How to price mobile mechanic jobs, from the diagnostic fee to the comeback

A shop prices a repair with the car already on the lift. A mobile mechanic prices the drive to the car, the setup on whatever ground it sits on, the repair without a lift, and sometimes a run to the parts counter halfway through. Leave any of those out and a job that looked fine on the estimate pays less than your helper earned that hour. The sections below walk through what drives a mobile repair price, driveway time, diagnostic fees and minimums, parts and cores, fleet work, travel, quoting from photos, and the cost of comebacks. For the underlying cost-per-hour method, read the guide to pricing service jobs; this page applies it to repairs done where the car is parked. You won't find market rates here. The only numbers are in one hypothetical worked example, so you can swap in your own.

What drives the price of a mobile repair?

• The diagnostic visit. The drive, setup, testing and the explanation to the customer. It has to pay whether or not a repair follows.
• Repair labor hours. The time for the repair itself, measured in your conditions instead of a shop's.
• Parts and cores. Your cost, your margin, and the core you owe the supplier on rebuilt starters, alternators and similar parts.
• Fluids, supplies and disposal. Oil, coolant, brake fluid, cleaners, rags, absorbent and the cost of getting rid of used fluids and parts properly.
• Travel and parts runs. Distance beyond your core area, plus any drive to pick up a part mid-job.
• Site conditions. Gravel, a slope, a low parking garage, frozen ground or a lot with no room to work all add time.
• Timing. Same-day, evening and weekend calls displace planned work, so decide whether they carry their own rate.
• Fleet units. Preventive maintenance and inspections priced per vehicle, with repairs quoted separately.

How do you estimate time for a repair done in a driveway?

Use a published labor-time guide as the starting point, then correct it with your own records. The guide has never seen your jack, the slope of the customer's driveway or a January morning. Log every job in pieces: drive, setup (chocks, jack, stands, mats), diagnosis, the repair, the test drive or verification, cleanup and payment. After a few months, compare your logged repair time with the published time for each kind of job. The gap is your driveway factor for that category, and it is often different for brakes than for a starter buried under an intake.

Setup, test and cleanup don't appear in a labor guide at all, so they belong in your numbers separately. Seized and broken fasteners are the other big variable, especially on older vehicles from road-salt states. Rather than padding every quote, write a clear line into your terms: extra time for seized or broken hardware is billed at your hourly rate, only after the customer approves it. Set a stop rule as well. If a job turns out to need a lift, a press or a teardown, stop, put the car back together, and refer it, instead of working for free until dark.

What should the diagnostic fee and minimum charge cover?

Some customers will hear the repair quote and have the car towed to their usual shop. Others will buy the part and do it themselves. The diagnostic fee has to cover the whole visit for those customers: the drive, the setup, the testing and the explanation, priced from your logged times at your hourly cost plus margin. If you plan to credit the fee against an approved repair, tell the caller before booking and put it in the confirmation text. A credited fee doesn't make the diagnostic visit free; its cost moves into the repair price.

If testing means taking anything apart, price the reassembly into the diagnostic visit. Michigan's Department of State says every estimate for diagnosis or inspection must include the cost of reassembling the vehicle in case the customer doesn't authorize the repair. California's Bureau of Automotive Repair says in its consumer guide that a teardown estimate must include the cost of reassembly and of replacing gaskets, seals and other parts destroyed in the teardown, and that the shop must reassemble within the cost and time stated if the customer declines the repair. Your state's rules may differ, so check them.

Small jobs need a floor. A battery swap or a headlight bulb takes a full trip, setup and payment, the same as a longer job. Set a minimum charge from one trip's fixed time at your hourly cost plus margin, and print it on your website and booking confirmation so nobody is surprised.

Parts: markup, margin, cores and parts runs

Your parts line pays for more than the part. It covers looking up the right part by VIN and engine, the run to the counter or the wait for delivery, the van stock you bought in advance, the wrong parts that go back, and the cores. California's guide explains the core: when a shop installs a rebuilt part, the old one usually goes back to the supplier as partial payment, and that payment is called a core charge. Track every core on the job record until it is returned. A starter core left rolling around the van is a credit you paid for and never collected.

Choose one parts policy, a markup on cost or a margin on price, write it down, and apply it to every quote. The two sound alike and pay differently: at any given percentage, the margin version produces the higher price. The worked example below puts both side by side on one starter, and the job price calculator converts any target margin into the markup that matches it.

Customers will offer parts they bought online. If you agree to install them, charge labor that covers the job with no parts margin behind it, and spell out in writing whether your guarantee applies when their part fails.

List supplies and disposal on the estimate instead of hiding them. Michigan says charges for shop supplies and hazardous waste disposal must be included in the estimate before repairs start. California's guide says that if a shop charges for hazardous waste disposal, the invoice must list the charge and its EPA number. Whether sales tax applies to parts, labor or both is also a state question; see our guide to sales tax on services.

Worked example: a no-start that needs a starter

All values in this table are hypothetical, picked so the arithmetic is easy to follow. They are not rates, prices or times from any real market, so replace each one with figures from your own payroll, books and job logs. The table uses the job price calculator's formula: cost equals (hours × labor rate) + parts + (hours × overhead rate), and price equals cost ÷ (1 − target margin). The customer's car won't crank, the tech tests and finds a failed starter, and the starter has to be picked up from the parts store.

Read the two repair prices side by side. The only difference is the half hour of driving to the parts counter, and it shows up in the price because the van and the tech cost money whether they are turning wrenches or sitting at a red light. That is the case for stocking the parts you install most, for asking parts suppliers about delivery to the job, and for a separate price on repairs that need a part fetched. The bottom rows compare markup and margin on the starter alone. Run your own figures through the calculator before you settle on a policy.

