Emergency callout pricing for plumbers: charge fairly, get paid faster

Emergency plumbing is high-margin work — if you price it transparently and collect on the day. The plumbers who win the 2am burst-pipe calls are not the cheapest; they are the clearest.

The three-part emergency price - **Callout fee** — covers travel and the first 30 minutes on site - **Hourly labour rate** — clearly stated, in 30-minute increments thereafter - **Parts at cost plus a published markup** — no surprises

Quote all three on the phone before you dispatch. Customers under pressure accept clear pricing; they resent vague "we'll see when we get there" answers.

Tiered out-of-hours rates - Weekday 8am to 6pm: standard rate - Evenings and Saturdays: 1.5x - Sundays and bank holidays: 2x - Overnight (10pm to 6am): 2.5x

Print this on your website, your quote template, and your van. It stops the price negotiation before it starts.

Take payment before you pack up A mobile card reader or a one-tap pay-now link on the invoice means you leave with the money, not an IOU. For domestic emergency work this should be 100% of jobs.

The customer record that wins repeats Every emergency call is a future planned-maintenance customer. Capture the boiler model, the stopcock location, the last service date — and follow up with a service offer 30 days later.

TradeMatrix captures all of this in one record and fires the follow-up automatically.