Betrieb

Mobiler Service oder Werkstatt-Service? Bieten Sie beide an – übersichtlich.

Mobile vs workshop fitting is usually treated as one service offered in two places. Most shops that add mobile fitting bolt it onto the workshop business and wonder six months later why the margin looks worse. The two are different products with different cost structures, and treating them as one is what causes the problem.

A fitting van parked beside a workshop entrance

They are different products, not one service in two places

A workshop job consumes a bay for a known period, with every tool and every consumable within reach and no travel.

A mobile job consumes a van and a driver for the job plus the travel either side, carries only what was loaded that morning, and is exposed to weather, parking and access in a way a bay never is.

Those are different cost bases and different risks. The moment you price them the same, one of them is subsidising the other, and it is usually the bay work quietly paying for the van.

Price them separately, and price the travel honestly

Give each its own price rather than adding a mobile surcharge at checkout. A surcharge reads as a penalty and it also hides the real economics from you.

The variables worth reflecting in a mobile price are the ones that actually vary.

Travel time each way, which is the largest hidden cost and the easiest to under-count.
Job duration on site, which is usually longer than the same job in a bay.
Van capacity, since a two-tyre job and a four-tyre job differ less in travel than in stock.
A minimum job value, so a single tyre at distance is not sold at a loss.
A coverage radius, beyond which you either decline or price differently rather than absorbing it.

A shop that cannot say what a mobile job costs it before the van leaves is guessing, and that guess is where the margin goes.

Planen Sie sie unterschiedlich ein

Workshop jobs fill bays and mobile jobs fill a route. Trying to run both from one calendar is where the day falls apart.

A bay calendar optimises for continuous occupancy: the next job starts when the last one finishes. A van calendar optimises for geography: two jobs on the same street are worth far more than two jobs at opposite ends of the coverage area, even at the same price.

The practical consequence is that mobile slots should be offered by area and window rather than as precise times, and that a booking system which cannot express that will either over-promise to customers or leave the van half empty.

Stock is the constraint nobody plans for

A workshop can order in for tomorrow. A van has whatever was loaded this morning, and a mobile job with the wrong tyre on board is a wasted round trip plus a disappointed customer.

That makes accurate fitment data more valuable to a mobile operation than to a workshop one. If the size came from a registration lookup rather than a customer guess, the van is loaded correctly far more often.

It also argues for confirming the fitment at booking rather than on arrival, and for a clear rule about what happens when the job on site turns out to be different from the job that was booked.

Let coverage decide what you offer

Coverage is the honest limit on a mobile business and it is better expressed than hidden.

A defined radius keeps van jobs reachable and keeps the routing sane. Customers outside it should see workshop options rather than a mobile slot that cannot be served well, and they should see that clearly rather than discovering it after booking.

What the customer should never have to think about is which of your products they are buying. They pick a time and a place that suits them; the system decides whether that is a bay or a van and prices it accordingly.

When mobile is worth adding at all

The mobile vs workshop fitting question is not which is better, it is whether you need both. Not every shop does. It is worth adding when it reaches customers a bay cannot, and it is worth declining when it simply moves existing customers out of the bay.

The case for it is strongest where your catchment is wider than people will travel, where the work is well suited to a driveway, and where there is demand at times a workshop cannot serve. The case is weakest where you already fill your bays: a mobile job that empties a bay you could have sold is a worse job at a higher cost.

Run the two as separate lines in your own reporting for the first year, with travel counted properly. It is the only way to know which of those two situations you are actually in.

Häufige Fragen

Should mobile fitting cost more than workshop fitting?

It usually should, because it carries travel time and van capacity that a bay job does not. Price it as its own product rather than as a surcharge at checkout, which reads as a penalty and hides the real economics from you.

How do I schedule mobile and workshop jobs together?

You largely do not. A bay calendar optimises for continuous occupancy while a van calendar optimises for geography, so mobile slots are better offered by area and time window than as precise times.

What is the biggest hidden cost in mobile fitting?

Travel time each way, which is consistently under-counted, followed by stock. A van carries what was loaded that morning, so a wrong fitment is a wasted round trip rather than an order placed for tomorrow.

How do I decide a coverage radius?

From routing rather than ambition. A radius that keeps jobs reachable and clusters sensibly is worth more than a wide one that produces long unpaid drives. Customers outside it should see workshop options clearly rather than after booking.

Is mobile fitting worth adding to a workshop?

It is worth adding when it reaches customers a bay cannot. It is worth declining when it mostly moves existing customers out of bays you were filling anyway, since that is a higher-cost version of work you already had.

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