What is a truck roll?

The term "truck roll" comes from cable and telecom but applies to every field service business. Every time a vehicle leaves the shop or the previous job, that's a truck roll. The cost is the same whether the visit produces $50 or $5,000 in revenue.

Average truck-roll cost (residential service):

• Drive time: 30-60 minutes round-trip × ~$45/hour fully-loaded labor = $25-$50
• Fuel: 10-20 miles × $0.70/mile = $7-$15
• Vehicle wear: $0.30-$0.50/mile = $3-$10
• Dispatch overhead: 5-10 minutes of scheduling/coordination time = $5-$10
• Opportunity cost: technician's time could be revenue-generating elsewhere

Total fully-loaded cost per truck roll: typically $40-$85 before any work happens.

The economics:

A diagnostic-only visit that doesn't lead to a quote is a truck roll without revenue. A return visit because the right part wasn't on the truck is a truck roll twice for one job. A wrong-tech assignment that requires a redo is two truck rolls per fix.

Why this matters strategically:

Software that helps a service business avoid unnecessary truck rolls — better triage, photo-based pre-diagnosis, customer self-service, route optimization, parts-stock management — has direct margin impact. Often 5-15% of cost of service is recoverable through better truck-roll management.

Specific tactics that reduce truck rolls:

1. Better intake: 10 minutes of phone diagnostic ($8 of CSR time) saves a $60 truck roll for diagnosable-by-phone issues. 2. Photo-based estimates: customer texts photos, you quote without a site visit. Common in roofing, pressure washing, junk removal. 3. Customer self-service: portal-based scheduling, online payment, status updates. Reduces "where are you?" callbacks that consume office time. 4. Skill + parts matching at dispatch: catches mismatches before the truck rolls. 5. First-time fix rate improvement: directly cuts return-visit truck rolls.

The metric to watch:

Revenue per truck roll. A healthy residential service business typically runs $300-$500 revenue per truck roll. Below $250, something is broken — too many diagnostic-only visits, too many returns, too much drive time. Above $600, you're either pricing high or running a tight operation.