Trucks and equipment: the full cost of each vehicle in a field service company
Updated 16 October 2026
In a field service company the truck is the workplace. It carries the technician, the tools and the stock to every job. Payments, fuel, repairs, insurance, tools and replacement all come out of the margin the truck earns, and each cost lands on a different line of the books, so the total per truck stays out of view. This page lists the costs that belong to a truck, sets out the test each truck should pass, and works through the buy-or-lease choice and the decision to add another vehicle.
Eight costs that belong to a truck
| Cost | How it behaves |
|---|---|
| Payment or lease | A fixed amount every month, whatever the truck bills. |
| Fuel | Moves with miles driven, which routing and territory size set. |
| Repairs | Arrive without notice, cost cash and take the truck off the road. |
| Maintenance | A planned cost that keeps the truck running longer. |
| Insurance | A required cost for every vehicle and every crew that drives one. |
| Tools and equipment | Bought to make the technician productive, and replaced on a cycle. |
| Downtime | Days off the road are technician hours that bill nothing. |
| Depreciation | Spreads the purchase price of an owned truck over the years it is used. |
Coding each of these to the truck that caused it lets the books produce a cost per truck each month. A fleet cost report then shows which vehicles cost more to run than the rest.
A leased service van costs $9,600 in lease payments, $7,800 in fuel, $2,400 in repairs, $1,500 in maintenance, $3,600 in insurance and $2,000 in tools over one year. The total is $26,900, or about $2,242 a month. The van also spent 6 days in the shop, and at $1,800 of billed work a day those days cost $10,800 of sales. The figures are an illustration.
The test each truck should pass
Each truck should earn enough gross profit to cover its technician, its fuel, repairs, insurance and tools, its share of dispatch and office support, its share of overhead, and a target profit. Gross profit here is the truck's billed work less the parts and materials used on those jobs. The test runs on a month of closed books, truck by truck.
Window Genie's 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), the disclosure a franchisor hands a prospective franchisee, reports an average of 3.2 jobs a day at $549 a job. That is about $1,757 of work a day for the average Window Genie business. A Window Genie owner who puts a second truck on the road needs a second schedule near 3.2 jobs a day for that truck to match the average. The truck's monthly cost is the same whether its schedule is full or half full.
Buy or lease
The comparison uses the full cost of each option over the years the company expects to keep the truck. For a purchase, that is the price, the financing cost and the running costs, less what the truck sells for at the end. For a lease, it is the payments and the running costs, plus any charges at return. The answer depends on the company's cash, how many hours the truck will be used and how long it will be kept. The sticker price alone does not decide it. How each option is treated for tax is a question for a CPA, who works from the purchase and lease records in the books.
A company can buy a truck for $52,000 with $6,500 of interest over five years and sell it at the end for $18,000. The net cost of buying is $40,500. A lease on the same truck is $800 a month for 60 months, $48,000, with the truck returned at the end. Buying costs $7,500 less over five years and needs cash or a loan at the start. The figures are an illustration.
When to add another truck
Add a truck when the trucks already on the road are booked close to full and the work being turned away would cover the new truck's full cost. The forecast should also hold a reserve for repairs and replacement across the fleet. A truck added before those numbers support it takes cash out of the company each month it runs below its cost.
A company runs 4 trucks, each billing 36.8 of 40 available hours a week, or 92%. Dispatch turns away about 15 calls a month at $450 each, $6,750 of sales. The owner models a fifth truck billing 120 hours a month at $150 an hour, $18,000 of sales. Parts at $4,500, a technician at $6,500 fully loaded, the truck at $2,242 and a $250 reserve leave $4,508 a month toward overhead and profit. The figures are an illustration.
What this means for an owner
A truck carries eight kinds of cost, and coding each one to its truck gives a monthly cost per vehicle. Each truck should earn gross profit to cover its technician, its running costs, its share of overhead and a profit. Buy and lease are compared over the full holding period. A new truck is added when the current fleet is near full and the model shows the new one covering its own cost plus a reserve.
Model the next fleet decision
Averan builds truck-level cost reports from the books and models buy, lease and add decisions against the cash forecast. The fractional CFO service page describes that work.
Where to next
Want the books off your plate?
Book a short call, and we'll give you an expert view of your situation.
Free Consult →Also here
If you want this done for you
What happens next
Reading about it and having it done are different things. Here is exactly what happens if you want the second one.
- The call takes thirty minutesYou describe the business and where the numbers are letting you down. We give you an expert view of your situation, and what we would start with. There is no pitch deck.
- We look at the fileYou give us read access to the books as they are. We come back with what is wrong, what it will take to fix, and whether the answer is bookkeeping, controller work, or something else.
- We send a written scope and a priceIt lists what we do each month, what you get, the date it lands and the fee. We agree it before anything starts, and it does not change unless you agree.
- We take over the books and close the first monthWe set up access and systems and enter the opening balances. The first close lands on the date in the scope, and every one after it does too.