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates, BLS ECEC June 2026 and IRS Announcement 2026-11. The 1.46 burden multiplier is applied to every occupation.
Hops per day matter as much as the hourly cost
In an illustrative day, a pest control tech running 12 short hops at $18.18 each spends $218.16 on driving, while a plumber running four calls at $22.53 a hop spends $90.12.
That is why technician dispatch software pays off fastest in high-hop trades. Shaving two minutes off each of 12 hops recovers 24 minutes, more than cutting ten minutes from one long call.
Ready to take your business further?
Start using Bella FSM free and work smarter.
How can a service business cut windshield time?
A service business cuts windshield time by changing which jobs land next to each other, not by asking techs to drive faster. The biggest lever is density, which means booking customers in the same area on the same day so each hop gets shorter. The second is sequencing, ordering the day's stops so the truck never doubles back across town. The third is assignment, sending the closest qualified tech instead of whoever happens to be free. At 2026 costs, each one is worth real money. Using the national figure of $64.64 per drive hour, saving 15 minutes a day for one technician across 250 working days frees 62.5 hours, worth $4,040 a year. A six-tech shop that captures the same saving keeps $24,240 a year and returns 375 hours of tech time to billable work, without hiring anyone or adding a truck to the fleet.
Book by zone
With job scheduling software that maps tomorrow's stops, the office can offer a caller the slot beside an existing job instead of the first open hour.
Small tasks follow the same rule. Our guide to handyman job stacking shows how to group short jobs on one street into a single visit.
Measure drive time per technician
A mobile field service app that records arrival and departure at each job gives you real drive minutes per tech.
Review them weekly and look for the tech with the most driving per completed job.
Pairing that log with a crm for field service shows which accounts sit far outside your core area and may need a different price.
Charge for the miles you cannot avoid
Emergency calls and rural customers will always carry a long hop. At national figures, a 40-minute, 20-mile drive costs about $43.09, so a trip or zone fee well under that loses money on every visit.
Methodology and sources
Wages are BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics May 2025 medians, retrieved through the BLS public data API on November 4, 2026: installation, maintenance and repair occupations (SOC 49-0000) by state, and six occupations nationally. OEWS excludes the self-employed.
The 1.46 burden comes from BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026: $49.01 total compensation against $33.61 in wages for private industry installation, maintenance and repair workers. BLS does not publish it by state, so the national ratio applies everywhere.
Vehicle costs use the IRS rates in Notice 2026-10 (72.5 cents) and Announcement 2026-11 (76 cents) plus AAA's Your Driving Costs 2025. The 30 mph speed, the 10-mile hop and the daily scenarios are illustrative assumptions. Tolls, parking and overtime premiums are excluded. The page will be reviewed when BLS releases May 2026 OEWS data in 2027.
Media & citation: data on this page may be cited with attribution to Bella FSM and a link to this page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Put a number on technician drive time cost
Technician drive time cost does not have to stay a vague overhead line. With BLS wages, a 1.46 burden and the 76-cent IRS rate, you can price every drive hour in your state.
Setting trip charges and zone fees in field service billing software keeps the drive cost on every invoice instead of in the owner's head.
See how Bella FSM helps service businesses book by zone, dispatch the closest tech and turn windshield time back into billable work.
Ready to grow your business?
Try Bella FSM free and simplify your work.
