Ever wonder how much the competition charges for a service call? HVACR contractors from around the country recently reported their service rates to The News in an anonymous market survey. The goals of the “2002 Salary and Service Rates Editorial Study” included finding out whether contractors used a flat-rate pricing system or charged customers by calculating time and materials costs. The survey also sought to determine the prices contractors charged for service calls. A questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 1,500 active News subscribers, and the response rate was 36%. Once the results were tabulated, The News also contacted several contractors who were not involved in the survey to provide their perspective on the questions and the results of the survey.
When asked which pricing method his company prefers, Tom Hawkins of Hawkins A/C & Refrigeration, Abilene, TX, replied, “We use flat rate on all collect residential calls, and we use T&M [time and materials] on all charge customers, both residential and commercial. The learning curve for the flat-rate system is very hard. It takes time to get the techs to understand all the parts of the work as to how to price.”