The data shows that an average workday for technicians is 8.8 paid hours. That means three of those hours are unbilled time. 

“That is the gap that we are trying to reduce, or trying to understand what that gap is, because for a business owner, the ideal situation is, whatever I'm paying my guys, I'm going to charge the customer … but that doesn't happen in the real world,” said Joy Gomez, founder of Field Promax. 

Around 1.13 hours a day are spent on driving time not recovered through trip charges or flat-rate pricing. This leaves about two hours a day spent on tasks like site work that isn’t on a work order, idle gaps between jobs, paperwork, training, and vehicle maintenance. 

“The report suggests … 65% of technician paid time is actually billable,” he said. 

As Gomez points out, labor is often the largest expense for an HVAC company. It is also one of the most variable. Gaining more control over it means making the most of what technicians can do. 

Gomez said the first step for HVAC contractors to take control and seek efficiencies is to acknowledge the issue with technicians. He said it’s not about examining how much a customer is billed or what a technician is paid; it’s about examining the number of hours for optimization. 

“I think human nature suggests that if I start reviewing this number with you, if I understand this number on a daily meeting or a weekly meeting that I have with my technicians, if I start reviewing that number, without even doing anything, things will start improving,” he said. “By just monitoring that number, it is going to have immediate gains. 

“When you start monitoring, even your technicians are going to come out and say, ‘Hey, you never gave me this work, that’s why this utilization is so low.’ So there is a dialogue that happens between the dispatcher and the technician for more work.” 

Even if HVAC contractors can reduce the unbillable time by 30 minutes, that alone could create significant savings. As an example, Gomez said if a technician earns $30 an hour, that equates to saving $15 per day. If 10 technicians cut downtime by 30 minutes, that equates to $39,000 a year that goes directly to the bottom line. 

“I guarantee you, people will find 30 minutes very easily,” he said. 

It also means a more efficient crew. With the ongoing labor shortage impacting how many techs an HVAC contractor can reasonably hire, doing more with the same number of employees pays for itself, says Gomez. 

Ways to Optimize Your Workforce 

The Field Promax report outlines ways to increase workforce efficiency beyond the generic “use FSM software,” including improvements in logistics, documentation, dispatch, and administration. 

Driving and On-Site Time 

• Compress drive time. Group each day’s jobs by neighborhood to reduce longer commutes between jobs. 

• Drivetime caps. Cap driving time between appointments to 30 minutes. Use dispatch to route around this ceiling. 

• Standardized truck stock. Having uniform equipment loads means any technician can take any call. “Missing a common part wrecks two routes, not one,” the report says. 

• Technician Placement. Place the first and last jobs of the day closest to each tech’s home to reduce unpaid commute time. 

• Checking in. Start billable hours the moment the truck parks in the driveway, not when the tech opens the system. 

"Reduce the travel time as much as possible, because travel is a very expensive thing,” Gomez said. “It’s not only that you're paying the guy; you’re also paying for your gas, you're also paying for the maintenance of the truck when you drive more. It’s a very expensive proposition."  

Scheduling and Administrative 

• Block Time for Emergencies. Blocking out 5% of each day for same-day demand instead of booking 100% of a technician’s time saves on overtime and provides flexibility to respond to emergency calls. 

• Install and Service Dispatch. Run installs and service jobs with separate dispatch boards. Field Promax suggests putting a daily cap on each type of job, such as two installs and four service calls per truck. 

• Cut Shop Time. Reducing morning and afternoon shop time by 15 minutes twice a day equals roughly 120 hours per tech per year that never gets billed. The report suggests having techs go straight to their first job from their home, if able. 

• Truck Maintenance. Set a 30-minute weekly preventative maintenance window for trucks. The report lists this as the “single biggest unplanned-overhead reducer.” 

“What became very clear to me is that there is enough profit sitting within that labor expense that you can reduce and move it into your bottom line,” Gomez said. “Even if you just reduce it by 5%, that goes into your profit margin immediately.”