Pricing your time correctly is one of the hardest parts of running an electrical business — and one of the most expensive mistakes to get wrong. This calculator was built by the team at Logic Control to help electricians and contractors in Alberta see exactly what an hour of their time actually costs before a single dollar of profit is added. It separates your labour cost from your truck cost, factors in the hours you’re paying for but not billing, and uses real Alberta industry benchmarks for fuel and maintenance so the numbers reflect what you’re actually dealing with on the road. Plug in your numbers, adjust the benchmarks to match your operation, and use the result as a gut-check against what you’re currently quoting.
Or if you ever wondered about a chargeout rate for a trade, here is where it all goes
Electrician Labour + Truck Rate Calculator
Electrical Business Tool · Alberta
Labour + Truck Rate Calculator
Separates labour cost from truck cost so neither hides inside the other. Enter your numbers, click the Alberta benchmark pills to set industry-typical fuel and maintenance rates per kilometre, and read what your blended charge-out rate actually needs to be.
Inputs
Fuel and maintenance are derived from $/km. Click a benchmark pill to auto-fill the Alberta industry range.
Labour
Base wage before burden. Red Seal journeyman in Alberta typically $38–$55/hr.
$/hr
CPP, EI, WCB, vacation, stats, benefits.
%
Full-time = 2080.
hrs/yr
Hours that hit an invoice.
hrs/yr
Office, admin, phones, insurance, small tools, accounting.
$/yr
Truck — Fixed Costs
Payments / depreciation, insurance, registration.
$/yr
Bins, tool depreciation, inventory carry cost.
$/yr
Breakdowns, theft, body damage, surprise repair bills.
$/yr
Truck — Operating Costs Per KM
Odometer estimate for the year.
km/yr
Alberta avg ~$0.12–0.14/km for service trucks.
$/km
AB benchmarks:Low $0.12Mid $0.13High $0.16
≈ $0.00/yr
Oil, tires, brakes, unscheduled repairs. Alberta avg ~$0.15–0.22/km.
$/km
AB benchmarks:Low $0.15Mid $0.17High $0.22
≈ $0.00/yr
Margin
Applied after recovering all costs.
%
Results
Labour and truck recovered separately. Two numbers, clean books.
True Labour Cost
—
Hourly wage × (1 + payroll burden). Your real cost before anything else.
Labour + Overhead Recovery
—
What each billable hour must recover in labour and overhead before truck or profit.
Truck Recovery Rate
—
All truck costs spread across billable hours.
Final Blended Charge-Out Rate
—
Labour recovery + truck recovery + profit margin. The all-in target.
Billable Efficiency—
Total Truck Cost
—
Fuel/yr
—
Maint/yr
—
Non-Billable Hrs
—
What the truck is costing you
Why split the truck out
Why billable hours decide everything
Suggested invoice logic
Calculation BreakdownStep-by-step rate derivation
This calculator is provided by Logic Control for general informational and estimating purposes only. The results are based entirely on the values you enter and the benchmark ranges shown, which are derived from publicly available Canadian industry data. They do not account for every business expense, local labour agreement, union rate, tax obligation, or individual operating condition. This tool is not financial, legal, or accounting advice. Logic Control makes no guarantee that the outputs reflect your actual costs or that any particular rate will be profitable for your specific situation. Always consult a qualified accountant or business advisor before making pricing decisions for your company.