You quote a job, you do the work, and somehow you still feel like you came up short at the end of the week. If that sounds familiar, the problem probably isn't your labor rate — it's everything happening around the labor rate that never makes it into the price.
The quick version: Pricing a service call correctly means accounting for more than the minutes you spend picking a lock or rekeying a door. You need to build in drive time, dispatch overhead, emergency premiums, and the true cost of parts — then track it consistently so pricing stops being a guess and starts being a system. Locksmiths who price by gut feeling almost always undercharge on short jobs and overcharge on long ones, which erodes trust and margin at the same time.
Start with your true cost per hour, not your labor rate
Your labor rate is what you charge. Your cost per hour is what it actually costs you to have a technician in a truck — including fuel, insurance, tools, vehicle maintenance, and the admin time spent scheduling and invoicing. Most locksmiths price off the first number and forget the second entirely.
- Add up fixed costs. Vehicle payment, insurance, software, and licensing divided by billable hours per month.
- Add variable costs. Fuel, consumables, and part markup that varies job to job.
- Divide by realistic billable hours. Not the hours you're scheduled — the hours you actually bill after cancellations and windshield time.
Once you know your real cost per hour, your labor rate becomes a decision, not a guess.
Separate the service call fee from the labor
A flat service call or dispatch fee protects you on short jobs — the ones where a customer calls, you drive twenty minutes, and the fix takes five. Without a separate fee, that job barely covers gas. With one, it covers your time getting there before labor even starts.
This also makes pricing easier to explain to customers. A dispatch fee plus a clear labor rate feels fair and transparent, rather than one lump number that seems arbitrary.
Price emergency and after-hours work as its own category
A 2am lockout is not the same job as a 2pm lockout, even if the technical work is identical. You're pulling a technician out of bed, paying overtime-equivalent rates, and taking on more risk. If your after-hours pricing isn't meaningfully higher, you're subsidizing convenience for the customer out of your own margin.
- Set clear time bands. Standard hours, evening, and overnight/holiday, each with its own multiplier.
- State it upfront. Customers accept emergency pricing far more easily when it's quoted before you arrive, not after.
- Track which band jobs fall into. This is where good record-keeping pays for itself — you can see which time slots are actually profitable.
Don't let parts and hardware markup get lost
Locks, cylinders, and smart hardware all have a cost basis, and many locksmiths either forget to mark them up consistently or apply a different margin every time depending on mood or memory. A standard markup percentage, applied every time, adds up to real money across a year of service calls.
Track every job the same way, every time
Inconsistent pricing usually isn't a math problem — it's a memory problem. When quotes, drive time, parts, and labor live in someone's head or a scattered notebook, small jobs get underpriced and nobody notices until the quarter's numbers don't add up.
This is where field service software earns its keep. Instead of reconstructing a job from memory, you have a record of drive time, materials used, and time on site for every call — which means your pricing model is built on real data, not guesswork. Our features are built specifically around giving locksmiths that kind of visibility, and our pricing page shows how straightforward it is to get started.
The jobs that quietly lose you money are never the big ones — they're the small, forgettable calls you stopped tracking closely.
Review your pricing on a schedule, not a whim
Fuel costs change. Part costs change. Your own experience and speed change. A pricing structure that made sense a year ago may be quietly underpriced today. Set a quarterly reminder to review your cost per hour and adjust your service call fees accordingly, rather than waiting until margins feel painfully thin.
If you're ready to see how the right field service software can help you track every call accurately and price with confidence, we'd love to talk. Get in touch and we'll walk you through what it looks like for a business like yours — we work with locksmiths and several other trades, and you can see the full list under industries we serve. You can also learn more about lınq and how we got started.
Frequently asked questions
How much should a locksmith charge for a service call?
It depends on your market and cost structure, but most service call or dispatch fees range from $50–$100, separate from labor and parts. The key is that the fee covers your drive time and overhead, not just the physical work performed.
Should I charge extra for emergency locksmith calls?
Yes. After-hours, overnight, and holiday calls should carry a premium — typically 1.5x to 2x standard rates — to reflect the added cost and inconvenience of emergency dispatch.
Why do locksmiths underprice short jobs?
Short jobs often get priced based on time spent on-site alone, ignoring drive time, dispatch overhead, and vehicle costs. A flat service call fee helps ensure every job, no matter how quick, covers the true cost of getting there.