Truck repair labour rates by state
Shop rate is the largest single variable on any repair invoice, and for heavy trucks almost nobody publishes it. So we are collecting it ourselves.
Where collection stands today
0 of 10 states currently have a publishable sample. That is not a placeholder sentence — it is zero. We have opened records for 10 states and have not yet completed enough verified calls in any of them to print a number we would defend. Until a state clears the threshold its page publishes no band at all, the rate renders as “collection in progress” everywhere it would otherwise appear, and the page stays out of the index and the sitemap.
Publishing a fabricated rate band would be easy and completely undetectable by a reader. It would also make every cost page on this site worthless, because the rate is the multiplier under all of them.
How the rate is collected
- 1
A state opens when we have identified at least fifteen independent heavy-truck service departments across at least three metros, so the sample is not one city wearing a state’s name.
- 2
Each shop is called and asked three specific questions: posted hourly rate for Class 8 chassis work, whether that rate differs for engine or aftertreatment work, and the mobile or roadside call-out charge before labour begins.
- 3
Dealer and independent rates are recorded separately. Blending them produces a band that describes neither, and the gap between them is often larger than the gap between states.
- 4
A rate publishes only once the sample clears the floor and at least a quarter of the responses have been cross-checked against a submitted invoice showing an actual charged rate. Quoted rate and charged rate are not always the same number.
- 5
Every published band carries its sample size, its collection date, and its metro breakdown. A band without those three things is an opinion.
The full method, including how we handle outliers and refusals, is on our data methodology page.
States open for collection
These have records open and calls under way. Their pages carry no rate band — they show the state’s freight corridors, inspection regime and verified shop coverage, name the national placeholder as a placeholder, and are kept out of the index and the sitemap until a real sample lands.
What we use in the meantime
Cost pages have to multiply hours by something. Until a state publishes, we use a provisional national band — $125–$210/hr for Class 8, $110–$185/hr for Class 6–7, and $95–$165/hr for Class 3–5 and pickups.
These are placeholders, not measurements. TODO(verify): they are reasonable-looking bands chosen so the cost pages render, and they carry no sample behind them. Every figure computed from them prints “provisional” and names the placeholder as its source. They get deleted from the codebase the moment real state data lands.
Had this repaired? Tell us what you paid.
An invoice showing what a shop actually charged per hour is worth more to this dataset than a phone quote, because quoted and charged rates diverge. If you have one, it is two minutes.
No account. No email required. We publish aggregates only, never your invoice.
Submit a repair receipt →