Van and field-team profitability calculator
A van on the road only pays if the jobs cover the wage, the vehicle and the overhead. Enter your numbers to see the monthly revenue, cost and profit per van, and how many jobs a day you need just to break even.
How it works
Each van earns revenue from the jobs it completes: average jobs a day, multiplied by the average invoice value, multiplied by the working days in the month. Against that sit the costs of putting it on the road: the engineer's wage, the van itself, the materials used on jobs, and a share of the overhead that keeps the business running.
The profit is simply revenue minus those costs, and the margin shows what share of every pound of revenue you actually keep. The break-even figure works backwards: it is the number of jobs a day, at your current invoice value, that just covers the wage, the van and the overhead once materials are taken out.
How to use the result
Compare the break-even jobs per day with what each van really does in a normal week. If a van rarely beats break-even, the answer is usually one of three levers: more jobs a day through better routing and scheduling, a higher average invoice value, or lower fixed costs per van. Run the same numbers for a busy month and a quiet one to see how much slack you have when work dries up.
A per-van estimate to test the model. It excludes one-off costs, downtime, holidays and tax, and assumes steady work. Treating materials as a flat percentage of revenue is a simplification.
Frequently asked questions
- What should I enter for the engineer wage and the overhead per van?
- Enter the engineer's gross monthly pay including on-costs in the wage box, so employer National Insurance and pension sit inside the figure rather than being forgotten. Overhead is each van's share of office, admin, software and insurance. If you run several vans, split your total business overhead across them so one van carries a fair slice, not the whole lot.
- Why does the break-even jobs per day not include materials in the cost it has to cover?
- Materials are entered as a percentage of revenue, so they rise and fall with the work rather than being a fixed bill. The break-even figure only has to cover the wage, the van and the overhead, which stay the same whether the van is busy or quiet. The calculator handles this by taking materials out of the invoice value before working out how many jobs clear those fixed costs.
- My van beats break-even but the profit still looks thin. What can I change?
- The page points to three levers: more jobs a day through better routing and scheduling, a higher average invoice value, or lower fixed costs per van. Change one input at a time and watch the profit and margin move, so you can see which lever does the most work for your business before committing to it.
- Should I trust this monthly profit figure for tax planning or pricing decisions?
- Treat it as an estimate to test the model, not as advice. It excludes one-off costs, downtime, holidays and tax, and it assumes steady work every day. Materials as a flat percentage of revenue is a simplification too. Use it to compare scenarios and spot weak vans, then check the real numbers in your accounts before pricing or tax decisions.
- How do I use this to see how exposed I am when work dries up?
- Run the same van twice: once with a busy month's jobs per day and once with a quiet month's. Compare each result against the break-even jobs per day shown. The gap tells you how much slack you have before a van starts losing money, which is useful for deciding how much quiet-period work each van needs to stay above water.