Fleet accounts and recurring work

Most retail repair is one-time work. Recurring revenue comes from fleets, workplaces and reminders to past customers.

• Fleet preventive maintenance. Price a defined service list per unit, quote repairs found during service separately for approval, and bill monthly. After-hours work in the fleet's yard can carry its own rate if it keeps your days open for retail calls.
• Annual inspections. Under 49 CFR 396.17, the components the rule lists on a commercial motor vehicle must have passed an inspection at least once during the preceding 12 months. A motor carrier may have a commercial garage or similar business perform it as its agent, provided that business maintains facilities suited to the inspection and employs qualified inspectors. Among the qualifications in 49 CFR 396.19, the inspector must have completed a federal or state sponsored training program or hold a state certificate, or have training or experience totaling at least one year. If you qualify, price the inspection as its own line, including the time to write the report.
• Workplace service days. Several employees' cars serviced at one office lot share one drive and one setup, so the per-car price can come down while your hourly return goes up.
• Reminders by date or mileage to customers who agreed to receive them, so maintenance spreads across the year.

Read your suppliers' warranty terms before you set fleet prices. NAPA's lifetime warranty on its electric fuel pumps, for example, excludes products used in commercial vehicles and fleet vehicles. When a part's warranty excludes the vehicle, a failure can cost you the part as well as the labor, so fleet work may need its own comeback reserve. For billing fleets on a schedule, see the guide to recurring service billing.

Travel, zones and parts runs

Set a core zone where your standard prices apply and an outer zone with a travel charge, drawn from where your jobs actually are. Group planned work by area on set days, and hold open slots each day for no-starts, which can't wait for the route. Work out your own cost per mile from fuel, tires, maintenance, insurance and the van payment, and keep your travel charge above it. The standard mileage rate the IRS publishes is a tax deduction figure, not a price, but if your own number comes in far below it, check that you counted every cost of a van carrying tools and stock.

Parts runs are the travel nobody quotes. Cut them by staging parts before you leave, using the VIN from the booking, by stocking the parts you install most, and by using supplier delivery to the job where it's offered. When a run can't be avoided, price it in, as the worked example does.

Quoting from the phone and photos, or after diagnosis

Many maintenance and wear jobs can be quoted firmly before you arrive, once you know the exact vehicle. Ask the customer to text a picture of the registration (it carries the VIN), one of the dashboard showing any warning lights and the mileage, and a short description of the symptom. Brakes, batteries, belts and oil service can usually be quoted that way, with a stated condition such as "rotors replaced only if below spec, after your approval".

No-starts that aren't clearly the battery, noises, warning lights, electrical faults and leaks need diagnosis first. Quote the diagnostic fee and your credit policy on the phone, and quote the repair in writing after testing.

Some states set rules for that written quote. Michigan's Department of State requires a written estimate whenever diagnosis, service or repair will cost $50 or more, and the customer's specific approval, written or oral, before additional repairs take the bill more than a small set amount over the estimate (the department's pages describe it as a percentage or a dollar figure, whichever is less, so read the current rule before you print your terms). The same FAQ lists electronic delivery of an estimate as allowed only if the customer agrees. When approval is verbal, Michigan says to record on the final invoice who gave it, the time, the dollar amount authorized and the total agreed. California's guide says a phone approval must be noted on the invoice with the person's name and phone number and the date and time, and that an e-mail or fax approval must be attached to the final invoice. If you quote by text, keep the estimate, the customer's reply and its time stamp together on the job record, and confirm that your state accepts electronic estimates and approvals before relying on them. A custom CRM can hold all of it, with the photos, on the vehicle's record.

Comebacks and warranty costs

Comebacks in mobile repair come from a misdiagnosis, a new part that fails early, a second failing component hidden behind the first, a loose connection, or a leak that shows up after you leave. Each one costs a trip and diagnosis time with nothing to bill.

A parts warranty may cover the part. The ones we read don't cover your time. NAPA's warranty on its PROFORMER control arms says it does not include labor or the cost of other components and labor needed to restore the chassis system, and its fuel pump warranty says no payment will be made for the labor of removal and installation. Read the terms for the brands you install most.

Keep a year of comeback records by repair type. Total what each type cost you in unbilled trips and time, spread that total over every job of the same type, and carry the result as a reserve line, like the one in the starter example. Then put your own guarantee in writing. California's guide says a shop isn't required by law to guarantee its work, but a guarantee it offers must state the business name and address, what the guarantee will do, what the customer must do to use it, how long it lasts, what is excluded, whether it is prorated, and whether it transfers to a new owner. That list is a sensible template for any state. Our warranty policy guide helps with the wording.

Mobile mechanic pricing mistakes

• Quoting straight from a labor guide with no time for setup, test, cleanup or driveway conditions.
• Free diagnosis to win the call, paid for by every customer who declines the repair.
• Ignoring parts runs and the drive time they add to an ordered-part repair.
• Losing cores because nobody tracks them back to the counter.
• No minimum charge, so a bulb or a battery swap costs you a trip.
• Absorbing supplies and disposal instead of listing them on the estimate.
• One comeback reserve for everything, even where a supplier's warranty excludes fleet use.
• Matching a shop's posted price without knowing your own costs. A shop and a van carry different costs per hour.

The hourly rate calculator gives you the floor, and the job price calculator turns it into a quote. If you're still setting up, how to start a mobile mechanic business covers registration, certification and the van. For the website, phone answering and vehicle history setup we build for on-site repair, see the mobile mechanic industry page.

Frequently asked questions