The state of field service, 2026

Every year we ask our customers about their businesses and publish what they tell us, anonymised. This year nine hundred and six companies answered, from single-van plumbers to contractors with three hundred technicians.

Scheduling

• Sixty-one percent now offer two-hour windows, up from forty-four percent two years ago.
• Automatic routing is used by half of companies with more than ten technicians, and by a fifth of those with fewer.
• The median company still keeps a paper backup of the schedule. We find this reassuring.

Pricing

• The median call-out fee rose eight percent, ahead of inflation.
• Hourly rates rose five percent. Parts margins were flat.

Where the hours go

On site, fifty-eight percent. Driving, twenty-four. Waiting, paperwork and the gap between jobs, eighteen. That last number is the one this company exists to shrink, and it fell two points this year.

The full report

Forty pages, with the breakdown by trade and by fleet size, is free to anyone who fills in the form at the foot of this post.